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I mentioned in a previous post my interest in "slow living" in 2009. Slow living, is basically a practice of mindfulness and deliberateness in one's activities. It can take many forms, whether it be simplifying one's life to avoid overcommitment and burnout, cooking seasonal foods at home, or walking or biking to one's destination instead of driving. It's really all about savoring one's life, connecting to others, seeing even the mundane aspects of life as educational or sacred, and better stewarding one's resources.

This week I stopped by the home of Greensboro architect Jill Spaeh, who was having a fallen red oak tree in her yard cut up to be dried and used in the future as flooring. Spaeh makes a living designing buildings with environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient features, and she wanted to give the dead tree a second life that she could personally connect with.

Rather than have the roughly 150-year-old tree hauled off, Spaeh decided to have it cut into blocks and air dried for nine months to eventually be used as flooring in a future project.

"I want to do it because I can't imagine cutting it up and saying goodbye to it as mulch," Spaeh said.

Harvey Friddle saws the tree in front of Spaeh's Old Starmount home.

Spaeh figured this approach could be an option as other old trees in the city die and need to be taken down.

The project turned out to be somewhat of a community event, with neighbors watching and children sawing pieces of the wood themselves or painting the ends to prevent checking. Spaeh and a neighbor talked about what to do with the massive tree trunk.

"I'm stumped with the stump at the moment," she said. "I don't know if there are any uses for the stump. I haven't gotten that far."

The tree cutting for me was one example of turning a problem ("Oh crap, there's a dead tree lying in my yard") into a learning experience that could be shared with family and friends rather than just exercising the typical knee-jerk response. And everything seemed to fall in place for Spaeh, including the facts that the tree fell during winter break and it caused minimal property damage.

But other opportunities exist to practice mindfulness in one's life. It might be contemplating the uses of old baby jar bottles rather than throwing them away or taking regular walks through your neighborhood. What ideas do you have for living slow and consciously amid all the busyness of life?

Across the country, American Dreams are evaporating in so many ways and for so many reasons it is hard to keep count. I was just reading today in the New York Times about homeowners who have been foreclosed upon now finding it difficult to rent apartments (including one 43-year-old woman who is renting kitchen-less space on the third floor of someone's house). Then you've got the destroyed homes and businesses in the Midwest from the floods, mounting layoffs, and then, of course, $4 gas.

What does this mean? Rejection letters from landlords. Sleeping in cars. Staycations (not trips to Myrtle Beach and Disneyworld). Beans and rice for dinner. Unemployment checks. All with the background noise of peak oil, climate change and drought.

How's all that for a slice of humble pie? I'm certainly eating it. All those years in college racking up debt while aspiring to build a career, own several homes, take weekend retreats and summer vacations (hey, maybe even travel overseas!), and retire at 60 could have been better spent preparing to live in an "earn less, make do" world. A world where people explore the nooks and crannies of their towns and cities rather than jet-setting, where homeownership exemplifies a person's commitment to their communities rather than a path to riches. A world where I have a blue-collar back-up to my white-collar 9 to 5.

Pride (as in "We Americans deserve it!") may have gotten us far in the the 20th century, but it will do us a disservice now. Sharing, sacrifice, solidarity, cooperation and common sense, all those things we pay lip service too, will be the currency that gets us through these next years and decades. It means sharing a house, a car, a garden. Counting the full cost of things you buy from production to sale.  Creating miracles for yourself and other people instead of waiting for them to drop out of the sky. Seeing God work in darkness as well as light.  

Throwing hissy fits is not going to get us through this deal.

I am fascinated by the prospects of consciously participating in the evolution of my species and the transition from one age to another. I find myself a big picture thinker, so I need frameworks under which to operate and be motivated to make sacrifices so that my family and community can live more sustainably.

One resource that I have come upon is the Center for Ecozoic Studies, which publishes literature on the burgeoning Ecozoic Age, made popular by Greensboro ecologist and cultural historian Thomas Berry. He maintains that we are moving from the Cenozoic Age that began with the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the Ecozoic Age. Why is this new age so important? The health of the planet has been endangered because of human activity, according to Berry, and we need to move to an era where the well-being of the entire planet is our primary concern, not just the well-being of humans. Berry also says it is the responsibility of every human to participate in shepherding in this new era.

Of course, that task is supremely difficult. Herman Greene, founder of the Center for Ecozoic Studies wrote (starting page 92) that:

"What we are dealing with is something very different than any social cause we might have been involved in before, or that any human has every been involved in before. This doesn't, however, mean we can't learn from and apply our experience. It just means we can't predict this future -- the ecozoic future-- from the past, and we can't "solve" this problem of how to get to an ecological age the way we have solved past problems.... Our world is changing faster and faster and in general is moving in the direction of more stuff, more industry, more cities, and more human impact. It is kind of like there is a GREAT BIG FREIGHT TRAIN moving across the whole Earth. What are we to do to get out of the way? The answer is something like disassemble and reassemble the freight train before it hits us and change the crew... and we are the crew."

Which I took to mean that humans must simultaneously create a new way of life while living in the existing one (although some argue nothing less than an evolutionary leap is needed). What more, not everyone agrees that we are on a freight train or that we are in any way culpable for the problems we are facing. But all over the world, people are making changes, even in Greensboro. They see the current way as a dead end, our longstanding institutions as dysfunctional, our very symbols and verbal constructs as obsolete, and our business practices as in need of a change.

Yet, we've got to pay the bills. And we've got to maintain our sanity because this journey is daunting. Personally, that means going to work everyday while trying to build the connections and skills that will enable my family to meet its needs and stay relevant in the next age (and I'm not talking power lunches and green schemes). That means living simply, learning to garden, researching more and watching little television, making peace with the circumstances of my life, and taking the personal risk of seeming a little "out there" in my conversations in order to attract those of like mind. All the while realizing there are no guarantees.

What more could I do? And how are you straddling the ages?

Last week was one of those weeks where I wondered, "Is now really the best time to make substantial changes to my life?" Everything just seemed stressful with work and a sick child and I was glad to have the luxury this morning of sleeping in. As typical during weeks like this, I cut corners in my food preparation. I still have yet to plan my garden plot for this year and I'm trying to balance the investments I make in a more sustainable lifestyle with other business-as-usual, but needed, spending.

On top of that, my husband and I have to manage the constant sinking ship fears of job insecurity and rising food and gas prices. And we oscillate between wanting to settle here in Greensboro or stay flexible in case one of us gets laid off. (By the way, a humorous take on layoffs, if there is one.)

I grew up in the military and am used to adapting to new locales, but as I approach 30 with an infant child I have started to grow weary of moving around. I long to feel part of a community and community-building takes time. Making substantial changes such as downshifting, altering shopping habits, eating better, thinking through one's problems and engaging government and community leaders takes time as well.  All those things are difficult to do when you are thinking about your next home, your next job, your next paycheck. And it's even worse when you're trying to stay afloat because you're spending a significant portion of your income paying other people to do what most can do better themselves, i.e. childcare.

So, the above mentioned often make me quite skeptical that individual efforts will create enough force in this area to get past the factionalism, petty arguments and obsolete ideologies. I remain hopeful though that the prism through which I consider these realities (my own flawed state) will improve so that the world outside will improve too.

Fortunately, from time to time I run across the inspiring thoughts of others. Frequently those thoughts come from outside Greensboro and North Carolina, but I am increasingly meeting people here who can nod their heads in empathy. What have I learned from them? That I have to not beat myself up, that I have to accept and forgive others and myself for our failings, but that I must have faith and push toward that right livelihood, realizing this is a lifelong journey. What I must decide for myself is if that life is an end or a means, how hard I'm willing to push and what my limits are.