The Zen of Glass

Recently Len, Willa, and I headed to Bruneau Dunes State Park to celebrate the arrival of spring. Created by the wind’s artistic touch, the first sand dune we passed brought to mind the precise raking one admires in Zen gardens.

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Many types of glass are made from silicon dioxide — the main ingredient of sand — along with soda ash and limestone. One ton of recycled glass saves 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash, and 380 pounds of limestone.

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Glass has many positive characteristics we’d do well to emulate:

  • The majority of glass used today is clear.
    We can live transparently
  • Glass reflects light
    We can let our inner radiance shine through
  • Cullet (recycled glass) requires a lower heating temperature than glass from raw materials, thus requiring 40 percent less energy.
    We can cultivate lifestyle practices that are earth-friendly

What view do you enjoy most through a clear glass window in your home?

© Laurie Buchanan

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I’m a Bookie – I Love my Kindle!

Laurie's Kindle by Len Buchanan

Laurie's Kindle by Len Buchanan

With the death of my hard drive (yes, she’s still with the Geek Squad), I’ve had the unexpected opportunity to fall back in love with Mrs. K. — my Kindle. I don’t have one of the new fancy-schmancy Kindles. No, not me. I have the original model. And I’m smitten with her.

Now before any potential naysayers jump in, please let me say that I adore printed books. As do so many of us. But that very love has a negative impact on my first-and-foremost favorite things on this planet—trees.

As of September 6, 2008 the figure of 20 million trees was the common estimate for the number of trees cut down annually for the production of books sold in the United States alone. That figure doesn’t include the production of newspapers or magazines — just books.

No trees — none — are harmed when you read books on a Kindle or any other type of eReader.

The cost of a book on Kindle is at least half (if not less) than the price of a printed book. Because most of the classics have been in the public domain for so long, many of them are available for free, and there are a multitude of website that give away free books for the Kindle.

My Kindle weighs the same or less than a regular book and takes up the same amount of space, or less, all the while, carrying about a hundred books (depending on their length). Once it’s full I simply move them over to the “shelves” in my private Kindle “library.”

If I ever lose my Kindle, all of the books I’ve ever purchased are still mine (even if I haven’t moved them to my library yet).

If it’s ever stolen, with one quick phone call, my Kindle quickly becomes nothing more than a paperweight to the person who took it.

And yes, I can still lose myself in the “pages” of a Kindle, just like a real book, only better because I can adjust the font size bigger or smaller — depending on my need. The screen looks just like the pages in a print book. There’s no back light or glare. I can even “dog ear” a page if I want, but the Kindle automatically remembers my last location so it’s really not necessary.

By the way, I’m currently reading The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention by Dawson Church — I highly recommend it.

Listen with your heart,

Laurie Buchanan

Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.”
               – Laurie Buchanan

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Copyright © 2010 Laurie Buchanan — All Rights Reserved.