An Incredible Lightness of Being

A new month means new goals.

While I always get excited about dreaming up of what I want to do or accomplish, I learned- actually, I was reminded again- that it really helps if I write things down. It makes the goals more concrete and I feel more accountable for them somehow. While I carried over some previous habits into June- like volunteering again, exercising on a regular basis and having No Spending Days- and started writing every day (even if it is just journaling), I didn’t feel I did anything worthwhile. It sounds silly but meeting those goals wasn’t fun for me because I didn’t give that month’s challenge a name like I did for May- Spring Into Shape, or SIS.

But we learn from our mistakes. And, so, July’s challenge is to attain An Incredible Lightness of Being- or Lightness, for short. I don’t care if it doesn’t really make sense but it sounds nice. So, why Lightness?

July means summer. Hopefully, that big ball of light in the sky will make many appearances in Portland. We celebrate Independence Day and the sky lights up for that one night.

Lightness also refers to losing weight and being healthy. I’m definitely going to keep exercising 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes. Along those lines, I’m going to try vegetarianism this month as well- a single day here and there and then a whole week in mid-July. Hopefully, I can make it a habit to not eat meat at least twice week. (If I’m not lazy, I’ll talk about why I decided to do this in a later post.) And, I’ve always wanted to read up on meditation so it seems like the perfect time to try it out.

Lightness can also be the unburdening of debt. While I’m pretty good with my finances, I’m still going to have at least two No Spending Days a week.

And, to me, lightness of being results from happiness. And, isn’t happiness something we all want in our lives? So, every day this month, I’m going to find at least one thing that I’m grateful for. And, if I can do it in a haiku (a throwback to April’s challenge), so much the better!

What makes this month’s challenge more fun for me is that there’s a book associated with it that practically covers everything I’ve been talking about. I am currently reading “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama. There seems to be a connectedness with my current interests.

Of course, everyone’s invited to join me in my challenge to find an incredible lightness in being.

Spring Into Shape

My self-imposed monthly challenges have reminded me of the things I'm able to accomplish when I only set my mind to do so.

April's was to write a haiku every day which coincided with National Poetry Month. I dubbed May's as Spring Into Shape (or SIS) with the intention of getting physically and financially fit. Here are the goals I set up for myself:

• Lose 5 pounds (x)


• Exercise 3X a week for 30 minutes (*)


• Keep a food journal (x)


• Get a free credit report (*)


• Limit blended caffeinated beverages to once a week (x)


• No fast food except McDonald's and Taco Bell (*)


• Limit eating out 2X a week (x)


• No Spending Days 3X a week (*)


• No more work burritos (*)

(*) Goal met
(x) Goal not met

It was early on in the SIS challenge that I decided I didn't want to continue keeping a food journal. I'm too much of a foodie to keep track of every single thing I eat. Consequently, the limiting of blended coffee drinks and eating out fell to the wayside.

I would say though that my No Spending Days were effective in not making me eat as much. Plus I really did become more aware of my eating portions.

As for exercising, this is definitely something I'll be carrying over. The physical aspect of SIS wasn't necessarily to lose weight but to incorporate healthy life choices.

To meet my financial goals, I've got to say I'm grateful for gift cards. No Spending Days have been fun but I'll probably cut it down to only once or twice a week, emphasizing more on how much I spend on any given day.

It's weird I didn't think to continue a writing challenge but that'll be soon remedied. I look forward to future challenges!

30 Days of Haiku

April was National Poetry Month. As a little challenge to myself, I figured I'd try to capture each day's events or emotions or thoughts into a haiku. You would think it'll be easy but those s-words were tricky. I wouldn't be surprised if I have some missing or extra syllables here and there. I'd like to point out though that real haikus are more than just meeting the 5/7/5 syllable pattern. I would recommend that people find out more online but these are mine.

The trouble with fools/ is they repeat their mistakes/ It's time for a change
Cherry blossoms bloom/ all along the waterfront/ Spring's here, finally
Spiraling upwards,/ Reaching new heights, aspiring/ to be what I dream
Pitter, patter, rain/ Off to work, day one of five/ Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
What awaits yonder?/ Nothing but sadness or... OR.../ Something wonderful?
It's now or never-/ to do something worthwhile or/ fade into nothing
Twenty-four seven/ there's nothing new to report/ but bad news, it seems
The whole world's aglow/ Does the light come from the sun/ Or somewhere within?
Just a lazy day/ sleeping in and vegging out/ nothing wrong with that
The trains go by, bye/ To places I've never been/ perhaps someday I'll
It's hard being nice/ when all they want is your blood-/ at least there's cookies
The sun shines above/ and the brook babbles below/ there is peace within
Open your hearts, minds-/ you shall get more than you give./ Kindness is the key.
Whoosh, whoosh, life goes by/ Sometimes you need to slow down/ Breathe in, out, repeat
Elevate my soul/ I am not here, not myself/ Your words are magic
Kindness surprises / but is appreciated- / very much, indeed.
Sunshiny spring day/ my soul opens up, receives/ this much welcomed light
Sigh. What was today/ but a fleeting memory,/ a moment now passed?
The present is now./ The future... well, who can say?/ The past: history.
To those who greeted,/ thank you for the well-wishes./ Happiness inside.
Into the dark night,/ we go in search of ourselves/ to bring into light.
The moments we had/ now just snapshots of what were-/ fleeting, everlast
Basking in the sun/ with nature all around me/ quiet perfection
In a state of flux/ constantly in between/ neither here nor there
Hearts break and they mend./ Resilient, yes, but the tears/ they leak through the cracks.
Sadness surprises/ like sudden downpour of rain/ on a sunny day
Intoxicated/ The night is young, the stars bright/ Pitcher is half full
The world is spinning/ all the horses at full speed/ merrily go round
Your words are nonsense/ outrageous and laughable/ balderdashery
My words fill the world/ be it written or spoken/ and all I can give

My Reading Life- Year in Review 2010

I read 60 books in 2010. Instead of the usual breakdown of just Fiction and Non-Fiction books, I also added Graphic Novels. That’s a pretty new genre for me and I’ve been surprised at how wide the scope of subjects they tackle, not just the common superheroes stories we’re familiar with.

Out of the titles I included in my reading list, only 17 of the books I read were on it.

I’ve read 32 new authors but only a couple of them were worth checking out their other books- Stieg Larsson and Guillermo Del Toro.


Breakdown of Books Read in 2010
Non-fictionMemoirs- 4
General- 7
Graphic Novels- 2

FictionMystery/Thrillers- 11
Kids/YA- 20
General- 11
Graphic Novels- 5

Total- 60

There were so many great books! Here are some of them:
-The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
-The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
-The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larson
-Push by Sapphire
-Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood
-The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
-My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
-The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I would say the worst book I read was "In the Stacks", a short story collection about libraries and librarians. It was just absolutely poorly edited! And, sad to say, I was not at all impressed by "The Secret of Ka" by my one of my favorite authors Christopher Pike. He could do so much better and already has a YA series going that should be finished before beginning another one!

Write Around Portland

I first heard about Write Around Portland (WAP) through Willamette Week's Give!Guide publication listing various local non-profit organizations. Write Around Portland uses writing to transform lives and build communities. This was definitely a cause I can support. Aside from giving money, I was able to convince my old job to hold a journal drive. In our little calendar store, we were able to donate over 100 journals.

I was "too busy" to do any actual volunteering with them over the next few months but I told a lot of people about WAP. I even got a friend of mine to put in some hours with them. Around the following holiday season, I decided to attend their latest anthology release and reading. I wasn't sure what to expect but I thought the whole thing was cool and unique. Not only do they provide free writing workshops, they also publish a seasonal anthology of the participants' works. Then, they hold readings like the one I went to. I’ve been to a couple of these events and I’ve always been impressed by everyone involved. Talk about empowering- seeing your name in print and knowing there's a roomful of people supporting you. That's what writing can do.

I was lucky enough to attend one of their writing workshops over this past summer. I thought it was well moderated with enough prompts and opportunities to share what you wrote.

I also recently volunteered with them as part of the anthology selection committee. That was a great opportunity to see a behind-the-scenes process and to meet people who also believed in the power of words.

Write Around Portland is a wonderful organization I look forward in helping out more in the future and I hope a lot of other people will as well.

NaNoWriMo Kickoff Party

November is National Novel Writing Month- or NaNoWriMo, for short. There’s a site that encourages people to meet a writing goal of 50,000 words for that period. Sometimes, that’s what it takes to get started- or to get started again. I signed up last year but after the initial first day excitement, all I accomplished was registering for an account. I figured I’d try again this year.

NaNoWriMo is a big deal for a lot of people. There are a lot of events throughout the month to get together with other participants and write. I decided to check out the Kickoff Party for the Portland region and see what exactly it was about.

The turnout was definitely larger than expected. Close to a hundred people were there. People were encouraged to bring snacks and drinks and a lot of people did. This was more of a social gathering than a write-in.

For the most part, I think people were happy to be with others crazy enough to take up the NaNoWriMo challenge. The main activity was a roundtable meet and greet. Anyone who wanted to was given the opportunity to introduce themselves and share whatever was on their minds. Usually it was about their previous NaNoWriMo experience- or lack thereof- and how many times they had “won”. A lot of people went on to share what they would be writing about, getting very detailed. It also served as a chance to meet possible write-in buddies.

With such a large group, it took longer than planned. There was only time to do that and then trade “plot ninjas”- which were basically prompts we had written on index cards that may help another writer with their story.

I was glad to see a few kids in attendance. I’ve only been telling as many people as I can about NaNoWriMo and their Young Writers Program. As much as I didn’t feel like participating, I'm glad I went. There were a lot of great ideas being shared. It was interesting and got me looking forward to get some writing done.

Nancy Pearl

Nancy Pearl is a celebrity of sorts. She initiated the "One City, One Book" library program to create a strong sense of community through reading. Her books- "Book Lust", "More Book Lust" and "Book Crush"- are great resources on what to read when. Besides that, what other librarian has their own action figure?

She was at Powell's recently to promote "Book Lust To Go"- recommendations for the travelin' type. The reading was so much better than I expected.

Nancy Pearl looked like a librarian. Or, at least she gave off that vibe. Everyone could tell she was a Reader with a capital "R" from the get-go. She was forever recommending titles throughout the night. She shared many interesting and hilarious anecdotes- including the time she got locked in a hotel bathroom with nothing to read. Amusingly, she had the habit of going off on tangents, leaving unanswered questions and unfinished thoughts behind.

She then gave the rundown of "the perils of a life of reading". The first was having a "reader's vocabulary" in which words get mispronounced all the time based on how it looks on a page. Her own examples were "awry" and "misled". Not bothering to look up the actual definitions of words and relying too heavily on contextual clues was the second. The final peril she shared was accidentally borrowing the lives of the characters you've read. You may have a memory of something that happened to you only to realize that it was actually a storyline in a book. Why, I remember, when I was a young boy, I had to do a bit of whitewashing. I didn’t want to at all and I somehow tricked a bunch of other kids to do it for me! Those were fun times….

In a more somber moment, she said she was in an "existential funk" concerning the state of bookstores and libraries- and the actual book itself. She did encourage a librarian-to-be to stay with the program though. One of the things she said that really stuck out was even though everyone can read the same book, they read a different version of that book.

After going to so many readings, I finally had something for an author to sign- a copy of "Book Lust Journal" I had bought earlier that day. I also made small talk asking her if she was attending the many literary events that were planned that weekend- Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and Wordstock. (Yes on the former. No on the latter.)

It would be horrible of me not to include some of the books Nancy Pearl recommended. Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom", Karl Marlantes' "Matterhorn", and Tatjana Soli's "The Lotus Eaters" were the more current ones she mentioned.

All in all, it was a great experience.

The Children's Book Bank

I first found out about the Children's Book Bank when I was looking for organizations to possibly donate to during last holiday season. While that didn't pan out, they were someone I kept in mind; and, I actually ended up volunteering with them for their Earth Day Book Drive earlier this year.

The Children's Book Bank is a Portland-based organization whose purpose is to provide books to low-income children. They accept donations from the community and have volunteers repair and package books to get them ready for kids. These kids not only get to have their own libraries now but they are getting a head start in reading which will benefit them in the long run during their school- and adult- years beyond.

The Book Drive was such a rewarding experience for so many reasons. Literacy- especially childhood literacy- has become an important issue in my life so anything I can do to help kids get access to books is great. It was also nice to talk to the community and see how many people took time to stop by and donate.

When my work- McKenzie Books- started a sustainability club and was looking for volunteering opportunities, I immediately mentioned the Children's Book Bank to them. Many people were interested which led to nine of my co-workers and a couple of their family and friends spending part of a beautiful Saturday afternoon indoors cleaning up books for kids.

It was hard not to share stories of books we read as kids (or were read to us) when we came across ones we remembered from childhood. All in all, it was another rewarding experience for me- and I hope to everyone else involved.

National Library Week

April 11-17 is National Library Week.

Over half a century old, it’s a celebration of libraries and librarians. This year’s theme is “Communities thrive @ your library.”

What are some ways to celebrate?

If you don’t have one already, get yourself a library card. Get everyone in your family one, in fact. This card gives you access to books, movies, music, and all sorts of other entertainment. In my opinion, it’s one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Make a financial contribution to show your support.

Volunteer. Donate your time. Donate your gently used books.

Shop at any Friends of the Library stores.

Some libraries are also having their Amnesty Week at the same time. They’ll waive a portion- or all- of your fines after you a pay part of it or bring in canned food. Check first before visiting your local branch.

So, come on and celebrate! Happy Reading!

Read to Rebuild- A Haiti Benefit Reading

Books and charity are two things Portland is known for. I thought it was cool that Reading Local found a way to combine both with their first ever event: Read to Rebuild- A Haiti Benefit Reading.

I’m always going to advocate people who are fans of literacy and who make others aware of what’s going on in the Book World. Reading Local does that for Portland with their website. I spread the word as much as I could about the event. I was pleasantly surprised by how much support local bookstores and other businesses were showing as well. Not to sound like a commercial but I was also glad McKenzie Books stepped up and donated some generous gift packages for Reading Local to raffle off.

Read to Rebuild was held at the Writers’ Dojo, an organization which I was vaguely familiar with because they were at last year’s Wordstock Festival. Next door to a martial arts center, I almost missed it. Once inside, with shoes off, of course, I found it to be quite a charming establishment. A spiral staircase led up to the Writers Room but the first floor was where the action was.

The founder of Reading Local was greeting people and taking care of the entrance fee- a suggested donation of $10- and raffle tickets. Tables were set up with snacks, coffee, wine, and all the prizes to be given out. Soon, people were pouring in and I thought the turnout was great- around 50 people. Writers’ Dojo was packed.

Aside from just exploring and enjoying the space I was in, I was amused by the handful of people who were settled in their chairs reading. I’ve been known to sneak away to quieter rooms during parties but while that act just seemed anti-social, it was almost expected here.

Six local writers read from their work throughout the evening. It started off with a group sing-along, in fact. And that pretty much set up the mood for the rest of the evening. There was a lot of fun to be had that night (including some nice sounding music during intermission) but the reason why we were all there didn’t escape us. The Director of Mercy Corps’ Health Programs shared his account of what it was like being in Haiti after the earthquake hit and how the money being raised was going to help a country rebuild itself.

I did have some nitpicks. First of all, I felt cramped with how close all the chairs were. Then the raffling off of prizes was a little weird. I would have thought they’d pick someone and that said person would then pick a prize they want. Then there wasn’t enough time to do it all so the raffle is still ongoing to the best of my understanding.

Aside from that, I’m glad I went to this event. Great job to Reading Local and everyone else who participated one way or another!