We have SO much

It's amazing how easily we lose sight of what's important in our lives. There are some days when we stress over things that seem so colossal, yet, in the grand scheme of things, it won't even matter two days from now. I am always amazed how life has a way of throwing water in my face when I need it the most. I was reading an article this evening about a little Sudanese girl who had collapsed during her journey to a feeding camp. This hard moment of her life was immortalized in a photograph that later won the Pullitzer Prize in 1994. The photographer was the late Kevin Carter.

It is nearly impossible to look at this photo and not feel compassion and shame for the way we create madness in our world when reasonably, we have everything we need and could ever want at our fingertips. When was the last time you worried about whether you would go hungry, where you would sleep, or how you would get to work? We don't think about these things. We have been programmed to worry about things that shouldn't even matter. We are force fed the latest, greatest, finest and most expensive through the media and marketing. We never stop and realize just what we already have and what we really need. If you look around, you'll see that everything you need is right there. It just frustrates me how we keep thinking we somehow need more. More what? Stuff? We want "Stuff" and millions of people can't even eat? We have so much. I forget this all the time. But I will think of that little girl in Africa when I feel like my life is not so great.

"To make one glass of rice wine takes a whole basket of rice. Every day 40,000 children die in the world for lack of food…If the overdeveloped western countries would cut their alcohol and meat consumption by just 30%, they would solve the problem of hunger in the world. " –Thich Nhat Hanh

AMAZING! A "new" biofuel crop!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2155351.ece

From The Times
July 28, 2007
Poison plant could help to cure the planet

Ben Macintyre
The jatropha bush seems an unlikely prize in the hunt for alternative energy, being an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed. Hitherto, its use to humanity has principally been as a remedy for constipation. Very soon, however, it may be powering your car.
Almost overnight, the unloved Jatropha curcushas become an agricultural and economic celebrity, with the discovery that it may be the ideal biofuel crop, an alternative to fossil fuels for a world dangerously dependent on oil supplies and deeply alarmed by the effects of global warming.
The hardy jatropha, resilient to pests and resistant to drought, produces seeds with up to 40 per cent oil content. When the seeds are crushed, the resulting jatropha oil can be burnt in a standard diesel car, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants.
As the search for alternative energy sources gathers pace and urgency, the jatropha has provoked something like a gold rush. Last week BP announced that it was investing almost £32 million in a jatropha joint venture with the British biofuels company D1 Oils.
Even Bob Geldof has stamped his cachet on jatropha, by becoming a special adviser to Helius Energy, a British company developing the use of jatropha as an alternative to fossil fuels. Lex Worrall, its chief executive, says: "Every hectare can produce 2.7 tonnes of oil and about 4 tonnes of biomass. Every 8,000 hectares of the plant can run a 1.5 megawatt station, enough to power 2,500 homes."
Jatropha grows in tropical and subtropical climates. Whereas other feed-stocks for biofuel, such as palm oil, rape seed oil or corn for ethanol, require reasonable soils on which other crops might be grown, jatropha is a tough survivor prepared to put down roots almost anywhere.
Scientists say that it can grow in the poorest wasteland, generating topsoil and helping to stall erosion, but also absorbing carbon dioxide as it grows, thus making it carbon-neutral even when burnt. A jatropha bush can live for up to 50 years, producing oil in its second year of growth, and survive up to three years of consecutive drought.
In India about 11 million hectares have been identified as potential land on which to grow jatropha. The first jatropha-fuelled power station is expected to begin supplying electricity in Swaziland in three years. Meanwhile, companies from Europe and India have begun buying up land in Africa as potential jatropha plantations.
Jatropha plantations have been laid out on either side of the railway between Bombay and Delhi, and the train is said to run on more than 15 per cent biofuel. Backers say that the plant can produce four times more fuel per hectare than soya, and ten times more than corn. "Those who are working with jatropha," Sanju Khan, a site manager for D1 Oils, told the BBC, "are working with the new generation crop, developing a crop from a wild plant — which is hugely exciting."
Jatropha, a native of Central America, was brought to Europe by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century and has since spread worldwide, even though, until recently, it had few uses: malaria treatment, a windbreak for animals, live fencing and candle-making. An ingredient in folk remedies around the world, it earned the nickname "physic nut", but its sap is a skin irritant, and ingesting three untreated seeds can kill a person.
Jatropha has also found a strong supporter in Sir Nicholas Stern, the government economist who emphasized the dangers of global warming in a report this year. He recently advised South Africa to "look for biofuel technologies that can be grown on marginal land, perhaps jatropha".
However, some fear that in areas dependent on subsistence farming it could force out food crops, increasing the risk of famine.
Some countries are also cautious for other reasons: last year Western Australia banned the plant as invasive and highly toxic to people and animals.
Yet a combination of economic, climatic and political factors have made the search for a more effective biofuel a priority among energy companies. New regulations in Britain require that biofuels comprise 5 per cent of the transport fuel mix by 2010, and the EU has mandated that by 2020 all cars must run on 20 per cent biodiesel. Biodiesel reduces carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 80 per cent compared with petroleum diesel, according to the US Energy Department.
Under the deal between BP and D1, £80 million will be invested in jatropha over the next five years, with plantations in India, southern Africa and South East Asia. There are no exact figures for the amount of land already under jatropha cultivation, but the area is expanding fast. China is planning an 80,000-acre plantation in Sichuan, and the BPD1 team hopes to have a million hectares under cultivation over the next four years.

Jatropha has long been prized for its medicinal qualities. Now it might just help to cure the planet.

- D1 Oils, the UK company leading the jatropha revolution, is growing 430,000 acres of the plant to feed its biodiesel operation on Teesside — 44,000 acres more than three months ago, after a huge planting program in India. It has also planted two 1,235-acre trial sites this year in West Java, Indonesia. If successful, these will become a 25,000-acre plantation. Elloitt Mannis, the chief executive, says that the aim is to develop energy "from the earth to the engine".

Jatropha: costs and benefits

- Jatropha needs at least 600mm (23in) of rain a year to thrive. However, it can survive three consecutive years of drought by dropping its leaves
- It is excellent at preventing soil erosion, and the leaves that it drops act as soil-enriching mulch
- The plant prefers alkaline soils
- The cost of 1,000 jatropha saplings (enough for one acre) in Pakistan is about £50, or 5p each
- The cost of 1kg of jatropha seeds in India is the equivalent of about 7p. Each jatropha seedling should be given an area two meters square.
- 20 per cent of seedlings planted will not survive
- Jatropha seedlings yield seeds in the first year after plantation

My Precious Niece

I love watching my baby niece. Every day that I spend with her, I understand more about the power of love. There are so many times I look at her observing the world around her and my eyes fill with tears. Tears for the joy of her life, tears for the immense love I feel for her, tears for her innocence. The same innocence we’ve all shared when we were babies relying on our parents for our every need. The delicacy of our lives depends so much on what our parents do, or don’t do.

I watch her in her swing. She is fixated on the green turtle attached to a mobile that hangs over her head. And she watches for such a long time; so fascinated by the colors, the movement. Here she lay, swinging to a sweet, soothing sound; smiling occasionally at the green turtle dancing overhead. Her life will take shape by the hands of the parents and adults around her. She will one day have her own path, her own life, thoughts, ambitions. But for now, we help to create who she is to become. There is something so powerful and noble about it all. My perspective is changed and I have a greater understanding and respect for parents everywhere.

She has taught me a different kind of love.

A reason, a season or a lifetime

Isn't it incredible how the right people come into our lives when we need it the most? I am continually amazed by this phenomenon even though it has happened so much in my life. Even when we aren't looking for guidance, somehow, we are given it and the moment the person leaves, it's like a light goes on and we realize, "Wow! This person really helped me to realize ______". At least, that's the way it has always been for me. I'm sure if you think back on your life and remember the people who are or who have been a part of it, you may be able to make sense of the moment and what it was that they brought to your life’s' table that enriched you. It's the concept that people come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Not everyone we meet will be ours forever but it's ok. We weave intricate networks that work together and eventually, form a beautiful overall picture.
My best friend gave me so much before he died. When he passed away last June I felt like knowing him had been such a curse. I thought I'd never get over grieving and I never wanted to feel that sense of loss ever again. But after a while of working through the hurt, I realize what a blessing it was to have had such a wonderful friendship like the one we had. He taught me so much about love, life, friendships, loyalty. And his words of wisdom still resonate with me. He is not here but I feel like if he is on the other side, he is on my side. And there is nothing better than feeling like someone is watching out for you all the time. It gives me a stronger sense of connection to my universe, I guess. Sometimes people come into our lives for a short time but what they give us lasts our lifetime. Today I am thankful for those people who are in my life, or who have come and gone. I will not mourn the loss because I have lost nothing at all.

Happy Again

In many ways, I hate to be one of those persons that believes everything happens for a reason. It's like the analogy of the groundhog seeing it's shadow. Spring is here, spring isn't here, etc., etc. The groundhog sees whatever the hell the groundhog wants to see because the whole thing is a sham, anyway. But in life, it's a little more complicated than that. And I am really coming around to the idea that maybe there is something to the 'everything happens for a reason' belief. I think about the last year of my life and know for certain that I would have NEVER come back to Texas on my own accord.  After a bit, I have settled into this place and my new life pretty well. I am OK with my career but even better, I have reconnected with my love for music and singing. I bought a guitar and I think I'm doing pretty well with it. My life goals have shifted and lean more towards what I naturally gravitate to. Where did all of this come from? Was it always there, laying dormant and waiting for the right moment to hatch?
In life are we continually searching, growing, learning and discovering-even when we aren't paying attention to our progress? It is important to stop and smell the roses. Look back, see your progress, observe what you've learned--but don't live in the background.

So here I am in Texas, and I'm really happy about that. I think only time will tell how everything will really work out. I am OK with not having it all figured out. I think that's what makes this journey so interesting. But in the meantime, I am happy to say that I am very happy and satisfied with everything.