Gratitude

things I am grateful for:
my 9-month-old
my almost-3-year-old
the love of my whole life, LL
my friend Randall for putting up with me while teaching me guitar
all the people I've worked with here in the Okanogan
rivers especially the Salmon which is the longest un-dammed river in the lower 48 states
coconut shells which can be made into fun things
my friend LDawg who travelled all the way out here from Michigan
orcas, which are not whales but rather members of the dolphin family
coconut oil
fresh coconut water
fresh coconut meat
the joy that my almost-3-year-old takes in opening a coconut with me, and the satisfying "pop" it makes when we first break the seal
the joy that my 9-month-old takes in almost everything
hair, of which, when I was younger and would cut it myself sometimes with patchy results to say the least, I would tell my mother, "It's ok, it will always grow back" (now I know better)
watercolors
color vision
the color blue, especially the color of the sky between Cornucopia and Red Mountains when viewed from Pine Lakes
sunlight, snow, rain
Catalpa trees, mangrove trees, giant sequoias
my parents, my siblings
igloos, which are one of the many things my older brother is amazing at
having a partner who's the smartest physician I know
my hands which still have 5 fingers apiece despite the abuse I've put them through, and their ability to do things as varied as type these words, play a guitar sort of, and make forts which are almost as much fun for my boys as for me
red-tailed hawks
salmon
mangoes, raspberries, avocados, chocolate, kale, butternut squash, kabocha squash, not necessarily in that order
food in general
the amazing abundance of food that arrives daily even to far-off corners of the world like the Okanogan
the knowledge that all of this is transient, that in under a billion years the increasingly toasty sun will make the Earth completely inhospitable for life as we know it, that in fact we may do the the same to the Earth in the very near future, yet that we have hands and minds and imaginations that can still try to make things as beautiful and as sustainable as possible
the songs "Valedictorian", "I will do the breathing", and "Little Hands" by Matt the Electrician
the existence of dance
my dance teacher Chery from my first year at Wesleyan
more people than I can possibly name in a poem
waterfalls especially the one in South Africa that Paul, Richard and Miriam hiked around with me
my family in South Africa
sailing ships
the past existence of pterodactyls
sleep, time for that

I want that hour back

I realize that the hour lost to Daylight Savings can't serve as as excuse for not posting in February. That change occurred on March 8th. This brief posting isn't meant to replace the one I didn't do then, nor to serve as this month's.

Instead I'll use it to share a few links--there are a ton out there--about why DST should be done away with. Fascinating that, for instance, the main reason DST was extended to the 1st of November was to profit convenience stores, who sell more candy when trick-or-treaters have an extra hour of light in the evening. From my perspective as a family physician, one thing that is clear is that children would do better to have that extra hour of light in the morning (e.g., there are numerous studies citing better school performance with a later morning start time). It looks like a good book on the subject, as these are all just short blogs, would be Michael Downing's "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time." If anyone's read it I'd be curious to know what you thought. Cheers!









Hmmm…links not appearing to show…here they are for copying and pasting:

http://now.tufts.edu/articles/cost-daylight-saving-time

http://www.businessinsider.com/economic-and-health-effects-of-daylight-saving-time-2014-3

http://www.latinospost.com/articles/54344/20150301/daylight-savings-time-2015-when-is-it-and-why-are-lawmakers-trying-to-lose-it.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Forward-Annual-Madness-Daylight/dp/1582434956