My Wife the "Green Collar" Worker.

As some of you know, my wife recently graduated with a degree in accounting all the while working full time. She ended up graduating within the top of her class and thus graduated with honors. She had been in the banking industry for years before and has been wanting to get a job in the green industry (renewable energy and other environmental jobs).

Well she applied to an up and coming solar company in the area awhile back and didn't hear anything back from them for a couple of weeks but then received a phone call from them awhile later to set up an interview. The interview went well and they were quite impressed with her and ended up giving her the job working in their accounting department. She is so excited to be working a green collar job as getting a job working in the green industry has been her dream job.

Part of why she wanted to work in this industry was because being Buddhist she has wanted to gain employment with a company that was involved in giving back to our environment and working to reduce our negative impact on our Earth.

She is also excited to be working for this company because they are just starting to hire for their accounting department so she will be able to start off getting experience in all areas of the field. This is the beginning of her career and she's in a great spot to launch it.

Well today is her first day and I'm anxious to hear how it's been going, she's going to try and call me at lunch. I'm so proud of her and all the hard work that she has put into gaining this higher education to help improve our lives. She is amazing and so incredibly smart that I just had to brag about her a bit here.

Wish her luck!!!

~Peace to all beings~

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Tornados Hit Near our House.

Yesterday was pretty wild here in Northern Colorado, USA. There were seven to eight tornado touchdowns here across a wide area covering at least two counties including the one we live in and the one where my wife works. This amazing video (click here) shows the biggest tornado crossing the major highway that my wife travels everyday to work but thankfully she was at work when it crossed. She did have to take shelter in the basement of their building for about 30 minutes though.

The video below will show you some pictures and footage of the damage from that main tornado slamming into the town of Windsor which was the town hit the hardest. It was a monster tornado that was about a mile in diameter and categorized as an F3 on the Fujita scale (about 150mph or 241kph):Windsor is only about 15-20 miles from where we live (I can drive to it in about 10 minutes). Yesterday I was over at my parent's house spending time with my Dad. We usually get together once a week to go to lunch and watch some movies. Well we were listening to the radio and were told to take cover so we went into our basement and waited out the warning. It turns out that a tornado touched down just north of their house in our city. It hit only about 10 miles away from their house where we were hunkered down but the damage was thankfully minimal with that particular tornado.

It turns out that one person died but it could have been worse as there was a day care that was destroyed. There were 150 children there but they had been evacuated in time and were sheltered in a bank vault across the street. The storm could have been so much worse in terms of loss of life but the property damage is extensive and many are without homes. There are many places with wooden boards strewn about like toothpicks. This is what my wife saw coming home from work:

When I left, I had no idea where the tornado hit in the town where I work, and I happened to go a different way home because I needed to stop somewhere, and I drove right through the path of the tornado. Crazy--power line after power line was down on farmland, and looking ahead, all the trees were "leaning" in the same direction. As I got closer I found that all the trees were actually broken in that direction. I drove by a small area of buildings that were torn apart--it looked like there were some trailer homes. Turns out I drove right by where the fatality was.

So all in all it was quite a lively day around here but everyone I know are fine but many are injured and their houses wiped out. I hope that they can find some comfort and peace. I also hope that they can rebuild their homes without much trouble and cost.

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When We Fall.

When we fall on the ground it hurts us, but we also need to rely on the ground to get back up.

-Kathleen McDonald.

James: This reminds me of something Thich Nhat Hanh has said, that we need manure to grow roses. It's a great reminder that our problems, struggles and suffering all have benefits if we look close enough. It sure is difficult to be aware of that when you feel depressed and isolated in a hole of pain but the truth remains.

Also, I wanted to just say Happy Vesak day!! I don't have anything enlightening to say about it except to say that for me it is really poignant this year given the situation in Burma, Tibet, China in the aftermath of the earthquake, Iraq and many other places around the world in turmoil. It seems that now more than ever the world needs the Buddha's message of peace, compassion, loving-kindness and oneness.

~Peace to all beings~

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Burma's Junta and Cyclone Nargis.

We have known for a long time that the repressive government in Burma has been distrustful of outsiders but they should be more concerned with their people--especially after the recent protests. As a historian, I know that in many cases the fall of a brutal regime comes from within the populace more than from a foreign power.

The junta has extreme paranoia of the international community. This suspicion has been expressed through resisting foreign aid after the Cyclone Nargis out of fear that somehow allowing aid would undermine their unquestioned authority. They seem to believe that allowing in help from these countries is a back door attempt to affect revolution. They seem to be concerned that the Burmese civilians will see foreign aid as a sign that the junta isn't capable of helping them and help erode their iron grip on power. The problem is that they are so isolated and out of touch with their own populace that they don't seem to understand or aren't willing to accept the reality that the people have long ago known that the junta is incapable and unwilling to aid them.

The regime assumes that the international community has ulterior motives for sending this humanitarian aid rather than doing it out of pure compassion and concern. I believe this is because they are so ruthless that they can not believe governments actually do things out of the goodness of their hearts. They seem to assume that there is always a catch because that is how they operate, they can not believe that a government actually helps it's people simply because they have compassion for them.

Their paranoia of the international community will be their ultimate downfall I believe because they are continuing to neglect their citizens and their very neglect is what led to the protests of '88 and of '07. So now the populace is hungrier, sicker, more homeless and poorer than before the cyclone and in many cases literally have nothing else to lose. When people become this desperate then revolution can be sparked by the tiniest flame. The irony is that if the junta would just allow the aid into the country I think that many people might actually have an improved opinion of them.

However, blocking the help that they need to save their children might just be the final injustice that causes an uprising so massive that the junta will have not a chance at stopping it. There are also reports that the average soldier is extremely embarrassed at the neglect of the generals during the aftermath of the cyclone and I think it is only a mater of time before the junta's carefully constructed web of control unravels.

~Peace to all beings~

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Don't Forget the Animals in Burma.

I received an email from Lauren of Animal Voices about making sure we help the animals caught up in the cyclone devastation in Burma. Animal Voices has a great interview with Buddhist scholar and advocate of ecological balance, Dr. Joanna Macy.

Often our animal brothers and sisters are over-looked in the aftermath of natural disasters. I remember seeing animals stranded on rooftops, stair cases and car tops in the flood after Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. It was heart breaking to see.

Fortunately there were many people and organizations who fought to rescue those animals and if needed find them new homes across the country.

As Buddhists we can not over look the needs of all sentient beings who suffer just as much during natural disasters as human beings. We are interconnected with all living beings and as nature goes, so goes man. Our survival is inextricably linked to the well-being of animals and especially in agricultural societies such as in Burma. When animals get sick with disease it can easily spread to humans. So with that in mind, I found a great organization that is working to help the animals of Burma.

The IWAF (International Fund for Animal Welfare) is waiting final approval to enter Burma and get to work bringing relief aid to hurt, hungry and stray animals. So I hope that we can all give a little (or a lot if you can) amount of money to help these silent and most vulnerable victims of this disaster. They need our help immediately.

In other News: The junta in Burma is now ordering many monks to kick out survivors of the storm from the shelter of their monasteries. Such an order is causing extreme anxiety amonst the monks because such actions are utterly opposite of the Buddhist creed of compassion. The government doesn't want too many people gathered together in one place for "security reasons."

~Peace to all beings~

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