Happy New Year & Still Time to Make a Donation to Your Favorite Enviro Group

(Paddling Blue Mountain Lake, NY, photo A. Stock)


I’ve been receiving a number of emails from some of my favorite environmental groups reminding me there is still time to make a donation and receive the tax benefit. So, I thought I would pass along links to some of the groups whose work I follow, support, appreciate (or admittedly, employ me :)

Though economic times are tough, now more than ever, every dollar counts for non-profits.

One of my favorite groups which reaches far back to my childhood is the Fresh Air Fund, www.freshairfund.org. I have fond memories of ‘fresh air fund’ kids coming to Gloversville, where I grew up in upstate NY, staying with various friend’s families. As someone who was raised in a predominantly white, middle-class (at the time) community, these kids from the city raised my curiosity.

I remember asking my mother once if we could have a ‘fresh air kid’ sometime. She balked. She had seven of her own kids to feed and take care of each summer, plus a husband and father-in-law, all on one income. Still, we all agreed it was a worthwhile idea, this group which brought city kids up to the country.

I still recall talking with one of the kids about his experience in Gloversville and him saying he’d never been out of the city. Most of the kids were of similar upbringing - had never spent any time out of the city, so a day in the country and swimming at a lake was truly a first-time experience for them.

Somewhere in me, I knew I felt grateful for having grown up with the natural world as my playground. To this day, as a teacher of environmental studies, I find learning about the environment and creating an ethic of appreciation for it, is best done through direct experience with nature.

I’ve since had adult students who also grew up in the city. Most have some love for nature and animals, but also, most of what they know is through TV. When teaching at Bryant and Stratton College, I always made a point to take my students on a field trip to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve. One woman, six-months pregnant and who remained mostly silent the entire field trip, told me after, ‘Ms Stock, this was the best experience I’ve ever had.’

That’s why this year, I’m supporting the Fresh Air Fund.

I hope you too will make a donation to your favorite charity, whether environmental or other.

Have a safe and happy New Year!
Amy

Below is a list of some of the nonprofits who are doing important work in the Saratoga-Capital Region, Hudson Valley, and beyond. Most have links to donate online. So, take a moment and consider donating today.
















(Students from Troy High School sell produce they've grown as part of Capital District Community Gardens Produce Project, an urban-farm based entrepreneurial job training program for at-risk youth in Troy, photo courtesy CDCG)

Capital District Community Gardens, www.cdcg.org
Saratoga P.L.A.N., http://www.saratogaplan.org/
Agricultural Stewardship Association, http://www.asa.org/
American Farmland Trust, http://www.aft.org/
Northeast Land Trust Alliance, http://www.northeastlta.org/
Regional Farm and Food Project, http://http//www.facebook.com/pages/Regional-Farm-and-Food-Project/124251794716Sustainable Saratoga, http://www.sustainablesaratoga.com/
The WILD Center, http://www.wildcenter.org/
Ashokan Nature Center, http://www.ashokancenter.org/
Kingston Land Trust, http://www.kingstonlandtrust.org/
Woodstock Land Conservancy, http://www.woodstocklandconservancy.org/
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, http://www.clearwater.org/
Scenic Hudson, http://www.scenichudson.org/
National Audubon Society, http://www.audubon.org/
Conservation International, http://www.conservation.org/
Northeast Permaculture Institute, http://www.thepine.org/
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, http://www.ecostudies.org/
Sustainable Hudson Valley, sustainhv.org
Lake George Land Conservancy, http://www.lglc.org/
Children & Nature Network, http://www.childrenandnature.org/
Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park, http://www.wiltonpreserve.org/
Parks & Trail NY, http://www.ptny.org/
Sustainable South Sound, http://www.sustainablesouthsound.org/
The Resiience Hub, http://www.theresiliencehub.org/
Fresh Air Fund, http://www.freshairfund.org/


(North end of Lake George, NY, photo, A. Stock)

Happy Holidays - Winter Solstice, Hannukah, Christmas

It is no wonder to me why so many holidays occur around this same time of year, the winter solstice - the darkest day of the year.
At winter solstice, we enter into the stillness of winter, of the cold, allowing whatever must be let go, let go. At the same time, we celebrate the return of the light, as the earth makes it transit, yet again, around the sun. Solstice gives us a time to gestate new ideas, new thoughts, and new ways of being we want for our lives.

I personally enjoy the winter solstice as it marks for me the ending of one year, and beginning of another. It provides a moment to look at all I have learned, how my life has been going, what I've accomplished, or not, and how I want it to go for the coming year.

I have this quote on a little inspirational card someone gave to me years ago,

The quote says,

"The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning." by Ivy Baker Priest

I love this quote. It reminds me at this time of year, that the end of one year also ushers in the beginning of another. So as we hustle and bustle about our lives for the holidays, celebrating in whatever way we may - I wish you all the peace and joy of the returning light. May you celebrate ALL the lessons and joy of the past year, and welcome in even more joy for the coming year.

And remember, at least as I try to, it is often the simple things in life which can bring us the most joy - a smile from a friend, the funny words of a three year old, or the laughter of the clerk behind the counter when you share a joke. Sometimes the small things have the greatest impact.

And, don't forget to shop local - in my opinion, one of the most 'green' things you can do :)

Thank you to all who have read and enjoyed my blog. I look forward to writing more in the coming year, examining sustainability in a deeper way, and on a larger scale.

I want to end sharing a really great video to watch - a wonderful gift and reminder of the small wonders of everyday life. A look at Life In A Day of people around the globe - how they live their lives, their values, friends, challenges and joys. A study of similarities, contrasts, contradictions and interconnectedness of all our lives, complex and yet entirely simple. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday?feature=watch

Living with the change of seasons

I have a friend who a few years back wrote to me in an email, 'we're all doing good here. Our life seems to have its own seasons now.'

I woke this morning remembering how much I try sometimes to resist change, and particularly, the change of seasons. I was reminded this morning, as I rose at 6:30, just a bit before the sunrise, that though we are only in early December we are actually in the darkest time of the year.

December 21st, just a few weeks away, marks the Winter Solstice - the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere - when the earth is furthest from the sun. As I deal with my busy schedule - end of semester grading, preparing for a family xmas, and other life and work responsibilities, I paused this morning to remember and reflect on how disconnected I can get sometimes from the rhthyms of nature, and yet, how much my body and soul are influenced and directed by those rhthyms.

My body wants to huddle in bed, read a book, sit and meditate, whereas, my spirit is driven to get to work, attend that conference, go out and run. I sleep more in the winter, and that old winter weight is desperately trying to gain itself on.

Now that I own a house and I heat my house, in part, with a woodstove - I have come to be more and more mindful of the impending winter. Fall also means the time for stacking wood, preparing kindling, mulching garden beds, and generally ensuring I've finished my raking (not quite) and put away other outside items.

Still, this doesn't always mean I like the cold, but each year, I force my body and brain to embrace it.

It is however, hard for me to remember, or rather accept, the change of seasons. Perhaps because I love the fall, and, I had a particularly inspiring fall season, November seemed to trick me in wanting to believe winter won't come. Again, my body told me it was time to slow down. This year, just at the change of seasons and change of clocks, I got a major cold. I was sick for weeks, which is actually quite unusual for me. I know it was in part because the change of seasons was telling me: slow down, take your time, and prepare.

That is perhaps the message for me, of winter. And what, I believe, my friend Lisa referred to in her email to me. Just as spring is planting time of new seeds and ideas, summer the time of joy of new growth, and fall the time of abundance and harvest - winter is the time to rest, reflect, take stock, and prepare for the coming year.

As the daylight retreats and the cold approaches, I hope you'll each take the time to reflect on the changes of seasons in your own life, and remember in gratitude just how much we are reliant upon this earth, and one another, for our sustenance.

I want to close with a quote from a section of Aldo Leopold's 'A Sand County Almanac', which I'm reading for one of my classes:

February - Good Oak

There are two spiritual dangers in now owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnance.

To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.

To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the weekend in town astride a radiator.