First Day of Spring

Renewal, rebirth. For those living in the northern hemisphere, and those places that have seasons (unlike Singapore), today is the first day of spring. This day has a few bitter sweet memories for me. I got married this day, back in 1987. Seems like a life time ago, in fact it was, it was a path that I started down and realized I needed to turn back. The marriage did not last, and I started down a new path 3 years later, one that lead to law school, to Jeff, to Asia and to the two most beautiful children in the world.

This day, every year, I sort of find myself reflecting on the life that I have been leading. Has it been one I want? Has it been filled to the brim with joyfulness? Have I been following my inner callings, or have I been walking down a path I think I should take.

Many people start a new year off with resolutions, with goals for the coming year. You know, I think that the right time is to do it now. Three months into the "new year" on the date that spring starts, the date that the Christian church chose as a celebration of Christ and truly the most holy of the holidays (as many of you know Spring Solstice and Easter are linked). Rebirth, renewal....

I woke up today and thought, I am following my path.

The one I want to take. Even if it is different than the one others walk.

I am going to be happy, in my life, with my life, with my choices. This path is the correct path, I am just facing some up hill climbs now, but as any mountain biker will tell you, the uphill is necessary to have a gnarly ride back down!

Renewal, rebirth, rejoice. Spring is here, Easter is around the corner. Life is good, you just remember to see it that way.

Simply

K

Love this quote

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony." [ William Henry Channing ]

I just read this on Ali Edwards blog (by the way if you are into scrapbooking her stuff rocks!)

Anyway, it was great to read her stuff. I did not realize her son Simon is autistic. We struggle with Declan so much and wonder where he is on the Autism spectrum... he is making great strides by the way and I think we are going to put him back into therapy, but his teachers all comment on what great improvments he has made lately.


Back to being content. I am not content now. I want a new job, I want my husband to be happy. I want my children to be well and healthy. This is really a big struggle of mine. I think the quote is going straight to the printer and up on the wall.

Simply

K

Triangle of Life Earthquake Safety

While lunching with the gals, one of the discussions was the triangle of life. Apparently an email has been going around about the triangle of life. After a quick google search, the first site to come up was the Snopes urban legend site.

First, I guess the argument is that in the event of an earthquake you should find a space where you will be protected by a "triangle". Well, rather than try to rephrase here is the quote..

"Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life". The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building. They are everywhere. I trained the Fire Department of Trujillo (population 750,000) in how to survive, take care of their families, and to rescue others in earthquakes"

The quote is attributed to Mr. Douglas Copp.

Mr. Copp apparently is not all that he seems, he is currently under investigation by the US department of justice for Fraud and the American Red Cross challanges his tips, citing amoung other things that buildings around the world vary and what may work in the US will NOT be safe in other parts of the world. Like the SNOPEs site says the ideas may not all be bad, but it is probably better to follow the Red Cross and FEMA guidelines for Earthquake Disasters.

Here are those links for my friends.

FEMA: Drop and Cover and Hold On

Red Cross Earthquake Page


HOWEVER, In order to make things even less clear, the American Red Cross has stated that the Drop Cover and Hold On may not be appropriate for other countries besides the US. So, it is with a grain of salt...

I think that I will pretty much remain where I am, drop to the ground if standing, and try to get close to an item of cover. Who Knows eh?

Clarification on Guns

I should note, my family are meat eaters. I do understand that there are many out there who are not, and therefore, if my family did not eat meat, I would still state we would use guns. If we eventually have our goal of a small family farm, our goal would be to be as close to self sufficent as possible. If we require milk, we will either have a cow or goats. My argument on being able to put them down in a quick and humaine manner still stands.

Kristy

Guns and Survival

It is interesting; I had a great lunch on Monday with a bunch of my girlfriends back in Taipei. The topic of simplicity, survival and self sufficiency came up. Marcia (Hi Marcia!) talked about how she wants every member in her family to be able to learn to shoot a gun.

After long and hard thoughts about this (not at the table mind you, but before) I think I agree. Let me explain. First, I want never to have a hand gun in my house. Why, in my opinion, hand guns are for the sole purpose of killing another human. You can justify it by saying they are for defense, but again, it is defense against another person. I am a pacifist; I hate any thought of killing another human. I would rather teach my family defenses not using handguns, but that is not the purpose of this post.

When I think about using Guns, to me, the purpose should be for hunting or for use on a farm. I would like very much to learn to shoot a rifle. God forbid I hope to never use it, but should Jeff and I succeed in our goal to get a farm some day, if a sheep ever breaks a leg, or a horse gets itself into a position were it has to be put down, I want the ability to do it. I don't want to see the animal suffer until I can call on a neighbor or friend, or vet, to do it.

Plus, I want my family to be able to hunt. I don't know that they will ever NEED to hunt for food. But, these skills are important and are being lost in today's modern computer based society. I don't want to think of a situation so bad that my family has to hunt, but what happens if we are subject to a terrorist attack and the attack caused all food supply to be compromised. Likely? Perhaps not, but who could have ever imagined a plane flying into the World Trade Center?

However, all of this being said, I am strongly in favor of gun safety. If a gun is in my house, it will be in a gun safe. The gun safe combination will only be known to me and my spouse. We do not use "play guns" in the house. If the kids make believe with sticks, there is little I can do, other than to remind them that guns are not toys. We will teach our children about proper gun care. We will teach the children that guns are tools-not toys.

All of this is rather moot now, as it is illegal to have any guns in Singapore. But we will revisit the issue when we move back to Oregon on our "family farm" (right next door to B&P's house!)