Nature Deficit Disorder? Or: Open the door and Walk on Outside

Baby Apples at the Garden Park

NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER
All we need is another disorder, right? Especially if we sling it into the alphabet mix, and now have NDD to add to ADD and AHDD and MS and OCD and so on.

So, let's skip NDD and even skip nature deficit disorder except as a lead in to a central lack of our time: a disconnection of our everyday life with nature. As I write this on the computer, I can look out the window and see the grevillea in bloom, bright red against a blue sky, and that's still not the same as being outside and smelling the flower and breathing the fresh air.



Grivillea in April

Same with you, unless you are lucky enough to have some way to read this on a laptop outside. You are indoors, I am indoors, and still if I get out and walk and touch the earth with my feet each day I am much more complete as a person, if I breathe fresh air, and raise my head and eyes to clouds and birds and the vast blue of the sky, this expands my vision of what it means to be human.

Feet on earth, eyes and mind to the heavens: we are meant to be full.
A life indoors alone, a life deprived off real light, a life deprived of real air, that doesn't seem like a real life at all to me.

How about you?

I got the title of this essay from an interview with Richard Louv on his thoughts and ideas from his book: Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, in the February 2007 Sun Magazine.

If you don't know Sun Magazine yet, go to SunMagazine.org and begin to feast on a wonderful world.

And do subscribe. They have no ads, and lots of poems and photographs in glorious black and white. And an amazing section, found nowhere else, called Reader's Write, on all sorts of openended topics, like Late at Night, Second Chances, Mothers, Weddings, Quitting. This month it's Praying.

And when you get your issue, go find a stream to read it near. Or a meadow. Garden. Back Yard. You got the sunny picture.

Loving Nature is another way of loving ourselves, since we are nature.

Ciao,
Chris

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enjoyment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

Earth, Now, Loving the Life we Could Slow Down and Know

EARTH DAY AGAIN

Earth Day
Now
Earth Day
Now
We are alive
Now we know we in the Now
Or not
Now we can walk, or drive
Now we can breathe and smile
Or Rush Around
Now, we can watch the trees and the sky
Or worry about all we have to
Get Done

Now,
The Earth is waiting for us
Waiting for our feet
To walk
To caress
To join
To enjoy

Ah,
Yes.

Earth Day
Now day.
Wonder
Full

If we wake up
And
Let it be.

(And older essay,
from April of 2005, goes like
this Earth Day is Each Day.)

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

Cirrus and Fairness

CIRRUS AND FAIRNESS
It was with amusement and a bit of heartbreak that I listened as my sweet partner Marlie was being interviewed over the phone for a nice long spell about the hospital options. First she would favor one, then another, and then back to the first. The amusement was in realizing how human and honest this was. The heartbreak was a sense of the impending minefield into which the Options Committee, bless their hard working hearts, appears to be going to step once it decides any one way.

The Cirrus proposal, for a medical spa and hospital and office buildings at the corner of 8th Street and Napa Road, like the other options, has many strong points and some detractions. What I'd like to present here, is not an argument for that proposal, but a plea to disband the illogical and unfair arguments that are being used against it. In Measure C I saw both sides resorting to lowest common denominator tactics and I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now.

So here goes.

1) "The Cirrus Proposal" is a wolf in sheep's clothing." This isn't an argument. It's name calling.

2). "The Cirrus Proposal is the same as the Rosewood Hotel overlooking Sonoma." No. The Rosewood Hotel would have ruined the view of the hillside as we came into town, would have ruined a big piece of open and beautiful land and would have contributed immensely to downtown traffic and clutter. The Cirrus proposal destroys no hillside viewscape, takes over land of no particular beauty in its present use, and doesn't mess with downtown traffic at all.

3)There is an innuendo that things from Texas are bad. Not true, think of Austin, a town full of book readers and movie makers to rival Northern California and a music scene to rival Nashville.

4) Well, then, the innuendo continues: big businesses from Texas are bad. While this may be somewhat true, big business that are iffy can probably be found in every state of the union, and fond as I am of Sonoma Market, the people who work there and the high quality of food (though, fellow Chris, I'd love to see the return of the organic raw chocolate nibs, hint, hint), I'm also looking forward to the opening of a store operated by one of the best businesses in this country, for environment, for encouraging worker creativity and for keeping a low rate of pay difference between the highest and lowest paid workers, that company being Whole Foods. From Texas.

5). Well, then Big is Bad, right? Ah, here is an argument close to my heart, but if this is so, why do we encourage a 954 pound gorilla called the Sonoma Jazz Plus Festival to stomp through town once a year, why did we allow the big swath of development out along 5th Street East, why, indeed, did we dismantle our small hometown police and replace them as a subset of the larger (and more efficient) Sheriff's department?

6). Annexing the 73 acres to allow the hospital to be part of city land will inevitably lead to sprawl. False. The City Council has to declare what the land use, i.e. zoning, will be on all the newly acquired land. They can easily zone it agricultural. In fact, I'd love to see them zone it Organic Agriculture, and if the Cirrus Proposal, or some hybrid comes into being at this site, grow, for once, really healthy food for the hospital on this land. And heck, even have some big beautiful organic pathways and gardens nearby for the healing process. Actually, there is a wonderful organic Garden Park out that way, come to think of it.

Anyway: this is enough. Cirrus may not be perfect, but the proposal deserves to be free from this sort of level of argumentation.

Chris Elms
Slowsonoma.com (You're there. Welcome. Please look around,
there are literally hundreds of essays,
many shorter than this one.
See Index of all Postings)

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enjoyment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

---

Hello Rain

Hello Rain
it's good to hear you
and see
you
again

thanks for visiting us
one more time

Of course

It's too hard
way too hard

to write a poem
when you are so tired
and that's me

so tired.

what a pitiful
story

and so
following my own
good advice
from past times
and places and words

i'll put the good old attention
on breath
and skeleton
and gravity

and what do you know
i have the strength
to sit here
and type a few more words

hell, i'll even do desk trainer
when i'm done
and lift a few rocks

and sing a little song
death might win in the end
but tonight
being tired's
going to have to wait
just a little bit longer

hey
hey
ho ho

yes

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

---

Coming Workshop:

WONDERFUL RELATIONSHIP
April 29, 12- 6 PM

$200 per couple, before April 20, $240 thereafter
$120 individual before April 20, $150 thereafter

• Learn communication jewels.
• Have more fun.
• Get clear of limiting beliefs.
• Clear the past.
• If looking / waiting, how to enjoy and maximize
the learning and joy.
• Undo old patterns
• Discover new sources of fun and delight
in you
and other people.

For more, Read here

Easter, Rebirth, Many Chances

Say it's a moment
and we've forgotten
to be here
now

we're in some story
or in some pattern
just floating along

and then we realize
'hey, wait,
this is my life,
this is my breath
this is the beautiful sky,
beautiful Earth,
these are my feet
on this ground
Right Now,"

We wake up
to Knowing

"these are my eyes,
seeings this glory
Right Now"

We delight in

"these are my bones,
holding my up
in Gravity
Right Now"

We blissfully
remember

"this is my breathing
breathing me
my Life
Living Me
Right Now"

We sigh in the understanding
the inner awakening

We know
again
and again
and again

"This is Life
and I am.......
Alive
Aware
Awake"

And we know, sweetly
beneath words:

"Ah,
this is the resurrection."

And here:
with my step daughter
wearing a wig
for the fun of it
is the preparation
for our
Marlie, Chris,
Sarah, Rose, and Adam,
Easter picnic
in a field of buttercups
near Vallejo house

on an Easter afternoon
in the year of 2007
and much of it
was spend eating without the
state of being awake

oh, well:
there is always now
to wake back up
in
and the
again
and
again

Now

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

Rumi, my twirling friend, coming on 800 soon

Rumi
studied
studied and studied some more
got smart
got super smart
and nothing began to start
until it ended

Shams came along
threw Rumi's books in the water
and pulled them out dry
blasted open his eyes

Rumi asked Why?
Shams said, Kiss the sky.
Rumi did.
Rumi died
(before he died,
recommended by all good Sufis,
but easier to say than to do)

Rumi died,
woke up to love
to Love
too good to be true
hours in bliss with Shams
disciplines pissed jealous
the normal human shit,
they
the famous they,
kill Shams

and Rumi's heart breaks,
and out of the ruins a treasure is born
and he's gone
he's love
his love keeps twirling
he starts twirling
whirling around and around
words come out
mutterings

his disciple, students, friends,
whatever,
write down the words,
they pile up,
huge books worth
Rumi doesn't know
doesn't care
keep twirling
keep ecstasy going
love
alive
sound world word poem life flow

and then he's gone, too
and his "poems"
live on

thanks, Ram's my man
and Shams, the blast man,
keep twirling and reminding
us:
it's all just a spin in the eternal
flood

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

Happiness and Patience

PATIENCE AND HAPPINESS
If you are walking down the path, and you are always intent on getting to that place twenty feet ahead of you, you really aren't going to have your awareness happily sensing each foot as it touches the ground.

Same in life, if we are washing the dishes and thinking about "getting it over with," we are forfeiting any pleasure you could be having in the moment.

If we are not listening to what someone is saying to us, because we can't wait to get our two bits in, we can't enjoy them, or the music of their voice, or the joy of our own eyes or breathing or standing up in gravity on this amazing planet Earth.

If I am typing away like crazy, wanting to get this little piece done, and forgetting to breathe and to notice sitting upright in gravity on this amazing planet Earth, then I am missing the joy of now.

The joy of now is happiness.

If we are impatient, we lose that. Too high a price, I say. What about you?

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

Looking for those looking for Miracles, Change, Happiness and Healing

LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE LOOKING FOR TRANSFORMATION,
CHANGE,
HEALING,
HAPPINESS
AND
MIRACLES

One: people who would love to feel and move with the flexibility and co-ordination and zest that they had twenty or more years ago. For them I offer the TWENTY / TWENTY / TWENTY PROCESS.

In this we combine 20 individual Functional Integration lessons, over 20 weeks or less.

Plus 20 minutes a day of Home Play, which is not home work, but joyous movement games to enliven and waken and expand the mind brain body and heart.

Plus 20 minutes a day of the second best exercise : walking. ( Sex is the best, if you want to add 20 minutes a day of that: great).

And the results:
MOVE,
FEEL,
THINK
AND FUNCTION
AT LEAST AS WELL AS YOU DID

TWENTY YEARS

AGO.

(If you are young, then maybe we'll just say: function, move and feel at least twice as well as you do now)


Two: looking for people who'd like to lose weight while increasing strength, health and flexibility and thinking.

This we'll call the TEN / TEN / TEN PROCESS

Come to 10 sessions over 10 weeks

Learn at least 10 new habits around the eating and exercising part of life.

Lose at least 10 % of your present weight.


Three: looking for people who are
LOOKING FOR MIRACLES:

Back, shoulder, neck pain that nothing seems to be helping.

Carpal tunnel, arches and pains, stiffness that's getting worse.

Stroke and surgery recovery that wants to get better two to ten times faster than the ordinary physical therapy route.

People who wish to radically improve their golf, tennis, skiing,
running, basketball, baseball, yoga, weight lifting, singing,
dancing, acting, walking, sleeping.

Depression, anxiety and insomnia waiting for transformation.

Relationships: couple to couple, or parent and child, or with our own parents, that would love to heal up and transform back to love.

Relationships that are waiting to happen.

MS, Fibromyalgia, children with cerebral palsy.

All these I'd love to help transform with my unique blend of
The Feldenkrais Method®
The Work of Byron Katie
The Anat Baniel Method
The power of being Now
The power and glory of connecting to Nature
And the miracle of Awareness.

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.

Awareness + Look for the New + Forgiveness = a Start to Wonderful Relationship

WONDERFUL RELATIONSHIP
This month, on April 29, Sunday, from 12 to 6, with an hour off for lunch at 2, I'll be hosting a workshop on how to have or move toward (if you are single) a Wonder-Full relationship.(See Current Offerings) To build background for this workshop, the Monday essays in Slow Sonoma will be on relationship this month. .

(The blog essays will now be once a week, on Mondays in here, on Wednesdays at WakeUp Feldenkrais, and on Fridays at The Health Blog).

So, let's start with three fine ingredients in having or attracting a Wonderful Relationship.

BE PRESENT.
This sounds so simple, and is the key to a wonderful life as well as a wonderful relationship, and yet we forget this so often.

When we are present, we actually listen to, look at, enjoy and pay attention to the person with whom we are spending time. If this is our partner, then we will be allowing them to be themselves, and will be giving ourselves a chance to enjoy the miracle of their being alive and in our life.

If we are single, to pay real attention to others is to allow them to show themselves at their best, and who knows, one of these people might show themselves to be someone we could really enjoy.

Notice how in speaking we so often lose the present by talking inside our heads the words we want to say next even while the other person is still talking. So we aren't in the moment, we aren't with them, we are stuck on ourselves and don't know them, and can't really learn about them. By not being present, we lose the ability to listen, and when we can't listen, we can't really connect.

No listening = no love.

Also, and this is HUGE:
if we are present, we can be giving ourselves attention, attention to our breathing, attention to being in our bones and skin and shape and connections, attention to the sights and sounds and delights of now. And, when we are giving ourselves real attention, especially when we are sensing ourselves, we aren't going to be in the oh so pitifully normal state of humanity
of striving to get attention from others outside us.

If we can have our attention on ourselves, then we can love another, or enjoy another, instead of just wanting, waiting, scheming and demanding of their attention for us.

So, be present.


BE EXCITED ABOUT NEWNESS
Now, in an old marriage or relationship, this can be greatly underappreciated. We can take the other for granted, or even worse, only be looking at them to do the same old wrong thing again. We have them pegged, and all we do is look for proof that they are going to show their rotten colors again. This obviously is a recipe for hell on earth, but taking each other for granted is a recipe for a dull and lifeless life.

What is new?

What haven't we noticed?

What is unique and alive and excited in the person with whom we are spending time?

Again, if we are single and this is a "new person," this search for the new and unexpected and the fresh could pay wonderful dividends.


LEARN A WAY OF FORGIVENESS
OR: LEARN TO LEAVE BEHIND THE STORY.
This is the Work of Byron Katie, or any other system you know of forgiving, and that forgiving can't be of the snobby, I'm right and you're wrong and I'm going to deign to let up a little on my barrage of hatred and criticism. Forgiveness to be real has to come almost to a smile or a laugh of joy that the so called "bad" thing, wasn't the thing, but was our own inner reaction to this.

In other words, someone says some harsh thing about us. If they are bad, evil, on our poop list for this, then we are carrying a burden in our heart. If we have phony forgiveness and decide to like them even if they are bad, we are still separated from and feeling superior to them. If we do the Work, and see that those were just words, and our reactions inside to the words is what is causing the pain, then we can laugh and be free.

And love again.

This could be theoretical, but isn't if we doing the Katie work. See the many essays herein, or go to thework.com.

---

PLEASE BE WELL:


Pleasure
Ease
Awareness
Sensitive Strength
Enlightenment

BE

Waking up to now.
Embracing Change.
Learning to learn.
Loving to move, improve and transform.