Do Something: Volunteering

Volunteers are important to our society. Social causes, community events, and a vast variety of nonprofits rely on volunteers to get the word out, lead tours, tutor children, and feed the homeless. Nearly fifty percent of the US population volunteers, but this number could be higher. Some times, you are needed just for a few hours or you can join Americorps, Teach for America, or the Peace Corps.  Many of these opportunities appeal to twenty-somethings, but they are open to volunteers of all ages.  Recently I found a UK website called Gap Year for Grown Ups, that provides international volunteering opportunities for people a little further removed from their college years.

Chances to volunteer abound in your local area, even though they might be a little harder to find. The traditional method for getting involved in your community is to find a group or organization that you feel passionate about and knock on their door. Local libraries usually have a directory of local nonprofits and the librarians often know of area organizations looking for help. Websites have recently started helping to match up volunteers with the organizations that need them. I recently signed up with Volunteer Match, a search engine that lets you type in your city and it populates a list of opportunities in your area. Some of the needs don’t ring quite true–if you type in several cities and the same volunteer need comes up sponsored by the same organization, do some independent searching before you sign up. I quickly found volunteering needs with the Indianapolis Zoo and the Indiana Arthritis organization. 

Another similar service is Serve.gov. It searches Volunteer Match along with other sites like Craigslist for organizations looking for people. It also has quite a few more capabilities, but I haven’t had the chance to explore it thoroughly.

 So get out there and do something!

Social Capital

You know what capital is, right? It’s an investment. Typically people talk about money or investments in machinery, computers, or other peices of infrastructure when they refer to capital. Social capital is slightly different. It’s also an investment, but this time instead of money, you’re investing your time and energy in other people.

Everyone is born with some kind of social capital, for the simple reason that you have to have parents to be born. Your connection to them is a kind of capital, because you can depend on them to help you out when you need it. As you get older you meet people through school, activities, and clubs. You extend your network out a little more with every new person you befriend.

Why do we need these networks? There are a number of old adages, but the simple truth is that no human being can survive completely alone. We need people that we can talk to, who will help us when we’re wounded or feed us when we are hungry. The more we are willing to help others, the more they are willing to help us. Essentially you are building bonds, bringing your community closer together.

Robert Putnam is the primary scholar on social capital, and in his work Bowling Alone, he noted that Americans are not joining as many associations, clubs, groups, or teams as earlier generations (our grandparents and great grandparents) did.  As a whole, we are less likely to join a social organization, be a part of a bowling league, or get to know our neighbors. The isolationism isn’t healthy, and out social bonds loosen every day.

So do what you can to pay attention to your social capital. Take a look at your circle of friends. How many would be there if you really needed them? If the answer is only one or two, you’ve got some work to do. Get out there. Volunteer. Take some cookies over to your neighbors and introduce yourself (it’s okay if they’re not homemade). Join a church. We are not meant to spend our lives alone.

Becoming Aware of Your Surroundings

One of the basic safety tips is to know your surroundings. Keep your head up and your eyes open where ever you go. This applies whether you are crossing the street to get your morning coffee or if you’re walking out to your car late at night.

Take this awareness one step further and you will have a good policy on life. Barely a month before I moved to the big city, I had lunch with an acquaintance who completely baffled me  when she told me that she had to use her GPS to get to the large Dillons on Vine St. My hometown is no metropolis, and this acquaintance had lived there for over a year.  However, she was completely unable to make the ten block deviation from her typical routine to go to the grocery store!

Don’t let this be you.Get a map of your city and get your bearings. Go garage saling; you’ll become intimately familiar with all the side streets.  Learn something about your town-visit  the local museum, library, or archives, to get a sense of the history you now are a part of. Take the long way home. Do something different!

Since I’ve moved to a metropolis, this task is bigger than I’ve ever imagined. It’s going to take me a while to visit all the different cultural districts and museums and local festivals. If you face the same problem, make a schedule. Pencil in local festivals on your calendar, and figure out which parts of the city you’ll visit first. With a little planning you can  be literate in a city of any size!

Chocolate Pudding-Sinful, but not really :-)

I’ve been craving chocolate pudding for weeks. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t live with myself buying those little prepackaged single serving pudding pots at the grocery store anymore. Not only are they full of strange preservatives,  the waste you create for four to six servings of chocolatey-goodness isn’t worth it. So I set out to find my own recipe on the web, and guess what! It’s vegan!

Basic Vegan-Friendly Chocolate Pudding

Makes about 2 cups, or 4 to 6 servings, depending on how much you’re craving pudding

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar
4 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp cornstarch
dash salt
2 c soy or nut milk (I use soy, but almond milk would be fantastic)
1 tsp vanilla

Combine the dry ingredients in a heavy saucepan, with the burner off. Mix the vanilla in the soy milk.  Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until all the lumps are gone.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly (this is VERY important) until the mixture thickens and boils. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Spray a  storage container of your choice (baking dish, casserole, individual cups, ziploc containter, etc) with a non-stick spray. Pour the pudding from the saucepan into the storage container and chill until set.

I always lick the pan clean why I wait The internet tells me you can also add vegan chocolate chips, but I don’t have any of those on hand.

Make it and tell me what you think! It’s so much better for you than that store-bought stuff!

Your Money or Your Life

Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin’s book Your Money or Your Life shaped my philosophy when it comes to personal finances. Basically, their premise is that we spend so much time “making a living,” we’re not actually living.  We have become focused on accumulating stuff–the right clothes, books, DVDs, gaming systems, gadgets, you name it–so we spend hours upon hours in jobs we may or may not enjoy in order to feed our need for stuff. The catch is that we often get so in debt for our stuff that don’t get to enjoy it, because we’re working to meet the minimum payment on our credit cards. 

How much of your life will you spend to get that perfect pair of  jeans or that new digital camera? When you are considering a new purchase, take the purchase price and divide it by your hourly wage.  If I want a $300 digital camera, and I make $7.50 an hour, I will spend 40 hours working to pay off that brand new gadget. Then I need to ask myself the true question, will Iuse that camera that much? Will I get 40 hours or more of enjoyment out of it? If the answer is no, then I shouldn’t make the purchase.  This question really helps me prioritize my spending.

Have you been keeping track of your purchases? How many hours of your life are you spending in each category? Ask yourself, is it worth it? How much is your life worth to you?

Personal Financial Awareness

A few days ago, I joined the legions of Americans under the pressure of student loans, making watching my pennies increasingly important to me.  And with American households averaging over $18,000 in debt per household (not including mortgages), you could do well to stay on top of your spending.

The first step to getting  your finances under control is to become painfully aware of each purchase you make. Write everything down and save your reciepts.  This is the only way to actually see how much money you are spending. That daily coffee at Starbucks may only seem like $4 at the time, but if you add it all up, that’s $120 a month.

Use a spreadsheet or a financial management system (likeMicrosoft Money or Quicken) to categorize your spending. Break things down into major groups like groceries, utilities, health and beauty care, household supplies, entertainment, decor, etc—whatever fits your spending habits.  Depending on your habits, you might want to break down how much you spend on certain nonessential items, like candy, alcohol, cigarettes, clothing. My pet habit is office supplies.  It’s easy to slip a few pens and notebooks in to a larger listof things I get at Target or Wal-Mart. Once you are aware of where your money is going, it will be easier to adapt your spending habits.  Remember Benjamin Franklin said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Wise words to live by.

Renewing My Commitments

So it’s a new school year,  I’m in a new city, taking graduate classes at a new school. This summer (and most of last spring) I used a litany of excuses to avoid writing on this blog, or any of my blogs. Now that I’m in graduate school, my current outside  commitments are at an all time low. I’m also struggling to adjust to living in a big city. While I now have a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe’s at my disposal, I have no idea how the city recycling system works.  My goal is to become more conscious of my surroundings and how my new decisions make an impact of the world around me.

I’m also striving to eat more vegetarian meals. I have some great examples in my life, whose footprints I should be following. To announce my first step down this path, I bring you a recipe which I stole from my dear friend Marleah’s blog, which you ought to check out when you get the chance. I adapted it for the crockpot, and made a few changes due to the things I keep in the kitchen.

Chili Potato Casserole
6 to 8 servings

1  8oz can of tomato sauce   
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes and peppers
2 cups frozen corn
3-6  potatoes (or more, depending on how much you are making) cut up in small peices
cayenne and cumin, whatever amounts you prefer—I use about 3/4 tsp of cumin and just a sprinking of cayenne
chopped onion, however much you prefer
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in the crockpot. Stir once or twice to distribute the spices. Add a little water to thin the tomato sauce. Cook on medium setting for about 6 hours.

Voila! An easy supper. The leftovers are great too!

Recharging the Batteries

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity, struggle, loss, and reward. I won’t bore you with the details but I’ve now got my bachelor’s degrees in hand (English and Philosophy).  In spite of the accomplishement, I’ve felt completely drained and disconnected, and the funk has been amplified by a new (thankfully-short-term) job which leaves me frustrated, angry, and disgusted on a regular basis.  While trying to google my way out of things, I found some links perfect to share here.

The Elephant Journal: It’s fitting that one of the first websites I find inspiring hails from Boulder, Co, a town I love. According to the website, this webzine is “about the mindful life,” briniging together sustainability, active citizenship,  conscious consumership, and non new-agey spritiuality.  Mixing local and national newsbites, this site makes me want to move to Boulder more and more.

Happy Lotus: This blog written by Nadia Ballas-Ruta may soon become the thing that keeps me going. She manages to find refuge from her stressful job as a lawyer through Buddhism. She has admitted that she doesn’t like being a lawyer, but to be part of the world, you do need a job to keep you going. Ideally, you find a  job you love, but if that’s not possible, Nadia helps you find a way through it. Think Eat, Pray, Love, but by a lawyer instead of a writer.

Here’s hoping with some new inspiration, it won’t be so long between posts!

Taking Time for Inspiration

We recognize the importance of hard work, sitting down, nose to the grindstone, getting things done.  Hard work pays off, but sometimes it needs a little help. Writers notice this, as do artists, musicians, and other creative people. No matter how much you sit down and crank out essay after essay, the most brilliant work still must have an inspired idea behind it.

Sometimes too much weight is put on the muse. Many aspiring creators waste their time away, waiting for inspiration to strike. They like to claim that inspiration is illusive, transitory, and precision. While it should be treasured, it should not be worshiped.

Instead of waiting for brilliance to strike or working blindly at your desk, we should create an inspiring environment for us to work in. I had forgotten the importance of this until recently while going through some CDs I always used to listen to while I worked. The songs spoke to my soul, making my thoughts light as a cloud. At the same time I found a brilliant book to read (which I will probably review on here in the future) and watched a movie that was just plain good. None of these things took any effort to interact with; I just slipped in and out of every enviornment. But with every song and story, I refueled by creative resources and sparked dozens of new ideas.  In my preoccupation with work, I lost touch with my inspirations and the ease of creation when a work is truly inspired.

It is up to us to find our own specific kind of muses, be it music, movies, books, or banter. Keep track of what helps you to feel inspired and harness that power when you can. What inspires your best work?

The Importance of Sleep and Rest

Everyone knows that you should try to get at least eight hours of shut eye every night.  (Actually the ideal number of hours varies, so check out this article for more information.)  Sleep is an integral part of our lives; rats that have been deprived of sleep for extended periods of time fall over dead, which has convinced researchers that humans would suffer a similar fate.

Small amounts of sleep deprivation can also have an impace on our lives. If you haven’t had a full night’s sleep, you will have to work harder on normal tasks. You also can’t learn without sleep. A Harvard Medical School study showed  that people who slept less than six hours a night showed no improvement when charged with picking out targets on a computer screen. Those who had more sleep each night steadily improved their skills.

Rest and sleep aren’t the same thing, however. Your brain is highly active when you sleep, and you can wake up as exahuasted as when you laid your head on your pillow. Rest involves relaxing your body,  putting aside your active thought processes and embracing peace. Some people require a kind of anesthetizing agent, like TV or reading in order to create a disconnect between their active working brain and their resting brain, in order to finally relax.  A rest state involves no struggle, no stress, and enjoyment. You can rest while cooking, or playing tennis, as long as it is something you enjoy, allowing you to release stress.

Sleep is not enough. You must make time to rest as well!