January 10, 2021
Wordless Wednesday: flight edition
Author: Tracy Abell
Climate Movement Monday: spark some Joye
Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which I share info about frontline communities that are enduring the worst of the climate crisis and the effects of fossil fuel infrastructure.
JOYE BRAUN DAY OF ACTION
Joye was a water protector and pipeline fighter who died in November 2022. Earlier in the year I attended several organizing calls in which Joye spoke and she was absolutely incredible. Joye was funny and knew how to fire up and empower activists. We’re all poorer without her here, but she’d certainly want us to continue the fight. Check out this link to find a climate justice/Indigenous rights action near you in honor of Joye’s work.
Note: Here in Colorado, rather than honoring Joye on January 20th, we’ll gather outside the capitol on the 17th when Governor Polis gives his State of the State address.
I’d love to hear what actions are happening near you so please drop a note in the comments. Solidarity! ✊🏽
Bee back soon
Our neighborhood streets are treacherous right now — icy ruts surrounded by berms of frozen snow. I’ve been wearing Yaktrax for our daily walks with Emma, but they’re uncomfortable when walking on clear pavement, so today I convinced myself there’d been enough meltage that they weren’t necessary.
Wrong. Just minutes from home and the end of our two-mile walk, I was suddenly on my butt in the street. And now I’m grumpy. My left knee is sore from being twisted and my neck and shoulders have that jammed-up feeling that comes from trying to break a fall.
So what’s the remedy? A little yoga plus a warm memory from last June:
I remember sitting next to the Lamb’s Ear that day, photographing the busy bees as they went about their pollinating business. Someday soon, I’ll be back in my happy place in the backyard. It’ll be me, the perennials, and a whole lot of bees.
But no ice.
Mourning Dove at rest
The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost upon either the head or the heart. It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread. ~ John Burroughs
So long, 2022
It’s tempting to say this year was filled with nothing but loss — the deaths of my brother-in-law, my mother-in-law, and a friend/critique partner, plus parting ways with my agent. But that’s not the whole story.
I’m in a much better place than I was a year ago as I dealt with the resurfacing of a childhood trauma. I did a lot of work with my therapist in the first half of this year and am much stronger and more centered. That’s a huge win.
This past year I also took my first-ever solo camping trip which made me nervous to contemplate (see above), and ended up having a glorious time.
And while I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, I did want to continue my Hoop Dancing Challenge tradition. In 2021, I hoop-danced for just over 24 hours. And this year? Well, I logged 27 hours and 11 minutes!
Here I am this afternoon with my trusty hoop that brings me so much joy. I’m incredibly grateful to have this outlet, especially on days when it’s a struggle to get out of bed to face another day of our harsh reality. But music and movement kept me going. Hooray for funk!
Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year! Don’t forget to dance in 2023!
Friday Haiku – open mic
Oncoming traffic
headlights illuminate car
driver abandoned
your turn
hit me with a haiku
please
Wordless Wednesday
Climate Movement Monday: share a climate victory!
On this final Monday of 2022, instead of asking you to make a phone call or send an email, I’d like you to join me in highlighting positive climate action around the world. The climate crisis can feel overwhelming, but good things are happening and it’s important to maintain hope for a livable future. So this week’s ask:
Share a climate victory in the comments. This can be something from your city or state, or news from another state or country. It can be a climate activist elected to office. If you don’t know of any specific climate victory, share a cool innovation you came across. Basically, I want to hype the endless possibilities for averting the worst effects of the climate crisis.
I’ll go first.
In November, 70% of Denver voters approved the WASTE NO MORE ballot initiative. This will require Denver area construction sites to properly dispose of all waste and materials. It also requires businesses (restaurants, hospitals, apartment buildings, hotels, sporting arenas, festivals, etc.) to provide compost and recycling services.
This is very important because per the USDA “Food loss and waste also exacerbates the climate change crisis with its significant greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. Production, transportation, and handling of food generate significant Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions and when food ends up in landfills, it generates methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas.”
Per CBS Colorado, data from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) and Eco-Cycle show that despite businesses in Denver generating about 55 percent of the city’s municipal waste, they weren’t required to recycle or compost. And now they are!
That’s one piece of good news here in Colorado!
What’s your good climate news? Please share in the comments to help expand perspectives on what’s possible when people work together for positive change.
#Caturday cattitude
Here’s Marcel on the coldest day of the year, tucked in between the venetian blinds and drafty window. Wouldn’t be me, on multiple counts. But I can’t fault anyone for following the sunshine.
Fortunately, we’re at a balmy 44 degrees right now. No sun, though, which might explain why Marcel is currently curled up asleep on the bed.
Happy #Caturday to all who observe!
Friday Haiku-open mic
Hide and go seek game
novice player betrays self
tail of surrender
Your turn
hit me with a haiku
please
Conjuring warm memories
It’s bitterly cold today and uppermost in my mind is that I’m exceedingly grateful for my warm home. We had to take our dog to the vet this morning and it was a slow fourteen mile drive. Many were equally cautious but, of course, there were those who treated the snowy-icy streets as their personal speedway. We had to detour on the way home to pick up something and by the time I was at the red light at the top of our exit ramp, I was looking forward to being off the road.
WHAM!
Rear-ended by someone who’d missed the memo that the streets were freaking slippery. The good news is there was no damage to the car (except the impact knocked the muffler tape loose and now our old Subaru is REALLY loud again). The bad news? The collision triggered my PTSD and I was weepy and shaky for a bit, not to mention suddenly feeling so much anger toward people. The unmasked and the fast drivers, aka the people who don’t seem to give a damn about anyone else’s health and well-being. Part of the issue is that I’ve been rear-ended a bunch of times over the years and I’m really, really sick of it.
But again, uppermost in my mind today as the temperatures dipped well below zero is that I’m exceedingly grateful for my warm home. In that spirit, here’s a beautiful Mourning Dove I photographed at the Chatfield Audubon Center last May. A much more soothing image than the puffed-out birds hunkered down in the trees today.
Peace until all of us.
Happy Solstice
Today is the shortest day of the year and tomorrow we begin gaining daylight. Despite the incremental change at first, it’s still a huge boost to mental health. And we need it here in Colorado as we brace ourselves for an arctic blast. Tonight it will get down to -12 degrees F and tomorrow’s high will be a whopping -1 degree. And thanks to the climate crisis, we’re also smelling smoke from a wildfire in Boulder County (almost exactly one year after the Marshall Fire last December!) Cold enough to kill people and dry/windy enough to burn everything down. How’s that for messed up?
Anyway, this is some kind of hybrid dragonly/butterfly we found while clearing out my mother-in-law’s house. The six-inch by four-inch, bejeweled curiosity now hangs in my writing room window and I just photographed it as the foothills went dark. The bluish tinge is a result of the Arctic filter I applied, which felt appropriate.
Here’s to more hospitable days. Happy Solstice, everyone!
Climate Movement Mondays: Dirty Deal AGAIN
UPDATE 12.20.22: Manchin’s dirty permitting deal is NOT included in the omnibus spending bill. This is the power of collective action!!
Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which I share information about frontline communities enduring the worst effects of climate change and what we can do to help them. I started writing a post to celebrate the third defeat of Manchin’s dirty permitting deal last week and then found out (as expected), this zombie legislation hasn’t yet died. Now Manchin and Schumer want to add it to the omnibus spending bills this week.
One of my Denver zombie crawl images from years ago
PLEASE make some phone calls (or emails). Even if these senators aren’t from your state, it’s entirely okay to contact them. I say, “I am a climate constituent from Colorado where we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Marshall Fire that did over $2 billion in damages, and we cannot afford more fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline.” Unfortunately, you all have some climate crisis happening in your own state (drought, flooding, wind damage, etc). If completed, the Mountain Valley Pipeline will affect the climate for everyone, not only those in its path.
I’m looking forward to celebrating the fourth defeat of coal baron Manchin’s diry deal. Thank you in advance for standing with the people and planet. Solidarity! ✊🏽
Because it’s cold and dark outside my window
Three more short days and then we start gaining daylight again, people.
We can do this!
Two magpies
Two magpies flew in front of me as I ran on the streets this afternoon, providing a much-needed boost as my energy lagged. I called out to them, “Hello, magpies! I receive the gift of your beauty!”
Of course, I didn’t have a camera with me so here are two that visited my backyard almost exactly one year ago. The bird on the fence had just finished bathing and my photo session shows a continuous stream of magpies performing their ablutions.
December 19, 2021
I feel incredibly fortunate to see magpies on a daily basis. They’re stunning birds that never fail to bring a smile.
Friday Haiku for all
My eyes deceived me
not low profile waterfowl
so who’s the loon now?
Your turn
hit me with a haiku
please
Wordless Wednesday
Open Space. June 24, 2021
Winter running
Over the weekend, I made a vow to start running every other day again which meant today is running day. But it’s only 24 degrees. Ugh. So I decided to run inside on the treadmill, then thought about the monotony of treadmill running and decided to give it a try outside. I put on my warm togs and a face mask, hoping my glasses wouldn’t steam up.
Photo by Xeniya Kovaleva at Pexels.com
Although my mask wasn’t nearly as festive as that one and the neighborhood streets were dry, other than that this photo has the exact same vibe. HA. Just a happy-go-lucky run in frigid temperatures. I concentrated on inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth which mostly kept my glasses steam-free . . . until they weren’t and it became impossible to see. So I took off the mask and ran the rest of the way home.
Now my cheeks are rosy-red and I’m happily indoors again, swimming in a warm sea of endorphins. Mission accomplished.
Climate Movement Monday: petition + phone calls needed
Welcome back to Movement Mondays! Sometimes I feel like a voice in the wilderness, but I can’t stop sharing info and action items in support of those living on the frontlines of the climate crisis. We are ALL in this together. If you love plants, animals, nature, people, clean air & water, you have a stake in climate action.
Image by Filmbetrachter from Pixabay
Today, I’m asking you to:
- SIGN A PETITION urging Biden to uphold his pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. I’ve written before about the Willow Project (here & here) and if approved, this project would be a massive carbon bomb. Today, the Washington Post reported this:
At the northern tip of Alaska, the city of Utqiagvik on Monday reached its warmest temperature ever observed between November and March, when the mercury shot up to 40 degrees — 36 degrees above the norm.
The record-crushing high temperature was six degrees higher than the next warmest December reading ever measured there, in more than a century of records. It marked yet another exceptional extreme event in a region that is rapidly warming because of human-caused climate change.
Clearly, we cannot afford the Willow Project.
2. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES to stop Manchin’s dirty permitting deal. We’ve beaten it back twice before (here & here) and can do it again!!! From Climate Justice Alliance:
- Call your Members of Congress (call script below) at 202-224-3121.*If for any reason this doesn’t connect you, find your Senators’ number here.
Call Script for Democratic Senators: Hi, my name is ____, & I’m from ____. As your constituent I’m calling to demand that you do all you can to stop Senator Manchin’s dirty “permitting” proposal from being attached to any must pass legislation. Protecting our communities and climate is more important and we must transition away from fossil fuels now and protect communities’ rights to be free from harm in the process. Stand with the communities impacted by fossil fuels and the climate crisis and stop this permitting reform from being attached to any must-pass legislation.
Call Script for Republicans Senators: Hi, my name is ____, & I’m from ____. I’m a constituent in your district calling to ask you to stop democratic Senator Manchin’s side deal on permitting reforms. Citizens and states should have the right to protect themselves. The bill proposed by Senator Manchin infringes upon our rights to protect ourselves by deliberately stripping us of our ability to speak out against toxic projects built near our front door. Stand with the workers, farmers, and communities that are impacted by dirty energy projects built on their land, and stop Senator Manchin’s dirty “permitting” proposal from being attached to any must-pass legislation.
Thank you in advance for your actions! Solidarity! ✊🏽
Bouquet of sunshine
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful;
they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.
~ Luther Burbank
Prison Library Support Network
Today I did a two-hour Reference Volunteer Training with the Prison Library Support Network (PLSN). How it works: incarcerated people write to PLSN with reference questions that require research they can’t access in jail or prison then volunteers do the research and send the information via an intermediary from PLSN.
Image by Fifaliana Joy from Pixabay
After learning the basics of the program, we were divided into two-person teams in Zoom break-out rooms to answer one letter per team. We didn’t actually answer the letters, but did go through the steps in the process: read and identify the question(s) in the letter; review the mail policy for that particular prison*; brainstorm and list the information sources we’d use to answer our question(s); write out an example of how we’d list the reference materials (mailing address, URL, formal citation); describe any special formatting (PDF of website page, screenshot of chart, etc.).
It was an eye-opening experience. One of the trainers asked us to consider how many random things we “google” each day, which helped put into perspective some of the questions asked. For instance, my team’s letter was a list of 10 questions** that were a mix of “important” and what might be considered “not-so-important” questions that someone on the outside might quickly search on their phone while in conversation with a friend. Incarcerated people don’t have that ability, so I totally get how they maybe just can’t stop wondering what is the world’s longest snake species.*** My teammate and I prioritized the questions and focused on how we’d gather information for those, with the hope we’d also have room in the response for the “not-so-important” answers.
It’s a little intimidating to think about being entrusted with these letters and sifting through ALL the information out there. But there’s lots of support within the group and there’s a person who reviews everything before the response letters get mailed. Better yet, we get to choose the letters we answer which means I can focus on topics within my wheelhouse rather than, for instance, answer legal questions. There’s a countrywide network of volunteers with varied backgrounds and some have law degrees, others are research librarians, and there’s probably a zoologist who knows about that world’s longest snake.
If you’re interested in this project, PLSN offers a training session each month. They emphasized today that completing the training did NOT obligate us to be part of the program. We were free to check it out and see what we thought. (I’m gonna go for it.)
————————–
*Here’s a peek at the confusing and convoluted mail policies in Arkansas:
|
AS OF AUGUST 21, 2017, In an effort to reduce the introduction of contraband into our facilities, inmates will only receive two sheets of 8½ x 11 inches of copy paper, which will include a copy of the envelope and three pieces of the correspondence on the four-sides of the two sheets of copy paper. Only black and white copies will be made, and no cards, larger size paper, or anything else will be manipulated to fit on the copy paper. Additionally, any general correspondence that exceeds these limits will be treated as contraband. The inmate will have thirty (30) days to pay for return postage or it will be destroyed. Please write all letters in dark ink only (black or blue ink). Do not use pencils or yellow markers because it will reduce image quality. Note the examples below that illustrate copy quality when using ink versus pencil. |
** new policy limits each letter to three questions
*** not a question from today
Friday Haiku
Elongation time
final moments of the day
sun sets short again
Now it’s your turn
hit me with a haiku
please.
Rattling doors and windows
It’s yet another windy day here in the Denver metro area and we’re supposed to be out walking with our dog right now because if we wait any longer, the sun will disappear behind the foothills before we return home (and then Tracy will be sad and blue). But if we go now, we’ll have to duck our heads and push into the wind that’s gusting hard enough to rattle this house.
This heavy wind is more and more common as climate change affects weather patterns and a sensible society would make it a priority to harness the wind in place of the fossil fuels that have caused the climate change. But no, this society coddles Senator Joe Manchin, the coal baron who will not let his dirty permitting deal die. We blocked him from attaching it to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) earlier this week and now he wants to either amend the NDAA with that dirty deal or attach it to the year-end spending bill. Note: in an attempt to woo Republican senators, the deal is even worse than before, with the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) still front and center.
CALL TO ACTION:
Call your Senators (connects automatically): 888-997-5380
Call Script: “Hi, my name is ____, & I live in ____. As your constituent OR someone concerned about MVP and environmental justice, I’m urging you to vote NO on any amendment or must-pass legislation that advances Manchin’s Dirty Permitting Deal.”
If you have more time, please call Senators on this Priority List:
Senator Kaine (202) 224-4024
Senator Warner (202) 224-2023
Senator Carper (202) 224-2441
Senator Schumer (202) 224-6542
Senator Schatz (202) 224-3934
Senator Murray (202) 224-2621
Senator Reed (202) 224-4642
Senator Leahy (202) 224-4242
Senator Warnock (202) 224-3643
Senator Ossoff (202) 224-3521
Senator Padilla (202) 224-3553
Senator Smith (202) 224-5641
Senator Whitehouse (202) 224-2921
Senator Van Hollen (202) 224-4654
Senator Cardin (202) 224-4524
Senator Klobuchar (202) 224-3244
And if you have any pull with the Wind Goddesses, please ask them to calm it down here in Colorado. 🙂
Wordless Wednesday: watch the birdie
Kinship
This Acorn Woodpecker, photographed at Cave Creek Canyon Ranch in May of 2019, is going after the suet with a laser focus.
I can relate. These last few days, I’ve been food-obsessed. Yes, some of that’s been mindless eating and/or eating my emotions as we careen through multiple planetary crises. I’m like a bear fattening up for the winter . . . hungry all the time. Not for suet, though. Yech.
Tracy Abell 