Tag: Baltimore

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An Earth Day Moment

Yesterday was Earth Day.  What does that mean to each of us?  Does it mean that for the day, you decided to recycle or read something on the history of Earth Day?  Does it mean that you said “Happy Earth Day” to a few people and took the bus to work? Or maybe, will you took a long hard look at what our relationship with Mother Earth looks like and figured out some way that you can routinely change your lifestyle so that every day you are contributing to bettering our planet?

Celebrating the Earth’s existence is one of the most fantastic things that we can do.  Unfortunately it has to happen more than one time a year.  It has to be in our heads every single day.  In the morning…  “I have my keys, I have my bag, did I turn off every light in my house and unplug all unnecessary items that don’t need to be plugged in?”   At lunch…. “Do I have to drive to lunch?  Is there a restaurant that uses biodegradable to go wear?  The dry cleaning is from a company that uses eco-friendly chemicals.”  After work…. “Do I have to go when there is so much traffic I’m just going to sit in my car while it’s running?  Are the ingredients for dinner coming from sustainable locations?”  And so on. 

I know it’s difficult and I will be honest; I don’t think like this but maybe 30 percent of the time, but we have to work on making this a reflex.  If we want any future as a race on this planet, then we have to.  Especially on a week that gas is at the highest price it has ever been in our country ever.  If you’re not aware, the price for crude oil topped at $112 yesterday.  This is also after a year where BP had record profits in the same year as the Gulf oil spill.    But I digress.   This is an Earth Day celebration and my point is we all have to make an individual effort.  While we’re doing that, I hope the best to all of you as w, me included, continue to find the pennies in the cushions to fill our gas tanks.   

Here is what I saw while I was in Baltimore.  A free bus that covers the greater Baltimore area that runs every ten minutes for majority of the day.  It is being used, taken care of and greatly appreciated by the residence of Baltimore.

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Alyson and Cirque Du Soleil

While in Baltimore, I had the chance to visit with two of my close friends that have been touring with Cirque du Soleil for the last four years.  The two of them happened to be there with the new show Totem.  While Alyson and I sat and caught up, she talked about the show and what it takes out of each one of them as a traveling community to keep things running successfully.  We also got into how their community is affected and affects the different communities it travels to.  A great example of this would be that in Baltimore, the location where they set up the show isn’t necessarily the most beautiful part of Baltimore but with the exposure that Totem is bringing to that neighborhood, it gets the opportunity to begin to grow into a much more safe, diverse and fruitful neighborhood.  This is just another way that different communities have a symbiotic relationship to create a better environment for everyone. 

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The Hidden Beauty

As I get older, I am much more vulnerable to larger emotion when I see something beautiful.  Yesterday, I went to see the Cirque du Soleil’s show here in Baltimore, Totem.  I had the privilege to do this with Gail while she was here visiting Jeremy with me.  The reason for going to see this particular show is because two of my close friends from college are working for that show.  Holly and Alyson have been working for Cirque du Soleil for the last four years and because of this, they have been able to see so much beauty and share it with hundreds of thousands of people.

While we were sitting there waiting for the show to begin, I couldn’t help thinking about how all that amazement of what was about to happen could change the attitude of twenty five hundred people.  The show started and within minutes my eyes filled with tears.  Not tears of sadness, but tears in the reaction to the beauty on stage.  Totem is built around where we come from as humans: Evolution to present day and also what that structure means for us as we venture into the future. The entire time that the show was going, I couldn’t help thinking how truly amazing and beautiful humans really are.  Our growth and journey over the last two and a half million years is mesmerizing and it’s shocking to think about how we are literally throwing all that time away.  Part of our focus into the future needs to be spent identifying the everyday beauty that goes unnoticed. 

How do we find the beauty that is around us every day?  I think that it can start with what makes us smile.  Anything that appeals to our emotions really is a great start to being more vulnerable to those moments.  I believe another part of it is not being ashamed or embarrassed when you recognize it.   What is embarrassing about the greatness that surrounds us every day?  It is definitely a more healthy direction to go. To think of people sharing what they find is beautiful instead of all the other things that waste their time; even as a substitute for one of those activities makes me beyond excited.                                         

 

**The photos in this article were pictures from a walk that I took this afternoon.  I definitely was able to see some of the common everyday beauty that commonly goes unnoticed. 

This post is dedicated to Holly and Alyson, who I admire and look up to so much.  You two manage to find the beauty in our everyday life and are able to share it with everyone around you.

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