I get so inspired when I see people doing creative thinking and using their resourcefulness in making new things from old things.
These creative people are melting plastic bags and sew the melting plastic into courier bags. Watch them in action and get inspired to make one for yourself!
I just love it!!! 2 arms up for this one! And a full on “How wonderful!”
In my progression with the Presence Process suggested by Michael Brown, I am becoming more and more aware of my breathing. My breathing pattern and my periods of non-breathing during certain activities throughout the day. Just the simply fact of practicing breathing twice a day for 15 minutes is training me to actually pay attention to my breathing. And so breathing is becoming something I do more and more consciously, even if it’s only moments of awareness during the day, it’s more than I was experiencing before. The results of that is I am becoming conscious that breathing IS the central part of all of my experiences. I realize that if I can become conscious of one thing alone, which is to breath - I may gain way more benefits to this simple conscious habit than anything else I may learn. Simply to remember to breath and to stay connected with my breathing consciously IS the one and ut most centered and generous presence I may develop in my earthly life experience. This is becoming more and more clear to me.
I’m aware that this is essentially what trees do. They breath and the grow. I remember how I’ve always enjoyed as a child being in the presence of trees. Either climbing or swinging from a branch or simply sitting in a tree or against a tree. I’ve always felt safe around trees. I’ve felt less alone around trees. I remember crying against a tree as a teen ager, or having my first sexual experiences lying under a tree. I remember sitting and reading books, or chatting endlessly with my girlfriend under a tree. I remember meditating and playing music sitting against trees. And every tree I met I seamed to have the same familiar connection with. I’ve always felt such awe at how a tree remains present to what is and stands and breaths, no matter what wind or rain storm hits it, no matter what scorching sun or endless cloudy days, or ice falling from the sky, the tree can never hide. It has to experience it all. To this day, this has always fascinated me.
Trees are perfect reminders to me that breathing IS our fundamental life experience.
Feel and breath.
Breath and feel, just like the tree does.
Marie
Here is an other great example of recycling. 
Especially when we talk about recycling plastic.
Plastic is a commodity that needs to be understood and considered as one of the most durable mand made material on our planet. Good plastic will last many life times. Its utilities are so diverse; from the surgeons tools to the railroad tracks, plastic is here to stay. And this is axactly my point: what ever plastic we create will in dead stay with us for many generations. So we may as well think in terms of durability, because plastic is here to stay in both ways. We are not going to forget we ever knew plastic and stop using it simply because we have been using plastic mindlessly. We must consider plastic is a NONE- disposable material, period. We can recycle it but we can’t get rid of it once we gave it form. Plastic qualities are to be respected for what it does best, when created for durability. And plastic should always be created to be 100% recyclable, end of story.
Here’s a great example of plastic that will thankfully stay in place for as many generations as possible.
Train track ties. You know the 4 by 4 lumber that holds the trains tracks in place.The RTI company is right on “track” with their plastic lumber which does the job perfectly. The ties are made from 100% recycled plastic materials. It’s solidity and durability are extensive and surpasses the wood lumber by far.
This in my view is the role of plastic. Created with the qualities that plastic has to offer which is for its’ durability. If we think of plastic as something that will not go away, once we create the intended product, or that can it can be completely recycled, then we are thinking rightly and mindfully for our future generations.
Kudos to you RTI!
There are many ways to make our cities greener. Planting trees and creating parks are lovely ways to produce shade, and clean our air, add recreational spaces and embellish our urban life styles.
A new green trend is taking place in our cities and it’s gardening. I wish to see it more as and permanent change than a trend. “Growing our own food is the most radical act anyone can do in this day and age”, some one said to me. I believe it’s true.
There’s someone in my neighbourhood worth talking about and it’s the City Farm Boy. Ward Teulon is turning our neighbourhood lawns into food gardens. As a fair exchange he will negotiate a percentage of food for your family and will keep the rest for selling at the city farmers market. I find his concept absolutely brilliant.
Lawns have there place according to a landscaper I was talking to. They too contribute a lot to air purification and for irrigation’s for trees and so on. And I think that we certainly don’t require so much lawns and so much energy into battling the weeds who fight their way, usually quite successfully in the end. Unless we use pesticide of course. Or we become creative with diversification. And such perfect and useful diversification is to replace lawns or portions of them into gardens. It’s not that we have not done it before. But it’s now become a movement.
Vancouver City Hall, initiated by our mayor Gregor Robertson, is actually making this statement by designing into their green lawn a community garden. A statement that speaks loudly of our times of change.
So kudos to my neighbour for his ingenuity and for his hard hard work.
This salad is one of these successful kitchen improvisation made from left overs. It was a winner for my eyes with it’s vibrant colours and the flavours were wonderful in my mouth for sure!
I’ll tell you the ingredients I found were a superb mix and you’ll be in charge of the quantities.
Cooked squash (butternut - acorn - or any other firm ones) either steamed or baked, that part is up to you.
Cut into small pieces 1.5 cm x 1.5cm approximately. (Just to give you a rough idea.)
Add on top without stiring chopped red cabbage about the same size. I’d say equal amount if you can. This is not an exact science so what ever you have is good.
Add chopped almonds, maybe 1/2 a cup
1/2 a tea spoon cardamom seeds, not including pods, crushed in a spice grinder 
1 lime or lemon
2 to 3 table spoons Olive oil
Salt to your taste.
Now that you’ve got all the ingredients into your bowl, mix gently until you have created your masterpiece of colours, flavours and textures.
Do you see the link or the trail?
Some of us desire to eat locally grown food, some of us are cycling advocates and some of us love to eat in the comfort of our home and with our family home prepared food.
And someone here in Vancouver, British Columbia has thought of a great way to put it all together. Grocer Gunst concept is to provide home delivery from some of our local farms to 3 neighborhoods and all from his bicycle.
I just love such initiatives!
Read how martin does this as his summer job while studying at university and how quickly his service has expanded already.
What do you think about the idea of recycling your bones into coral reefs after you die ?
If you think this to be a strange but interesting concept, I invite you to have a look at this brilliant, sensitive and highly creative concept by Eternal Reefs Inc.
Nature has already solved so many if not all of the problems we are trying to solve, with it’s own perfect “industrial designs” . We have been acting as if, we humans, have to keep reinventing the wheel each time we have a flat tire.
Let us stop for a moment and observe the wasps and their construction expertise and the sharks’ bacteria free “skin” and the water proof properties of the butterfly wings and see if we can learn and be inspired to create more wisely and sustainably.
As Janine Benyus says, we are not the first to build housing for our young to protect them or we are not the first to recycle and reuse materials; beetles have been doing it way longer than we have.
Take a minute and watch this fascinating Ted Talk video about bio-mimicry and how these inventors directly go ask nature to create their new technologies.
Janine Benyus shares nature’s design on TED Talk
Go to asknature.org website and find a pot-luck of information about bio-mimicry. And you can even participate!
Many people have asked me how do I keep my veggies fresh and crispy without the clear produce plastic bags. This is the method that I’ve been using for quite a while now for most of my vegetables.
I reuse the tube into which the baby greens come in. I rinse all my veggies , first to clean them, but also to rehydrate them before storing them. They will be really crispy when you’ll eat them even just a few hours later.
If some of your leafy greens are to big to fit, you can trim the stems, and keep them in the container to use them later.
Keep one corner of the tub open for air to circulate a little bit.
The other advantage is that it stores really well in the fridge and keeps your space uncluttered. My fruits, I like to keep them in Moukinet mesh bags.
Step 1. Soak 1/2 cup of your desired beans for 8 hours or overnight. These are french lentils.
Step 2. Drain the beans into a Moukinet mesh bag; over the sink is best.
Step 3. Rinse under the tap in the morning and late afternoon. Hold it so that the water can drip for a few second from one of the corner. This way it shouldn’t drip onto your counter.
Step 4. Hang from a hook that you can screw under your cabinet. Or hang from your cabinet door knob. This is the easiest method I know. Lentil sprouts will be ready to eat within 3 to 4 days. Once they are grown to your liking, keep them in the fridge in an airtight container to keep them fresh. Will keep this way for about 4 days.
This mesh bag technique lets the sprouting happen with lots of ventilation, and no fancy equipment to store. You can sprout while camping, or traveling, in your hotel room or hanging from your back-pack while on a hiking trip.