Monthly Archives: June 2010

Happy Birthday Rosie – Sorry There’s Oil on your Feet

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Rosie Denton on the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary beacahRosie, my wife, has great energy. She runs barefoot each morning to the beach. She’s braver than I. Returning to the house, this morning, her birthday, we discovered that the soles of her feet were coated with brown oil. Going again to the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary beach we verified that oil was washing ashore.

Last post I shared about positive energy. Negative energy must be dealt with too. Oil on our beaches! Oil on our feet! Is this Happy Birthday? It’s also my mother’s birthday who has passed from this life. Torrent rivers of feelings flow through our lives.

In his book, Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh shares many ways to transform our negative energy. Here are some thoughts inspired from his book that work. Let’s recognize our feelings and recognize their ultimate source, ourselves. Let’s be real and one with our feelings, “Oil on my feet! Huge oil still coming! It’s my birthday! I am so upset!” Let’s calm our storms, “Breathing, calming myself, not getting overwhelmed, I am grateful for the valuable information my feelings give me.” Let’s call to mind what is encouraging in our lives and call to mind what needs to be fixed. Then, with great strength, let’s embrace our capabilities and do what needs to be done.

Each day is a new day. Each year is a new year. “Happy Birthday, Rosie, let me help you get the oil off your feet!” 

Positive Energy

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Sharing positive energy after Hands Across the Sand on Dauphin Island, photographed June 26, 2010 by Theresa Robinson

Sharing positive energy after Hands Across the Sand on Dauphin Island, photographed June 26, 2010 by Theresa Robinson

Dauphin Island is getting a good wind right now, much more than a breeze, but not a gale – pure, positive, refreshing energy.

A good wind is just one of the many positive energies in life. Atoms spin, waters spin, the Earth spins, and we spin. Dreaming, dancing, sharing, enjoying, forgiving – fully believing in and expressing our beauty – spinning – revolving – revolutionizing – loving without end for the benefit of all. What a wind! What clean, positive, refreshing energy!

Positive energy is all around us, a revolution always in the making, never letting go of us. Francis of Assisi, a great friend of animals and a great believer in positive energy, dedicated himself to this revolution of love with these words:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Let the positive energy in each of us find expression in our own words, voice, and life. Let the wind blow where it will.

Hands Across the Sand – And Facts Across the Gulf

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Hands Across the Sand at Dauphin Island, Alabama

Hands Across the Sand at Dauphin Island, Alabama, photographed June 26, 2010 by Dawn McKinney

Federal gulf waters closed to fishing due to potentially hazardous conditions

Federal gulf waters closed to fishing due to potentially hazardous conditions

Surface oil in gulf pictured by NASA satellite

Surface oil in gulf, photographed June 19, 2010 by NASA's Terra satellite

 Theresa Robinson, Hands-Across-the-Sand participant, summed it up, “I’m into the positive direction of this. I know we can’t stop off-shore oil tomorrow, but I know we need to be moving in that direction.”

Consider the following facts:
• There are over 78,000 square miles of federal gulf waters closed to fishing. A large portion of that water has surface or sub-surface oil or both. The spill area if centered in Montgomery would stretch down into Florida, encompass Birmingham and Gadsden, and stretch into Georgia encompassing Atlanta and surrounding communities.
• Despite better technology including insulation and more efficient cars, Americans now use 50% more energy per capita than Americans did in 1950 (we can learn valuable lessons from those days).
• Domestic off-shore oil only accounts for 8% of the American liquid/gas energy consumption.
• Less than half of the currently erupting oil is being collected even with the cap in place.
• The oil wells are less safe than advertised.
• We do not know how to control or stop the current eruption.

So what can I do responsibly for our priceless gulf? Lowering my energy consumption or conserving helps. Recycling helps. Riding bicycles and using public transportation helps. Affecting public policy to support and invest in clean energy helps too.

The huge area of spoiled environments is home for sea turtles, dolphins, birds, fish, crabs, etc. How would we feel if the oil was erupting in our neighborhoods from Atlanta and Birmingham, to Montgomery, to Florida with no end in sight?

Today, I am so grateful to everyone who came to Hands Across the Sand, not just on Dauphin Island, but everywhere. It was great experience meeting new people and joining hands together for a new direction that needs to happen. We would love to have more pictures of our event, so please send your pictures to uheditor@gmail.com. Thanks!

Enthusiastic college students added much to Hands Across the Sand

Enthusiastic college students on Dauphin Island added much to Hands Across the Sand, photographed June 26, 2010 by Theresa Robinson

 

Time to Join Hands

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Leo, Julita, and Edward invite you to Hands Across the Sand

Leo, Julita, and Edward invite you to Hands Across the Sand on Dauphin Island's public beach, photographed June 24, 2010

This Saturday, June 26, all across the United States, Hands across the Sand events will take place (see http://www.handsacrossthesand.com for a location near you). Hands across the Sand is an event for people who want to say “No” to off-shore drilling and “Yes” to cleaner energy alternatives. It’s not for everybody. But for those who support this message it is a collective opportunity to make their voices heard. If you agree with this message, please come, bring family and friends, and make your voice heard!

For Dauphin Island’s Hands Across the Sand, people will begin gathering at the public beach around 11:00 AM and will join hands for 15 minutes at 12:00 noon.

Hopefully this environmental disaster and events like Hands Across the Sand will help us realize the importance of finding more responsible ways of obtaining and using energy.