My $0.02 to go with BP's $20 billion

When I was sitting around the closing table, waiting for the papers to arrive that would render me in debt forever, the real estate agents, myself and the seller of my house were making small talk. After discussing the weather, restaurants and dogs, one of the agents finally brought up the oil spill. It had been going on for over two weeks, and we all lamented about what a travesty this is to the Gulf region.

At one point the seller addresses the group and says, "I don't think this is going to affect us."

I don't usually like making other people feel stupid, especially when I just met them, but I really hope this person feels like a complete douche lord for ever thinking that an oil spill in the Gulf would not affect us.

Even back then, I explained to him how the millions of gallons of crude oil is now in our ecosystem, and especially for those of us who are on the seafood diet, it will eventually end up in our system. I can tell you in the last two weeks I've had fish, shrimp, oysters, crabs, crawfish, and if someone offered, I would eat a turtle.

Now 59 days later, with an estimated 1.47 to 2.52 million gallons of oil spilling into our ocean every day, we have much more to worry about than just what's going on my po-boy. And let me just say "spill" just doesn't seem to portray the enormity of this situation. I can say I "spilled" yogurt, because a spill is something you can wipe or clean up. This is more like a ginormous gushing, spewing, projectile oil spout that can never be cleaned up in its entirety.

How could people think an oil spill will not affect us?

Remember when Mufasa is showing Simba the kingdom he will inherit as king?

Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.

Simba: But dad, don't we eat the antelope? 

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great circle of life. 

It's the Circle of Life... and it moves us all...


Okay, so on this particular part of the circle of life, we have coastal wetlands. According to Lacoast.gov, the wetlands are important because of its "commercial values, recreational values, wildlife habitats, water quality management, storm buffers, erosion control, and flood control."

Before this BP eff-up occurred, our wetlands were already vulnerable and vanishing partially because of oil and shipping companies that created canals through the wetlands that have allowed for subsidence, saltwater intrusion and wave erosion. Fast forward a few decades and we have Hurricane Katrina, Rita, Ike & Gustav. You [should] know what happens next.

I wrote this in an email to some colleagues this week, "Last Friday, we went on an eco-tour to look at healthy and unhealthy marshland. It was bittersweet to be in our wetlands and to see the variety of species and how purposeful God has been in planning our region. It's so unfortunate how vulnerable we've made ourselves through our shortcuts and exploitation of land and its indigenous people. Prayers for the people affected by the spill."

The last living cypress swamp in Terrebonne Parish

Prayers are wonderful and powerful. I also pray that we are moved to action. 

Buddhist monk, author and activist, Thích Nhất Hạnh, says, "Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature." 

You know how annoying it is when you're using a ball point pen that breaks? You end up with ink all over your hands and somehow it manages to get on your face and clothes, and it's the worst when you don't even notice it until the end of the day. Well, we have one big broken ink well in our Gulf. It's all over our marshes, boats, animals. It's time to do something. 

Volunteer. 

    Catholic Charities need people to collect information from clients and distribute food. 

    Second Harvest Food Bank needs people to sort and distribute emergency food supplies. 

ADVOCATE!

    Write, email, call, tweet, poke your congressional representatives. Signing your name to an email always seems like a drop in a bucket, but think about where you'd like your signature to be in this circle of life. 

Louisianians -- Sen. David Vitter has been all over the news demanding support for our region and our ecosystem and economy. In the past he has consistently voted against laws the would prohibit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. *Cough* Hypocrite *Cough* 

The Environmental Defense Fund will email your Senator. They have also put together this video that incorporates two things I love right now: Mr. Schuester [from Glee] singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and oily pelicans. 

Day 3: See, taste and feel your belovedness

Today's reading talked how meditation and visualization can be powerful tools in helping us achieve breakthroughs, overcome challenges and reach our goals. I didn't really jump on the whole meditation, silence and solitude bandwagon until a few years ago. I remember months before I even graduated from college, I was constantly bombarded with the question, "So what are your plans for after graduation?" As irritating as it was to hear it from other people, it was more irritating hearing it from myself. Yes, I often talk to myself. Now I disguise the talking to myself in the form of a blog.

I couldn't get past the enormity and noise of the question to even begin to formulate some sort of b.s. answer that would appease the masses and myself. Not only was the question driving me crazy, but there was the pressure of needing to have a plan that was acceptable to everyone. How can you tell all your friends who are heading to grad school to be biomedical engineering doctors of international law that I just feel like working retail until I figure something out?

It started with a trip some friends and I took in college to San Francisco. The entire trip we were constantly figuring out what music to best blare out the windows and sing at the top of our lungs. At the very end of the trip, as we made our way up PCH, my dear friend Morgan asked, "Can we just turn the music off?" That 10 minutes or so of silence had never felt more soothing and comforting to my over-stimulated body. I didn't even realize silence was what I needed and that it would feel sooo good at that moment.

Months after graduation, I worked retail for a while until I figured something else out.

I also started adopting ways to meditate. Starting with a simple breath prayer. The book recommends saying, "I break through." I can't do that and take myself seriously. For me, there is nothing more necessary and cleansing than to meditate on God's love. Something like, "I am the beloved of God" works for me.

Go through a relaxation process of intentionally relaxing your body and muscle groups one area at a time. Then take the deepest breaths you will have taken for the day. Then with each inhale and exhale, recite one word from your selected mantra. Do this for however long you want to.

After some training, because it is something I had to train my mind and body to grow accustomed to, the noise and the ambivalent thoughts were drowned out by the growing knowledge and acceptance of the fact that I am the beloved of God. We all are the most loved sons and daughters of the Most High God.

As you taste and digest that nugget of truth, you will undoubtedly experience a variety of emotions. It's okay to feel a sense of guilt, fear, unworthiness, relief. Have compassion on those parts of you that we try to hide or overcompensate for because no matter how broken or lost we feel, we are LOVED. It is the experiencing of that love that takes us to new levels of being and living. 

I am a little embarrassed to do something as cliche as this, but anytime I hear that Natasha Bedingfield song on the easy listening station, I can't help but to turn it up and actually open up my dirty windows to release my inhibitions. So this is a little lame but just humor me and read the lyrics and visualize pulling up to a stoplight and there I am with my windows down, fingers snapping and belting out:

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitiiioons!

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Oh, Oh, Oh (gotta sing the Ohs!)