Trash to Treasure

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Laurie Buchanan

After sharing a gelato with Len, I loved the polka dotted cardboard container so much that I washed it out and repurposed it — now it’s home to office supplies.

The terms repurpose, recycle, and upcycle are often used interchangeably:

REPURPOSE: adapt for use in a different purpose.
RECYCLE convert (waste) into reusable material. Return (material) to a previous state in a cyclic process. Use again.
UPCYCLE: reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original. Give an unwanted or waste product a new or enhanced lease of life.

I’m a huge proponent of repurposing, recycling, and upcycling. One of my favorite places in Boise, Idaho is Blooms Flower Studio. You can see in the photo below, that back in the day it was a service station. Today, it’s a gorgeous (inside and out) floral shop that also delivers impressive customer service.

What have you repurposed, recycled, or upcycled for reuse at your home?

Tilting at Windmills

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Laurie Buchanan

During our recent cross-country trek, we encountered what would have been the bane of Don Quixote’s existence — ginormous windmills! In Miguel de Cervantes novel the word “tilt” comes from fighting; Don Quixote jousted with imaginary enemies (windmills) that he perceived to be giants, thinking the blades were their arms.

Like a grandmother’s fluffy quilt, wind turbines cover the plains. At one particular spot in Iowa, we got to have an up-close-and-personal look at a Siemens Energy blade and learned that:

Each individual, joint-free, seamless blade is 148 feet long, 11.2 feet wide, and weighs 23,098 pounds!
Standing over 400 feet tall, each complete wind turbine has three blades, with a rotor diameter of more than 300 feet — nearly the same length as a football field.

One wind turbine can power up to 700 residential homes with environmentally friendly, carbon free electricity.
A single wind turbine needs approximately one-half acre of land and uses 40 acres of wind space.
Blades sweep an area of 75,000 square feet with each rotation.

What energizes you?

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Do Be Do Be Do

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Laurie Buchanan

Last week a client asked me my thoughts on the difference between doing and being, and which one I feel is more important.

Doing is more active. Numerically speaking, the word “do” vibrates to number 1—the path of the leader. In my experience, leaders tend to be more outward; they stir things up. It’s in the act of doing that we serve others.

“Service is the rent we pay for living.” —Shirley Chisholm

Hit the ground running by Len Buchanan

Being is more passive. Numerically speaking the word “be” vibrates to the number 7—the path of the loner. In my experience, loners tend to be more inward; they’re reflective. When we listen in the quietness of being, we learn what to do.

Being by Len Buchanan

Somewhat like Tai Chi, I believe that weaving a balanced combination of both threads—doing and being—into our life’s tapestry is ideal.

Tai Chi in the morning mist by Len Buchanan

Do Be Do Be Do….

Listen with your heart,

Laurie Buchanan

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

www.HolEssence.com

X is for Xanadu

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Laurie Buchanan

Laurie's Dream Cottage

You remember the 1980 musical/romance film, Xanadu, with Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, and Gene Kelly.

Xanadu—where time stops and the magic never ends.

Xanadu has come to represent the ideal, Nirvana, or paradise. The photograph in this post is of my dream cottage located in the extreme northern Highlands of Scotland. It represents my idea of utopia; my Xanadu.

Geographically speaking, where is your Xanadu?

By the way, Xanadu—the song by Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra—was ELO’s first and only #1 hit. The song has been touted as being the only song in the Billboard Hot 100 to begin with the letter “X”.

Listen with your heart,

Laurie Buchanan

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

www.HolEssence.com.

I’m a Bookie – I Love my Kindle!

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Laurie 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

Alphabetically Speaking

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Laurie Buchanan

By now you are aware that my hard drive is in the “Geek Squad Hospital” being “extracted.” There’s no photograph today because EVERY bloomin’ thing (and I do mean EVERYthing) is on that hard drive. I wasn’t going to post today, but as I sat here tapping my foot, I started to think about an up-and-coming set of posts that have been simmering in the back of mind.

In the fall I’d like to go through the alphabet and post ONE topic per letter, for a total of 26 posts. I’ve thought of some topics that might be of interest, but I’d like to know YOUR thoughts as well. I’m gathering this information now so that I can do the writing and photography for each post.

In the following list, if there’s something other than what I’ve suggested — please let me know.

If I’ve provided more than one topic for a letter — please let me know your preference.

If there’s no topic listed for a letter, please provide one (or some)

A – Angels
B – Blessings, Belief, Balance
C – Clairs (clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance, clairsentience)
D – Divinity, Dreams
E – Elements (earth, air, fire, water)
F – Faeries, Feeling, Freedom
G – Grounding
H – Heart
I – Inner Sanctuary
J – Juicing
K – Kirlian Photography, Karma
L – Life Lessons, Labels (as in how we categorize each other)
M – Manifesting
N – Numerology
O – Other Side (as in “Heaven”)
P – Paranormal (phenomenon)
Q – Quiet
R – Radiesthesia (the art & science of the pendulum)
S – Spiritual vs. Religious, Sound
T – Totems (animal, insect, bird, or fish spirit guides)
U – Unity
V – Vitamins
W – Water, Writing
X –
Y – (In a previous post I’ve already talked about Yin-Yang)
Z – Zen

Seven Generations

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Laurie Buchanan

Gaia Our Home by Laurie Buchanan

Barbara’s blog post, Earth Consciousness, was extremely thought-provoking, and served to stir the pot a little more …

The universe is a living connected organism. When we embrace this, when we really take this to heart, there will be a tremendous shift in behavior; individually and collectively. When we understand our relationship to Gaia—Mother Earth—we’ll cease dumping, strip mining and polluting our home. When we understand our relationship to each other—we are one—greed, envy, and fighting will cease; we’ll treat each other and our environment with respect.

When we truly understand how we fit into the big picture, we’ll teach our children the Seven Generation mind/heart set; a sound ecological concept that admonishes the current generation of humans to work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future and to replenish what we use, leaving enough for the next seven generations in line. Imagine if humankind recognized Nature as a critical partner—the positive global change would be staggering!

“In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation … even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.” —Great Law of the Iroquois

Tuesdays with Laurie

"Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing." —Laurie Buchanan

Category Archives: Sustainable Living

Trash to Treasure

Tilting at Windmills

Do Be Do Be Do

X is for Xanadu

I’m a Bookie – I Love my Kindle!

Alphabetically Speaking

Seven Generations