So happy! My second book is out!

Dear friends,

My second poetry book, Out of the silence, is out! I am so excited and grateful. 

All profits from my poetry go to support the vital work of environmental organizations like Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, and Center for Whale Research, as well as to support work for protecting pollinators.

Over $900 from my poetry went to protect the environment since 2018!

My books costs $15 each, and can be purchased:

• Online, at my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/shundahaishop
• In person, at the Willimantic Food Co-op: https://www.willimanticfood.coop/
• In person, at Shundahai Farm: https://www.shundahaifarm.com/

Also, tomorrow, Saturday September 28th, I will be at the Willimantic Food CO-OP Downtown Country Fair, from 10 to 4, with both of my books. Please stop by if you’d like.

Peace

I love this woman's reaction

to Sena's speech at the Clobal Climate Strike last Friday:
(Thanks and credit to the anonymous photographer who took and shared these beautiful pictures).

Peace

Where our hearts finally meet

Peace

Compilation of news coverage about Sena and yesterday's Global Climate Strike

TV coverage from NBC Connecticut:

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Climate-Change-Rally-Held-in-Hartford-560918711.html

TV Coverage from FOX61:

https://fox61.com/2019/09/20/protests-held-across-connecticut-to-combat-climate-change/

More coverage from FOX61 News, with Sena's full speech at yesterday's rally, starting at minute 4 into the video.
Before Sena, Ruben Perez Cruz​ and Sarah Rose​ opened with a beautiful Lakota song for the earth, which I was also honored to be asked to sing.)
https://www.facebook.com/100025500349404/posts/441065033420171?sfns=mo

Article from The CT Mirror:

https://ctmirror.org/2019/09/20/climate-strikers-ask-lamont-to-take-emergency-steps-on-environment/

Journal Inquirer

https://www.journalinquirer.com/connecticut-activist/image_ec1f8d82-dc12-11e9-8052-03f9ba1646ff.html

Hartford Courant Coverage:

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-connecticut-climate-strike2-20190920-qrjqzzlcw5fkdk3jyotebkyiwu-story.html

Some screen shots of the stories that came up about her this morning. Crazy...

Peace

Non stop

Sena's been getting a crazy amount of calls from newspapers and other news outlets who want to interview her about tomorrow's strike. The Hartford Courant showed up at her school today after asking for an interview earlier in the day. She's also been getting calls from congressional and state senators asking if they could speak at the rally, to which she gently replied no. 

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-connecticut-climate-strike-20190919-juhcy74ayjhzvhaya4eunhebi4-story.html

Tomorrow!!! Show up!

Tomorrow, Friday September 20th 2019, thousands of people around the world will participate in the Global Climate Strike that promises to be a historic turning point! Show up and be a part of history making.

Show up for your children 

Show up for your future 

Show up for the earth 

Show up!

Find the closest strike location to you at:

https://strikewithus.org/

Lovely article about Sena from NPR

https://www.wnpr.org/post/young-connecticut-activist-gears-global-climate-strike

Sena's NPR interview

You can find it here, on the Sepetember 16, 2019 Episode, if you missed it this morning. Sena's part starts at minute 33:30, and it goes to the end of the segment.

She did a great job. Now on to this coming Friday's Climate Strike. I really hope that everyone comes out and shows they care.

Peace

Tune into NPR to hear Sena tomorrow

She is scheduled for 1 hour on the talk show "Where We Live", tomorrow at 7pm on NPR. 

https://www.wnpr.org/programs/where-we-live

This is a well known radio show here in CT, so we're very excited. Now if her voice would only hold up, because she's been sick and coughing, but getting better. She's giving another talk today at a synagogue.

And in other news, also related to Sena's environmental work:

She and another young man have been working very hard over the past few months, organizing the upcoming Climate Strike here in CT. So, I want to share this announcement here:

Make your absence felt wherever you work or study and raise awareness by showing up for this important event:

Global Climate Strike this coming Friday 9/20. 

Let's tell our elected leaders that we expect them to take immediate climate action.

And let's show our kids that we care about them and the world we're leaving behind for them!

To find a local strike near you, go to: globalclimatestrike.net

If you live in CT, here's the information you need:

What: Climate crisis rally 

When: Friday September 20th, 12 to 3 pm

Where: State Capitol, 210 Capitol Ave, Hartford, CT

Peace 

The tides have turned

There comes a point in our lives
when we realize that we now have the power to give ourselves
whatever we've been waiting to receive from others:
love, understanding, encouragement, appreciation...

We also realize
that as we give these things to ourselves
we also need to freely give them to others.

The tides have turned.

Peace

An experience I just had

I wanted to share this experience that I just had today, which made me happy and gave me hope.

I went to Starbucks over my lunch break, to get a coffee and croissant. There was a young man with a dog in front of me in line. He ordered a cold brew, but when it came to paying, he realized that he forgot his wallet at home and had no way of paying. He told the cashier to cancel his order and was about to leave, but I overheard the exchange, and said I would pay for him. A whole bunch of people who were in line or waiting for their orders turned around and looked at me. The guy with the dog said, "Are you sure?", and I said yeah, you're just getting a cold brew, I'll pay for it. Then the woman at the cash got a little flustered, and asked me what I wanted and said a croissant and a coffee. She got the guy his cold brew first, and said that Starbucks will pay for it. Then she turned to me, and said that my croissant would be on the house too! The guy with the cold brew said that he'd be sure to pay it forward. And everyone was happy. Really! Everyone was smiling. It was such a small thing, but such a good feeling.

Sometimes it takes so little to make us happy and to connect us with each other!

Peace

Endless flow

Endless flow. Despite and throughout any apparent disconnection, isolation, separation.

Peace 

Congratulations Sena!

For scoring 1470 on the SAT, which puts her in the 98th percentile. She worked really hard for this, studied intensively, and we are really proud of her!
Here she is with Aiyana and their good friend, Ella.

Peace

The edge of emptiness

The edge of emptiness.

Empty of mental constructs, we come closer to a state of interconnectedness.

I used the word "emptiness" here in the Buddhist sense, as in empty of any fixed or permanent characteristics; instead interdependent and intermeshing with everything.

Peace 

So in love with this song

If you need something to get you out of your head, this works for me:
https://youtu.be/QFlcs8vwLK4

Lunch break

Also wishing my mom and dad a safe and fun time in Europe!

Peace 

And more changes

I sent this out yesterday to the Willimantic Food Coop Board of Directors, which I was part of:

Dear BOD members,

I've had some significant changes in my life recently, which I will talk about briefly below. As a result, after some stressful deliberation, I've decided that I need to resign from the Board of Directors.

These are some of the major changes I am talking about:

• Last week I started a full time job as an Instructional Assistant in the science department at EO Smith Highschool. 
• My daughters both started new schools, also last week. Sena started as a full time student at UConn, and at only 15 years of age, I need to make sure I am fully available to support her in this transition. My daughter Aiyana also started a new school, EO Smith, which is also a big transition for her out of homeschooling, and I want to make sure I can support her as much as she needs.
• In addition, I plant to keep and run our farm as before (to the extent that that is possible).

With all these changes, I feel that it is unrealistic for me to put in the time required to prepare for Board meetings, be involved in commitees, and in general be an active, involved director. I don't like to come unprepared to our meetings, or any event, and so, I think the right thing for me is to drop out.

I am sorry about this, and please know that this was not an easy decision for me. I have enjoyed working with and getting to know all of you, and I am grateful for what I've learned in the past year and a half from all of you.

True to you, true to myself

True to you, true to myself.

Never underestimate the impact you can have on another.

The red striped snake

That story about the garter snake with the red stripe;

How he lived in the swamp behind your house;

How you would see him when you were playing back there;

How everyone had said they wouldn't build, because it was a swamp;

And how, that time, when you came back from college, you watched them drain the swamp, start building;

How, after that, nobody saw the snake again.

You could've told me other things about yourself:

What town or city you are from

What schools you went to 

What job you do 

So on;

None of those things 

Compare to the story

of the red striped snake 

How you remember him

And how you made him come to life for me 

Enough

So that I now 

Grieve his loss too

-RM

2009-2019

Aiyana and I 

2009, Coventry CT

2019, EO Smith High school 

Peace 

Inner and outer strength combined

Moving within

Takes me beyond myself 

To serve 

That which I serve 

Becomes my strength 

My reason 

And my love in action 

-RM

Whether we recognize it or not, whether we're rewarded for it or not, we all serve some cause, idea, etc. We serve in different ways, in different capacities, at different times. What do you serve and how?

Asian pears on our farm 

High school

Peace 

Mid September?

Dear friends,

I'm excited to let you know that I'm close to having my second book of poems ready for print. I hope to have it printed around mid September.

I plan to sell it here at the farm, at the Willimantic Food Coop and on my Etsy shop as in the past: (www.etsy.com/shop/shundahaishop)

I'm also in the process of deciding which environmental organization I will donate the money from the book to. My first book, Fertile Ground: Beauty and Brokenness raised $850 for organizations such as Natural Resources Defense Council; Provincetown Center for Coastal Research; Center for Whale Research; and pollinator work.

Thank you always for your feedback and encouragement 😊

Peace 

Sena's first day at UCONN

Here's what Sena posted on her Instagram page yesterday. I just wanted to say, one, that I think it's brave of her to express her excitement and vulnerability in such an open, sweet way; and two, I am so grateful that she has people in her life that would respond in such an encouraging way.

Peace 

The world needs us

Facing things as they are can be heart wrenching and exhausting. Yet doing so is the only doorway to our salvation and redemption on a personal as well as a collective level. For those involved in any kind of spiritual practice at any level, THIS is the practice. 

Peace 

Return

How did we get so lost

When it is all so simple? 

Return to simple happiness

Loving the earth 

Loving each other 

Protecting nature

Protecting one another 

Return 

That's all we need to do

-RM

May we be mindful of all our choices and their impact on the rest of the world. Thanks and respect to all the people fighting to protect the Amazon and any other part of the earth, our home. May we all do what we can to help.

I love this image! It is not mine, and I don't know its source to give proper credit.

Peace 

About regret

We dread regret. We stress ourselves lest we regret anything; we pretend we have no regrets; the word regret is almost taboo. We think that if we regret anything important, that make us a loser.

Yet to have regrets is more natural than not to. Regret is universal. Since we can never be sure of making the "right" decision, as it is impossible to know all facts and their ramifications, we should not feel ashamed of feeling regret sometimes. We should feel human, owning our vulnerability and limited understanding, and we should move on from there feeling more whole.

Peace 

Fundamental goodness

Peace 

Changes starting next week

I was going to write about it, but instead I made a 5 minute video. Check it out here.

Peace 

So simple

I don't know if there is a grand scheme of things.

I don't know if there is meaning.

I don't know why things happen.

But I do know I can choose.

I know that I have power to act kindly in whatever I do, with sympathy for another.

That's all I need to know.

Peace 

Prepare the ground

Having the seed is not enough 

Before it blooms 

The ground must be prepared 

Each difficulty in our lives 

Each joy, each nuisance 

Each ordinary moment 

If we're awake

Help us prepare the ground 

Peace 

Contentment

Sitting on the bench this morning, with my flowers, coffee, books. With morning sunlight, birds, bumblebees. Knowing that what drives me is good, even though the outward manifestations are always difficult.

Peace 

Pebbles on the road

Nothing extraordinary about 

Truth, beauty, love

Or anything we need 

Pebbles on the road 

Lay scattered everywhere 

Sometimes we trip and notice 

Sometimes we walk right past 

Peace 

Rumi always

Yes, and...

be careful what you wish for...

(Sorry, don't know the source of this image.)

Peace 

Remain bewildered

May we have the strength and courage, the openness and good fortune, to remain bewildered.

Peace 

Adolph von Menzel

This is Menzel's Blind Man's Buff, but to me it's a beautiful metaphor for life, and the need to drop the armor. Much easier said than done though.

My own armor right now is stress and it's exhausting me. Even when I have nothing to do or worry about, I worry about that. The mind just wants to keep spinning.

These are hard times for many people I know. Help and strength to all.

Peace 

Kaleidoscopes

Judge the action

The words

The thoughts 

But not the person 

We are kaleidoscopes 

Reflections upon reflections

Built up throughout a lifetime 

Who can see through the daze

Clearly enough 

To judge what's at the core?

12 years

This is Sena and I, 12 years ago when she was only 3, and we were just starting to think about farming.

Today, we are still farming, and she just had her interview at Yale University! Crazy how it goes by....

Peace 

Success redefined

To see what I am seeing 

Hear what I am hearing 

Feel what I am feeling

To be present in my life

Just as it is right now 

To give indiscriminately 

Give what I have to give 

Share what I have to share 

To be awake and to contribute:

My definition of good fortune and success 

Peace 

In and out

In and out of brokenness 

In and out of beauty 

And always the unknown 

Always the uncertainty 

Such are the doorways 

That lead us in to you 

Peace 

The shed door

Aiyana, Sena and their friend, Ella painted the shed door. (The horse is painted on).

Aiyana's been on a major creative spurt lately. It makes me so happy to see her.

Peace 

I have to

I have to share this beautiful, affirming and potentially transformational video, that someone posted in response to my poem on Facebook. And with Loreena McKennitt's amazing voice in the background, I was literally brought to tears in recognition.

https://youtu.be/orxEawi9qro

Share the medicine

May we all find whatever we need to heal, and may we be able to freely share it in a helpful way with others who also need it.

Peace 

Nurture

Seeds can lay dormant
In the ground
For years
Till one day they emerge
Surprisingly 
Delightfully

And so it is with us:
Nobody fully knows
What lays within us
All we can do
Is nurture the conditions
For something beautiful
To bloom