Slainte! May Good and Faithful Friends Be Yours, Wherever You May Roam.

 

English is such a convenient language. English speakers either borrow more precise words from other languages or, as Shakespeare did, invent new ones, which is really the only solution in an age of technological and scientific advancement. One word, however, that I have found quite useful is the ancient Gaelic word for health, used in the way one might hold up a pint and say cheers! That lovely word is slainte, (pronounced slawn cha). To the Irish and the Scots, this word means so much more than cheers. They drink to life, health, good luck, and absent friends, and they've been carrying on this tradition for centuries. Their ancestors would have said it, sitting in an inn or a pub evenings, going through the same motions--raising their glasses and declaring slainte!

I am privileged to bear the Irish name O'Connor, but in truth my matriarchal ancestor Mary Morgan was from Dublin, and the last of the family Irish from the old country, my Uncle Paddy, was a fisherman on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. So I feel a keen sense of entitlement in writing about such an important Irish tradition and the word that defines it.

When my younger daughter Rachel was in high school, she was infatuated with all things Irish--Irish dancing, Irish traditions and food, the Irish language, Ireland's long and painful history, Irish literature and film, and the beautiful green countryside itself. She became an award-winning Irish dancer traveling to as many competitions as time would permit. Naturally her pen pals lived in Ireland. For Rachel's high school graduation, my daughter Kate joined Rachel and me to fly to Ireland for ten days, traveling a circuitous route from Dublin to Cork, Killarney, Galway, Connemara, Clifden, and the Aran Islands--Inishmore and the ancient fort Dun Aonghusa, and back to Dublin for the trip home. Rachel's pen pal Eoghan traveled with us as the perfect guide to his country. And it was here that I first heard the word slainte.

That was twenty years ago this summer. But two years ago my sister Sarah and I returned to Ireland with slainte on the tips of our tongues. Most of our time was spent in a farmhouse B&B in Castlemain, gateway to the Dingle Peninsula, but we made a trip back into Killarney for some Irish music and Guinness and a salute to good heath with slainte! It worked, too, because Sarah and I both agreed it was definitely a life changing trip.

Slainte is still an important part of my working vocabulary. Besides gardening, I love to cook, and every evening as the sun goes down on another day and I am preparing dinner for Patrick and me, I pour just a couple of ounces of Pino, walk to the garden and say slainte!  Health to a garden that has suffered a devastating freeze, and yet I say this greeting to my life, my family and friends and all the critters that grace our garden every day. And to  you I say slainte, dear friends! And Dia dhuit, (dia gwitch) God be with you all the days of your life.

Happy Earth Day! How's Your Carbon Footprint?

 

Long before I was reading and talking about carbon footprints,  my English husband was erecting a clothes line (wash line in his vernacular) in our back yard, insisting on walking every day, composting our scraps, and filling our yard with trees and plants, which became over many years our beloved garden. He never mentioned the environment per se; it was just his English way of life. I loved the idea of planting, and I enjoyed our walks, but a clothes line? How old-fashioned! What would our neighbors think? Well, friends, on this lovely Earth Day, I want to thank my Patrick for introducing me to what we now know as reducing our carbon footprint.

According to The Nature Conservancy, carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that are generated by our daily actions. A greenhouse gas is a gas that lets sunlight pass through the atmosphere causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. So, just like a greenhouse in your back garden, the gases warm the planet and allow us to live, but too much heat can cause great harm. The average carbon footprint for a person in the U.S., according to scientists at The Nature Conservancy, is 16 tons, one of the highest rates in the world. Globally, the average is closer to four tons. To avoid a dangerous rise in temperature of greenhouse gases, the average footprint per year needs to drop under two tons by 2050.

The question on your mind now might be how can we reduce our carbon footprint without radically changing our lifestyles. If you live in an area with sufficient mass transit systems, you have an advantage. I live in the Greater Houston area in Texas, known for its obsession with large vehicles constantly on the freeways. And more efficient vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles may be out of the question if you are already paying for the vehicle you own, and even if you're ready to purchase a new car, is this carbon footprint efficient car in your price range? You can see the problem here.

So what can the average ecologically minded person do to reduce his or her carbon footprint? Below is a list that you might find yourself able to do fairly easily with little expense.

1.Carpool to work if possible.

2. Reduce air travel.

3.Turn off lights not being used.

4. Reduce thermostats in winter; increase in summer.

5. Use rechargeable batteries.

6. Line dry clothing.

7. Plant trees. Plant anything!

8. Grow some of your own vegetables and fruits.

9. Buy produce locally grown.

10. Recycle paper, plastic, glass, metal.

11. Print double-sided.

12. Eat a low carbon diet--no beef. 

13. If you must have red meat, try cutting down on consumption.

14. Go organic.

15. Stop buying water in plastic.

16. Incorporate walking or biking for fun or for short destinations.

17. Unplug devices when not in use.

18. Keep tires on your car properly inflated and get regular maintenance. Don't speed!

19. Use cold water cycle for washing clothes and do full loads to decrease water and energy.

20. Keep stuff out of landfills. Visit your local thrift shop to donate or buy. Have a yard sale, recycle, repurpose. Remember, your junk may be someone else's treasure.

Many of my readers have heard me say this before: feeding the birds in your garden will help plant new trees, maybe not precisely in your garden, but somewhere. You don't have to go out and plant the trees themselves, although that's not a bad idea. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and conserve biodiversity. That diversity is the variety of life at all its levels that sustains life on Earth, not only in a utilitarian way but an intrinsic one.

And the intrinsic advantage may be just as important as the utilitarian one. It is a philosophical mind-body concept that demands we have a right to exist on a beautiful, clean planet without harm to our wellbeing. Biodiversity also affects the relationships we form with each other and with nature. Our connection to nature reveals important information found in multiple studies over many years: people are happier and healthier when they live in a green environment.

Enjoy life in a greener, healthier way. Go for a walk today and smell the roses.  And have a happy Earth Day all!

 

Kismet: Taking Fate in Your Own Hands

 

Language affects our destiny more than we know. Because we use every aspect of language in our daily lives, I present to you a word of  Arabic origin (quisma: portion or lot) that has evolved into the English word kismet, meaning fate or destiny. We like to throw the word around as we joke about kismet in a light-hearted way, but, as always, there is a grain of truth behind the humor.

Some people ask, "What chance do I stand against kismet?" More likely this quip is said in jest, but I'd like to challenge that question and its implied meaning. Don't the decisions we make set the stage for the actions that create our destiny? When you encounter something that seems like it was meant to be, you might feel like it's your kismet in action, but if you'll think about it, you certainly had a hand in it through the choices you made in the first place. Let me give you a simple and harmless but profound example.

Fifteen years ago, my expert gardener husband Patrick and I decided to purchase large bags of bird seed for ten feeders we installed around the garden. A nature lover, he also wanted to support my love of birds. At that time no trees grew in the field behind our house, but all species of south Texas birds, including black bellied whistling ducks and budgies (short for budgerigar--escaped parakeets), swarmed our back garden daily for this new feast. When a family of voles crawled under the fence to get the seed that dropped from the feeders, owls and hawks showed up, too, but that's another story. It wasn't long before birds sitting on our back fence planted "seeds" for nine sugarberry elms, two cedar elms, and two white mulberry trees. The beauty that these trees have added to our garden is nothing short of a great blessing, and yet we fed those birds who sat on the fence and brought the trees to bear. (If you build it, they will come.) Kismet? Perhaps, but it's my kind of destiny, the one I have a hand in guiding.

Today we have a lovely garden with forty rose bushes. Patrick, who grew up in England, had a grandfather who owned a nursery and taught him the art of gardening. When we married, he transformed my American back yard into an English garden, and better still, he taught me everything I know about plants. When I began writing my novel The Good Gardener, I was able to create a believable setting for the main character who turns his life around when he becomes a gardener. Kismet? You bet!

On a larger and more consequential scale, let's bring in Winston Churchill for a more serious example of kismet.

As Prime Minister from 1940-19445, Churchill rallied the British people and led the country from the brink of defeat to victory, but after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, he not only persuaded Franklin Roosevelt to get involved in the war; he planned with him every step of the way until Nazi Germany was defeated. They spent years planning D-Day together. The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 is considered one of the most important and far-reaching developments of WW II, instrumental in defeating the Axis powers.

Did this important event happen by chance? 

These two leaders contended with both internal and external pressures: a Congress that would not approve engagement, bad weather, a lack of supplies and ships, war with Japan, plans in North Africa and Sicily that didn't produce anticipated results. Despite misfortune, criticism, and naysayers, Roosevelt and Churchill met often and continued to work together, shifting support when necessary and changing plans that might not work for new ones. Both men knew that D-Day couldn't happen until everything seemed to be in alignment. Chance? I urge you to consider my challenge again: Our decisions set the stage for the kismet we want.

 On June 6, 1944, American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along the Normandy coast and by the following spring Allied forces had defeated Nazi Germany.

As literature is a reflection of life, I turn to Paulo Coelho's famous fiction story about destiny, The Alchemist. Coelho, also a follower of Jung's theory of synchronicity, wrote, "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream." He goes on to say through the character of The Alchemist, "...when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too. Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World." The story is the tale of a journey of a young man named Santiago who travels from Andalusia, Spain to the great pyramids of Giza and back before he returns to true love, Fatima. Santiago believes his treasure is gold, but through the wisdom he gains from The Alchemist, he learns about his destiny and what he must do to achieve it. Every decision he makes creates his kismet.

At the beginning of this post, I suggested that language affects our destiny, so I'll close with this idea. The words of kindness that we speak, the words we use about ourselves and others shape the person we will be despite our past experiences and how we have been treated or even how we have struggled. Affirmations change who we are and who we want to be. Kismet? Yes, my kind of destiny, the one I have a hand in guiding.