nothing to see here

interesting reading - a commencement speech by paul hawken.
sure, it's a little fluffy, but it's a commencement speech! he also has some interesting books i'm going to get around to one of these days...

"At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich."

"The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. ...
Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past."
 

Allston
Wednesday, 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm
June 19 to October 30
Parking Lot at the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Ave., South of Harvard Stadium

Cambridgeport
Saturday, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
June 13 to October 31
Morse School Parking lot. Magazine Street and Memorial Drive

Cambridge/Charles Square
Friday, Noon to 6:00 pm and Sunday, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Friday: June 12 - November 20, Sunday: May 24 - November 22
Charles Hotel Courtyard at Harvard Square

Cambridge/Harvard University
Tuesday, 12:30 pm - 6:00 pm
June 16 to October 27
Harvard University near Sanders Theater, Corner of Oxford and Kirkland Street

Cambridge /Central Square
Monday, 11:30 am - 6:00 pm (Not open Memorial Day, Closes at 5:00 pm in November)
June 1 to November 23
Parking lot # 5 at Bishop Allen Drive by Columbia. EBT accepted.

--

Somerville/Davis Square
Wednesday, Noon - 6:00 pm (Closes at 5:00 pm in November)
May 27 to November 25
Davis Square, Day & Herbert Sts. Lot

Somerville/Union Square
Saturday, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
June to October
Union Square on the Plaza.

Cambridge/Kendall Square
Thursday, 11:00 am - 2:30 pm
June to November
500 Kendall Street

Jamaica Plain
Tuesday, Noon - 5:00 pm, and Saturday, Noon - 3:00 pm
June 9 to November 21 (Saturdays only in Nov.)
Bank of America Parking lot, Centre St.

Jamaica Plain/Community Servings
Sunday, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
July 12 to October
Community Servings, 18 Marbury Terrace

Mission Hill
Thursday, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
June 11 to November 15
Brigham Circle, Intersection of Huntington Ave. and Tremont St.

dear friends,

i owe a bunch of you email replies, and i have not forgotten you! this weekend is the first apprenticeship weekend and after that is done, i get to breathe so:

i'm not ignoring you! i promise to reply to ya'll next week!

love,
katja

omg ikea hacker

 

dear livejournal genie:

in the new apartment, should we get comcast or verizon? we need internet that can be wirelessly networked, and very minimal television (basically, PBS.)

do you have opinions?

thanks!
 

yay!!

but between here and "yay" there are a few boxes, and also a king-sized futon.
so if your mom isn't local and you're wondering what to do on sunday morning, come help me out!

when: sunday, may 10, around 10am.
from: arlington
to: allston

in lieu of pizza and beer, there will be grilled things afterwards. in the new yard! party!
 

i'll be teaching apprentices starting in may. here's some info:

The 2009 Program will begin on May 30, and will meet one weekend a month through November. Students get hands-on experience making tinctures, teas, salves, oils, herbal sprays, and flower essences, and are exposed to such various herbal traditions as Chinese, Ayurveda and Western Herbalism. Each month we cover a different body system and the herbs that nourish and support it. We focus on plant identification and do medicinal plant walks each weekend.

The 2009 Herbal Apprenticeship will meet:

May 30, 31
June 27, 28
July 25, 26
August 29, 30
September 26, 27
October 24, 25
November 14, 15
For more information on the apprenticeship program, visit the Boston School of Herbal Studies website.
 

i'm going to do an alternative health radio show on the BC radio station this saturday morning.

cause that's. . .random!

edit: it's WZBC, 90.3, at 10am. the show is called Expanding Awareness, the host is victor venckus.
 

email from amber's teacher:

subject: a question that will either seem totally random or else make perfect sense

hi katja,

please excuse me if this makes no sense at all, but is amber familiar with the musical group the Smiths at all? i'm almost certain she quoted from the song "ask" for me today! we'd just read an arnold lobel fabel about an ostrich who is in love but never speaks to his beloved. when i asked them at the end what they thought the lesson was (since they've learned that fables usually have a moral), she raised her hand and said "shyness is good, but shyness can stop you." she then said "that's from a song." change "good" to "nice" and there you have a lyric from "ask!" i suppose it could be a lyric from some other song as well. . . but i was curious and wanted to. . . well. . . ask. : )

maija

"Swift, Katja" writes:
hahahaha!

oh yes, absolutely. she went through a phase where she thought it would be fun to be shy, and her dad used to play that for her constantly. hee!!

-katja


that is too funny. and she applied it in perfect context! good for her!
maija

i've discovered the joy of craigslist with specific regard to "what to do with all your too much stuff".

and the big secret? the best part is not at all the extra room in your house cause stuff is gone. the best part is the thank you email afterwards.

yay, warm fuzzies.
 

oooooh, new law:
hooray for food allergy friendly restaurants!

it's mostly mandating awareness (can you mandate awareness? i guess you can...), but really, that's enough. so yay!

(thanks, armandae!)
 

yesterday, i bought a peach at wholefoods.
peaches are *not* in season. i would never normally have a peach in february, but it was staring at me and anyway this winter i have eaten berries and grapes like crazy and i'm not sure why, and this peach said eatme! so i did.

the peach was conventional. i hate that wholefoods sells conventional produce. but, there it was. one conventional peach won't kill me.

the peach was grown in chile. yes, i know how much petroleum it cost to get that peach to boston. i'm also pretty sure that the $1.49 that i paid for the peach did not adequately cover the cost of that petroleum and its impact on the environment. but more relevant to my thinking at this moment: in chile, people cut the skins off their fruits and vegetables, because of the pesticides. so here i am, eating this peach (peaches are among the worst offenders for pesticides, along with strawberries), from chile, where they wouldn't eat the skin in an effort to decrease their pesticide consumption. at wholefoods.

grr.

also grr? there used to be hundreds of thousands of penguins in patagonia. there used to be whales. amber taught me all about it, when she was two-and-a-half. she chose a national geographic movie from the video store (the national geographic shelf was pretty much it) about whales done by dr. roger payne, and we watched it so many times i tracked down a copy and bought it. ever since i have wanted to go to patagonia. except the problem is, i've discovered, from my friend who grew up in patagonia, that there *used* to be penguins, and whales. what few penguins remain are blind and have cancer because of the degredation of ozone and ten million other reasons.

no more conventional peaches from wholefoods.

someday, i'm going to have a garden. a real one, that i don't have to drive to. with a greenhouse. dammit.
 

i have posted this before, but anyway, it's on my mind, lately.
( Read more... )

sometimes, i am inordinately girlie.
 

you are invited to i'm teaching classes in february!

on saturday, february 21, 4:30-6:30 at the boabom school in brookline, i'll be teaching the first class in an ongoing herbal and alternative health series.
( here's the text from the flyer )

on thursday, february 26, from 6:30-9:30 at the boston school of herbal studies in arlington, i'll be teaching a class on natural approaches to thyroid health.
( here's the text from the class catalog )
 

i have never been wished by so many people happy birthday. thank you everybody!!

and also, fleurs! and cake! with strawberries that absolutely positively taste like summer!

i win! 


 
 

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/goodlink.html


i need to read everything on this page.
 

and now i'm just really sick of being this sick.
also sick of being cooped up in my house.

there is a girl i am getting to know, she's a little shy i think. she's not from here, this isn't her language. i can remember feeling uncertain about her in the beginning, i can remember that shifting. and then one day she came to my house for a group thing, and i was so excited and glad that she would be coming, and hoping she really would. now i'm getting to know her a little and a little, and i'm glad.

so she sent me a message today, because i am sick and stayed home. she said:
I hope you feel better soon....
receive warm hugs!!!!

and i'm thinking, *wow*. receive warm hugs. i mean, maybe that's just how you would naturally phrase the thing in her mothertongue. but i sort of think that's not it.

it's a pretty cool thing to think about. i'm supposed to be sleeping; i slept for hours this afternoon but i should sleep for hours again. so i'll go do that. and i'll think about how it feels to be told receive warm hugs.
 

in our society, we say, ack! sick! get the nyquil! get the antibiotics! but today i sit here with a raging fever and i feel really happy about it.

our ability to run a fever is pretty amazing, actually, and i wish i were capable of posting coherently about it. but seriously, that our bodies can raise enough heat to kill things that don't belong in us and simultaneously take countermeasures to protect things that do belong in us. and then when that work is done, that we can sweat out all the stuff that's been killed off. ok, it's not just the fever, even when i'm not sick i'm pretty amazed by this, just i'd explain it better.

anyway. today i am so grateful to be sick. i feel like there are years and years and a whole lifetime of crud that needs to be pushed from my body. it's said that every seven years our body recycles itself, and i feel like, i don't mind being this sick today: it gives me a head start on the work.