Diamond-Cut Life

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Entries Tagged as 'Mount Tabor'

Portlandia On Mount Tabor

August 10th, 2012 · 2 Comments · home & garden, lifestyle, Oregon

For my readers outside the U.S., Portlandia is a comedy TV show that makes fun of

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A Different Take On “We Deserve It”

June 26th, 2010 · 2 Comments · community, spirituality & religion, work

I’m happy, even ecstatic in our new home, on the east flank of Mount Tabor here in Portland, Oregon. Our house is newer than our former home (one week old versus 70 years old) and larger (2250 square feet versus 1290 sf). And most importantly to me, it has an open floor plan that promotes [...]

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Back On The Bike

June 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · community, global warming and climate change, sustainability, transportation

I’m sipping coffee at Seven Virtues* Coffeehouse on NE Glisan and 60th here in Portland, Oregon. Neil Young’s plaintive song Sugar Mountain is playing on the sound system. I suspect he’s referring to how I drink my coffee. I’m Seven Virtues’  first customer,  having bicycled briskly over in the sharply slanted light of early morning. [...]

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Setbacks & Collaboration; A New House & Nia Training

May 9th, 2010 · No Comments · community

Life has been . . . . .  intense lately. The statewide rideshare project I’ve been leading has been having setbacks, and then actually had its funding yanked (a situation not unique to this particular project). [ Update: It since had its funding restored. ] So I’ve been collaborating like crazy with my colleagues to [...]

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The Fun of Being In Training

March 13th, 2009 · 1 Comment · community, energy, home & garden, lifestyle, simplicity, sustainability, transportation

Some mornings I write briefly (before dashing off to meet the vanpool) about something that’s been cooking in my mind for some time. This is one of those mornings, and what’s been cooking in my mind is the now fully-baked conviction that we’re in training. Whether here in Oregon or all over the U.S. and [...]

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Man And Machine On Mount Tabor

February 2nd, 2009 · No Comments · community, energy

I feel uncomfortable about my topic today; it’s not all love and light.  I have a conflict with my machine-loving neighbor here on Mount Tabor, whom I’ll call Lenny. I like Lenny and he’s a top-notch neighbor in most ways. He volunteered to my husband Thor to change our flat tire last weekend. Lenny and [...]

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From Desert To Forest

December 18th, 2008 · 3 Comments · lifestyle, nature

I was born in the Southern California desert: Joshua trees praying to the dry sky , rain so rare that kids stayed home from school when it fell, eucalyptus trees tangy in my nostrils. Avocados six for a dollar at children’s sidewalk tables, teenage girls working on their tans as seriously as their fathers worked [...]

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How To Save Five Hours A Week

September 12th, 2008 · 1 Comment · energy, food & drink, lifestyle

Do you suffer from time poverty, i.e. feel that you don’t have nearly enough time? I periodically do, and I’ve seen it termed an American epidemic. The irony and the good news is that many of what I call the over-activities eating up our time and stressing us are the same over-activities that are eating [...]

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Mountain Boarding: A Low-Carbon Sport

September 3rd, 2008 · No Comments · energy, entertainment, simplicity

One of our challenges in the face of global warming (and also terrorism, for that matter) is how to entertain ourselves independently of fossil fuels. Think about it: if we had a month-long interruption starting today in our gasoline and electricity supply, what would we do for fun? A friendly fellow I met last night [...]

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Green Wedding: Community As Capital

August 4th, 2008 · 1 Comment · community, health & well being, lifestyle

I’ve read that the average wedding in the U.S. costs $20,000. (I wonder how many fights ensue over getting it all paid off?) Portland’s green wedding of the year, that of our friends Noelle Studer and Eli Spevak, was long on community, short on materialism. The joy and vitality were palpable. Here Eli and Noelle [...]

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