Sustainable homes for connection and responsibility

I am reflecting on how our newer homes generate more propensity to be indoors and more use of resources.

As we get more technology, we get further away from each other, we get further away from how the natural world really works... we get more insulated in the suburban homes with small lawns and ornamental trees and a few topiary bushes... and 2-car garage and double pane windows on a very large house with 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and a tv in most rooms.

As we get more comfortable, we occupy more indoor space, and have less interest to interact with outdoor space. I lived in Venezuela for 10 years, traveled to Ecuador and Costa Rica, India... people live partially outside there when they are doing things we normally think of as indoor activities. It's healthy, it's spacious, it's connecting for people to their environment and community.

In the USA, people spend 90% of their time indoors. I want a home that helps me be outdoors while being 'at home.' Check out these terraces, patios.

and for lower budgets...

homes in Costa Rica

As we get more technology, we get further away from each other, we get further away from how the natural world really works... we get more insulated in the suburban homes with small lawns and ornamental trees and a few topiary bushes... and 2-car garage and double pane windows on a very large house with 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and a tv in most rooms.

And we must move to reducing carbon in our own homes, businesses and cars, not waiting for industry and government to take care of everything, centrally. I drive down I75 and see oceans of solar panels. We need these distributed to each of our homes and businesses for true sustainability, for wildlife, for space, for our sense of contribution/empowerment, for closer/efficient electric, and relationship to our environment.

These solar farms make sense on paper, but don't make sense on the land.

According to Green Power EMC's website, the vast majority of the electric membership corporation's 503-MW generation portfolio — 93% — is made up of solar power resources. Green Power EMC President Jeff Pratt in a statement noted that the project will "help power more than 11,000 EMC households." See story.

How are birds, animals and plants going to survive these solar farms? Is pasture with cows more sustainable than these monocultures of metal and glass? Are these unsustainable solutions for sustainability? I support distributed solutions, not huge engineered central solutions.

More and more, we get more comfortable as the needs of the earth get more dire. There is less land, less air, less water, fewer corridors for earth's beings to just live.

I have hope in the new generations, and the new administration, and I plan to help plant trees, and live in a more connected way.

Sick Dogs of Bodhgaya

I received amazing news yesterday and am feeling so happy and grateful! A sick dog in India that I spent 2 days trying to capture to take to hospital has been treated for cancer and released by Dogs of Gaya. 

I had stayed in Bodhgaya for weeks and saw him 4 times on the road sitting helpless, sad and weak with a terrible open wound around his testicle area that he continually licked. When I heard about an animal hospital (Maitri Foundation) a few km away, I went there to get help. After pleading, phone calls and the promise of donating, two men took me back to town in their dog-catching jeep to find the dog and bring him for treatment. That day we couldn't find him.

The next morning I found him and took him breakfast and called the men back to meet me with their jeep. But the dog ran and ran in fear.

One man chased and chased for an hour, and I ran around town looking for the man chasing the dog. One nice tuktuk driver helped me get around (he had taken me to the dog hospital the day before, waited with me that morning for the jeep and men, gave me a tea... he was eager to help with my dog rescue). I was in and out of the tuk tuk, and in and out of the hospital jeep. I tried to coax that fearful sick dog. We had to give up for the day.

I was leaving town the next morning. I felt worried about this dog. I named him Balaram! I figured that might help the Maitri Foundation want to help this pet even after I left town. Why was I so attached to getting help for this dog?

Yesterday I messaged Dogs of Gaya (an NGO that helps dogs on the streets in that area) and learned that they got the dog to the annual Kagyu Monlam Animal Medical Camp where they fixed an infected tumor he had. The dog is now healthy, playing, and happy to be pet and cuddled!

So many dogs in India are forced to live at the literal margins of society. They can't live in the road, or will be run over, and are eschewed from the sidewalks by people doing business there. They must literally live on that line where the road meets the edge. They live on this thin line of nothingness, hoping for a scrap of food, and avoiding the cars and scooters that drive within inches of their bodies. Many do get hit or run over and suffer with the injuries or die. 

I am so very glad and grateful to the amazing things Dogs Of Gaya is doing for a very needy population of loving emotional beings who are neglected. I saw some people shouting at them or hitting them with sticks, but mostly they are ignored. Luckily many people do get rid of old leftovers by leaving them on the ground for the dogs or cows. Interestingly, dogs usually stay in the same area to live. This dog stays in front of the Thai temple on the main road.

When I would walk and see stray dogs, I would bend down and talk to them in a friendly way. Most would look up and wag their tails a bit, looking hopeful. I would pet those dogs, and they would stand up and get all happy. Most want some love and attention. After all they are domesticated animals, not meant to be living out on their own alone. If they did not wag the tail I would leave those dogs alone. I saw so many mangy and undernourished dogs. The weaker ones will lose opportunities to eat food and are treated even worse by people, being seen as a source of sickness.

Dogs of Gaya really represents the important Compassion in Action that His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about! 

Please donate -- www.dogsofgaya.org

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