Buddhist Philosophy

I had to share this:

In his book "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching", the monk Thich Nhat Hanh writes: “When I have a toothache, I discover that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. I had to have a toothache in order to be enlightened, to know that not having one is wonderful. My nontoothache is peace, is joy. But when I do not have a toothache, I do not seem to be happy. Therefore, I look deeply in the present moment and see that I have a nontoothache; that can make me very happy already.”

Toronto Livin'

Wow, the last few months have been a crazy roller-coaster ride - I feel, like Ron Burgundy, that I've been stuck in a "glass-case of emotion." However, now that I'm starting to feel good and much more like myself again, it's time to make a change.

That's why this move to Toronto probably happened at the best possible time. New scenery, new people, new job - it's all very exciting (and slightly overwhelming). I can't say I know what all this will lead to and, for once, I'm not going to sweat it and just enjoy the ride.

I still feel like I'm balancing too much - the thesis has definately took a slide in productivity since I've moved here. But I write all day - the last thing I want to do when I get home is write more. I've gotta keep plugging at it, though, I can't move on professionally until I get this damn thing out of the way.

But for now, I'm just going to enjoy all a summer in Toronto has to offer. So far its been offering a lot of great food, good beer, patio's and lots of nice people. I'm off to a good start! Plus, I get the best of both worlds - I can go home to Dover on the weekends whenever needed. Really, I can't complain.

Anyway, this is going to be short - but I felt like I've been neglecting this thing so bad (again) that I needed to write something.

Try Telling this to The Mooner...

From Huffingtonpost.com:

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

● 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

● 70 million gallons of gas--enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

● 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;

● 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

● Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;

● 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;

● 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;

● Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

My favorite statistic is this: According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. See how easy it is to make an impact?

Other points:

Globally, we feed 756 million tons of grain to farmed animals. As Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer notes in his new book, if we fed that grain to the 1.4 billion people who are living in abject poverty, each of them would be provided more than half a ton of grain, or about 3 pounds of grain/day--that's twice the grain they would need to survive. And that doesn't even include the 225 million tons of soy that are produced every year, almost all of which is fed to farmed animals. He writes, "The world is not running out of food. The problem is that we--the relatively affluent--have found a way to consume four or five times as much food as would be possible, if we were to eat the crops we grow directly."

A recent United Nations report titled Livestock's Long Shadow concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40% more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's transportation systems--that's all the cars, trucks, SUVs, planes and ships in the world combined. The report also concluded that factory farming is one of the biggest contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every level--local and global.

Researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that switching from standard American diet to a vegan diet is more effective in the fight against global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid.

In its report, the U.N. found that the meat industry causes local and global environmental problems even beyond global warming. It said that the meat industry should be a main focus in every discussion of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortages and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Unattributed statistics were calculated from scientific reports by Noam Mohr, a physicist with the New York University Polytechnic Institute.

First Stop: Bittertown

Last night I ate dinner with a couple friends and quickly realized something I've been denying for the last week: I have recently become a slightly - okay, more than slightly - bitter person.

Am I not allowed this after a break-up and the pain of moving back in with the 'rents? I think most would agree yes. The question, then, is for how long?

I say a month. There's no particular rationale for this proposed length of time, except for the fact that staying in bittertown for longer than a month seems depressing. And if I give myself that length of time, I'm nearly half-way through my narcissistic wallowing. Go me! What's next on this train ride of emotion? I hope it's 'merriment' - that sounds fun. That or alcoholism...

Small Town, Big Dreams, Non-Existant Wallet

Wow, the name of this blog is more apropos than ever. Here I am, after two and a half years of living in Calgary back pretty much where I started out: in Dover, a student, broke, unemployed, recently single and (ugh) living with my parents.

Now, while this may sound like I could use a prescription for antidepressants (and there's days when I definately wouldn't mind a few), I'm going to try to resist the temptation of prescription drugs and/or self-medication through alcohol and far too much Oprah-viewing and use this blog to rise above and grow as a person mentally, physically, and professionally. (It must be mentioned, of course, that this project of personal growth does not preclude the use of the above tools of self-medication, just in moderation...)

This won't be easy, my present situation and surroundings do not exactly inspire. But when better to start a life-altering personal project than when your emotionally damaged with few personal or professional prospects on the horizon? Time to turn that frown upside down!

So where does this blog fit in? Well, basically it's a tool to keep me on track and in check. In other words, get me through the next few months. Here I'll write my goals, challenges, experiences, opinions on things in the news, and, in general, personal musings. So, really, there's no particular focus to this blog, just the ramblings-on of a woman having a quarter-life crisis and trying to find her way in life...

To begin, here's my first goal: Keep up writing in this blog!