Just do it

I was going to write about Powerpalooza from this weekend, but some roses got in the way. Some really beautiful ones, out in my front yard, to be precise. I decided to chop the "deadheads" off, pretty far down the stem, per our landlord's advice. I thought it would be a more cathartic experience, but as I began making my way through them all, I really felt a sense of affection, care for them. I was so happy to see that my efforts to keep them well moisturized were paying off, all this new growth. I seem to be getting the gardening bug. 

Dang, our old place, we had some potted plants (still do, keeping us company inside) But now, we have roses, peach and plum tree (two distinct trees, but wouldn't that be neat to have two in one?) three proudly flowery trees, poppies, grass, and "weeds" with flowers that open and close with the sun. Plus lots of other things, including several beeg trees. And dirt. Red, red dirt. They say it's because of the presence of iron in the soil. The walkway around the back side of the house is colored that way, I'm not sure if by nature or by choice. Either way, it's very pleasing to the eye, soul, to have non gray pavement.

I'm listening to music that seems to go well with this. And heck, many other situations. They are Jed & Lucia, whose music is a nifty mix of acoustic, with electronic atmospherics, and the two of them singing, creating this evocative music, that goes well with long road trips, ends of days, and just whenever you want to decompress, dream. One song in particular, Tree Song, is ideal for meditating, looped. Perpetuate the Cycle is particularly delicious too. You can have a listen here. 

BTW, Amie Street is my absolute favorite place to buy music these days. They give a good chunk to the artists, and you, the public, decide the pricing, by the number of purchases and recommendations a song gets. And you can play stock market with your recommendations as they increase in value, the more the song goes up in value after you do it. Will it plateau here? Will it go up? Hmmm...Amie Street just did a nice retooling of the site, making it even more useful. Mosey on over there here

As for Powerpalooza, well let's just say it was very encouraging to see so many people out to support, learn about sustainable living. Much of it was familiar territory to me, but it was good to get my face seen by the locals, and I had an especially good takeaway: It started with a conversation with Annika of Smart About Carbon, who spoke of how SAC, with nearly no promotion, and none outside the area, has been written up in a Japanese blog, and written up in another with extensive analysis about it. 

This reminded me of how Chad Upham of my cohort at Presidio spoke of hearing from people in New York about his just born endeavor, Covive. It also had had no PR to that point. This would lead me to believe that there is a certain magnetic pull around sustainability focused businesses. A desire to seek them out. 

Add to this the experience of attending a workshop by Michelle Long of the very inspirational Sustainable Connections, who basically said just start. Start even if you don't have it all mapped out. Start even if you have $0 (they did) And look for the roses, not the deadheads (I'm transposing from her talk to my life there ;-) 

So I'm going to. Even though I'm not a staff of 50 around the world, don't have 20 years experience in the field, haven't been one before, I'm going to start my own green business consultancy. 

Tomorrow I'll take pictures around the house, of all the nifty details I mentioned. Including the now very lush looking rose bushes. What a difference a whacking can make :-)