Day 2

The twenty-seven things that I remove from my space today are here and there. One of them was a lone button that I find, that's needed to be sewed on a dress from whence it was missing. With needle in my hand, I got rid of the loose pocket on the inside of a sweater that needed to be fixed from this time last year.

Perhaps, some of the loose ends are coming to an end, I say to myself in gratitude.

The rest of the items to discard this day come from a basketful of odds and ends that date back some dozen years ago. There is an almost used up match cover, some vacuum-packed cold medicine and relatively worthless odds and end that fill out the rest of the quota .

There’s few cards, a few books, an odd phone cord that has no real purpose, some worn potpourri and a manual for a phone that I no longer have.

Stephen shows me the linen closet and tells me that there are 27 things to remove there. “What do we do with the worn towels?” he wants to know.

I tell him we take them to the Salvation Army and depend on them to recycle them into rags. The Salvation Army is that mechanism that takes our unwanted goods, and uses a bit of alchemy to change them into rags or treasures, depending on your perspective.

Somehow, as I go through this process, I find that unique alchemy is in all of our lives, in one form or another.

In search of gratitude

In researching gratitude for the Sunday program at the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, I came across two practices to elevate one’s relationship to gratitude. One suggested that discard 27 things for nine days. For me, who lives uncomfortably in a fairly cluttered house, it sounded like good plan.

So, for day 1, I went through several junk collections and got rid of a couple of spare bandanas that I never wear and never use, a couple of cardboard boxes, an odd sock or two, a nearly empty deodorant container, a couple of wooden nickels, random notes, a broken comb, a small container of powder, a broken eye-glass beaded thing,y a battery, which I have no idea of whether it is good or not, a name tag or two, a shoe polisher from a fancy hotel, and other such extraneous and worthless trashy type items.

It’s not so much that I am proud of today’s lightening, but I did get rid of 27 different things.

I will do it for the next eight days.

And to that end, I am grateful.

In the groove

I have been to Harrisburg and back today. I have talked with Pennsylvania legislators about an Upper Delaware Greenway. About how there no one and no agency that is going to facilitate communication across borders, except someone with absolutely no authority to do so.

In this particular case, it’s me, as part of my fieldwork study, and Sue Currier, Executive Director of the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, who are on a mission to preserve open space and promote community and a quality of life that we enjoy here.

And isn’t that always the way? On really important issues, there’s really no one signed up, except those who feel compelled by their volition.

A little background might be helpful.

New York State has passed a “Greenway” initiative through its Senate. It’s scheduled to be voted on in the House on December 13. The new bill, which establishing a counci and asks that a plan is to be written, was hammered out by the governor’s staff and the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Environmental Conservation and there no doubt in my mind that the governor will sign the bill into law.

An Upper Delaware Greenway of the NY side will be established, if six out of the eight towns indicate that they want it to be so. The point of the bill is to increase economic opportunities in the Upper Delaware River Valley, access to the river and protect and conserve the environment.

Getting six out of eight towns to sign on might be questionable, since controversy about initiatives breathe with intensity in the Upper Delaware. There is always the paranoid fear that this statewide funding mechanism will become the evil empire to take over our land. It is not the case, but neither is it the case that this funding mechanism and this perhaps soon-to–be-organization will accomplish what it needs to: preserve, conserve and enhance the Upper Delaware River Valley.

Still, the Niagara Greenway received $400,000 from the NY Parks and Rec department, and I cannot help but wonder whether that might be our figure as well. In Niagara, they have spent $338,000 on planning, which is something that is not necessary in the Upper Delaware. Between the River Management Plan and the NY Route 97 Scenic Byway plan, there is plenty of planning that has already happened.

No, what is needed is volition. Volition to be proactive and get something done. We need to find a cross border project and we need to focus our attention on what we want this valley to be. Too much of the Upper Delaware history and present moment is spent on making sure that no town, and no local rights are infringed on.

But, as Rep. Margarette Quinn, a Bucks County representative, informed us, developers are not doing well in her area, and they are heading north.

This situation is just like so many other situations: will we sit back and allow inefficient government and government workers, town representatives and Joe Blow on the street to continue to tell us that nothing can be done and that lethargy is better than sticking your neck out?

To that, I say no. I say that it’s better lose your head over something that means something to you, then simply to let it wither in the drying breeze.

Now’s the time to stand up and do something.

Even if we are self-appointed.

And I ask: What is going on in your community that you can breathe a breath of encouragement or inspiration into? What needs to be championed?

For me, it’s the Upper Delaware River Valley. And today, whether I accomplished anything or not, I have been to Harrisburg, and I have announced my intention that there will be a concerted effort for groups to communicate about the Upper Delaware Valley, and I will give my time to help with that communication.

I am hopeful that someone, specifically the PA legislators that we spoke with , will feel inspired to join into the reality and we can will accomplish positive.

If not, no one will say we didn't try.

Questioning the questions

My house is a mess and I wonder if it is because I am forever searching.

If searching for what is important to the discussion, then I’d have to answer peace of mind, centeredness, a sense of purpose, and a spiritual reality that supersedes every manifestation of our humanly constructed world.

But is peace of mind, centeredness, spirituality or sense of purpose found in neat and orderly houses?

On the surface, I’d say yes. There is peace in order and in everything being in its place. Still, I am left with a haunting feeling that even people with immaculately cleaned and ordered homes live with the certain level of discontent and distraction, and I would venture of say the neatness sometimes masks the confusion and disorder on the inside.

But what intrigues me is that I see myself as willing to live with my discontent rather than taking necessary steps to correct that which I judge as lacking, and I use my messy house as an example. Amazingly, my single dorm room in Berkeley was immaculate and there was a daily routine of putting things away. Did my outward living reflect my inner journey as a single-minded student? Is my disordered house a reflection of my particular predicament of wanting to transform my way of living without having to actually change well-worn habits?

Am I searching for something and being unwilling to commit? Because I can’t find what I am looking for quite yet, does that me I’m not serious in my searching?

Maybe.

Or maybe I need to understand that discontent and confusion is appropriate to this transition time. Maybe it is an honest reflection of the inner and the outer world, which teeters on mindless destruction and conscious transformation. Perhaps living with the questions, gracefully or not, is all I can do right now.

That, and a bit of straightening.

Time, time, time

I gave myself the extra hour of daylight saving time at 9:34 a.m. on Sunday morning. I like to start my morning leisurely and never seem to have enough time to read, journal and contemplate before rising. This morning, I was skimming through magazines that a friend had given me at the close of a leisurely dinner out. I read about the Unitarian Universalist chaplain for the Maine Forestry Service, who stands with people as the rangers search for their loved ones. An essay about a woman who helped her friend die, following a terminal diagnosis of cancer, brought tears to my eyes and made we wonder about my next year’s coursework in palliative music care and its significance to the future path.

I choose to move the clock slowly and to watch the minutes tick back. As time reset itself, I wondered how many people have wished to set back the clock—how much of our lives we would simply rather avoid, or have a do-over.

In days ahead, I am hoping to keep my body on Daylight Saving Time so that I will get an extra hour in the light. I pray I will use it wisely.