Green Gal

“why is light” if i could capture the joyful emanation of soothing mid-memory loveliness that is this light of gold on this crest of world i would open myself and breathe (inhale) its warmth and release (exhale) from every pore its emanations             you would be intricate plants and sprawling grasses breathing in life (stretch)             from sun from sky (breathe in more fully your life, live fully in oxygenated experience) and only, you may only ask us why     “sunscape” sunscape all i see is sun gold breaths cover the skin of Earth with glowing, like the glow of our cheeks after (what, what does this evoke in your subconscious) afternoon was heated, hot, sweat on skin, and now is calm-temperatured all bodies simply are (are you simply is...

Woah, it's been awhile since I posted. Life has caught me up in its majestic, beautiful, joy-inspiring adventures and my time on the computer has been mostly work-related lately. My environmental work, the kinds of things I share on this blog, have largely moved into the real world and into a community that I interact with daily at UCSC. I plan to continue posting here once life settles into a routine (not too routine I hope!), and I want to post some thoughts and vibrations I've been experiencing lately before I sign off for a bit to catch up on reading and living. I have learned and/or had reaffirmed in just the first week of school the following: When you're excited about life and particularly when you have something you're passionate about that you're able to live and do each day, other people want to be around you. I have made more friends this week just by smiling and sharing my inner happiness with them than I've made in a loonngg time. It feels so...

Sure, sometimes you end up next to the smelly guy on the train or you wind up getting the bus with the loud cell phone people or the crazies. But the more you take public transportation, the more skilled you become at selecting seats, using body language (like angry faces and glaring to avoid conversations!), and just learning to deal with it because there are plenty of reasons--I'm about to name five--why public transportation is awesome. Here's why I love public transportation, and why I encourage you to utilize it as often as you can in your daily life. 1. Public transportation reduces the number of polluting, traffic-causing cars on the road. Every time you take public transportation when you might otherwise have taken a car takes one car off the road. Think about people who take PT every day to work, school, or wherever they going when they could have driven. Certainly a bus requires more fuel than a compact car, but if you fill a bus with people and take the cars...

Stores that sell college dorm "necessities" give out those lists every fall with tons of awesome gadgets, furniture, and other "essentials that every college student needs"! Of course, you want to be comfortable and have all the stuff you need for college so you can focus on getting good grades and having fun. But as a third year college student who thinks she might have finally gotten the system down, I'm here to tell you that while those lists can be great reminders for the things you really do need, you do not need to get those items new and you certainly don't need to buy all of the latest "dorm" accessories--if truth be told, you don't have room for all of those things in your dorm. One of my boxes Green Gal brought to her first dorm room at UC Santa Cruz. If you want to save money, reduce your environmental impact, and still have the stuff you need to be comfortable and happy as you study and enjoy college, you first have to take th...

This week, I took Beth Terry (of MyPlasticFreeLife.com )'s  Show Your Plastic Challenge . I met Beth last Sunday at a lecture she gave for Science Sundays at the Seymour Center at Long Marine lab, and I was inspired to be more conscious of plastic in my life and begin the process of living without it. You can read a little about Beth and the lecture that I attended  here . I purchased a copy of Beth's book at the lecture last Sunday, and I am LOVING it. She has not only great resources and facts about plastic, but she also includes practical solutions. I will be writing more about her book in future posts. The challenge is to " Collect all of your own plastic waste, both recyclable and non, for a minimum of one week ." I tried my best to do the challenge this past week, but I went home for the weekend (I spend most of the year on campus at UC Santa Cruz) and lost track of a few of the plastic items that I used while out to lunch with family. I also didn't pr...

Today has been one of those days where a lot happens and you spend a lot of time doing something awesome, but as a result, your homework just doesn't get done. And I'm more than okay with that. Beautiful poppies along the road to the Seymour Center. This afternoon at the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab in Santa Cruz, I attended a Science Sunday presentation by Beth Terry, author of the new book Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too and the blog  MyPlasticFreeLife.com (formerly known as Fake Plastic Fish). I think it was the first time I met a fellow eco-blogger in person, and I'm looking forward to spending more time on her blog, as well as reading her book. Though the presentation was only 45 minutes long, she somehow managed to explain clearly and convincingly the 9 reasons why personal change matters, particularly as it relates to her experiences living her life with as little plastic as possible. On the bus ride home, I started ...

If you've never laid in bed awake, unable to sleep, but smiling and laughing to yourself at how fantastic life is, then I highly recommend allowing yourself to do so next time you catch the life-is-awesome bug. If you're alone, talk to yourself about it. What is it that's so great about now? I know it sounds like something a crazy person would do, but believe me, it helps affirm the goodness of that moment and makes you realize so many things about yourself. At least that's what has happened to me the past two nights. And just now, as I was unable to sleep, thinking about how bright life is (especially when you get a lot of homework done in a short period of time), I realized that if I was a time-traveller, I would go back in time to 4th grade Green Gal and give her a hug, tell her that she is awesome for being who she is, and that she can do anything she wants. It's not that I wasn't told this myself as a child; I'm certain I was. But the present-day Gre...