Next Steps for Dancing with Thoreau and Viewer Comments!

DANCING WITH THOREAU

A new film by Chis Korrow, creator of Garden Insects

After a successful premiere at the Clyde Theater on Whidbey Island, 
Dancing with Thoreau is now entering the film festival circuit!

"Dancing with Thoreau is a work of art that honors the artful in nature. Korrow’s use of still photos, interviews, quotations and moving images provide a means by which to enter the timelessness he feels is essential to a fulfilled and meaningful life."—Dianna MacLeod, Whidbey Life Magazine

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Viewer comments...
"Let me first compliment you on the film. To say my wife, sister and I thoroughly enjoyed it would be an understatement. We were inspired and encouraged. When we left the theater a butterfly flashed from across the street. It allowed us to get quite close and actually touch it."—Gary Piazzon, Whidbey Environmental Action Network

[Chis Korrow is] such a keen observer--the footage and narration of the crows at the beginning was just stunning. In fact, all of the images were breath-taking. Hope the film and its message will find its way around the world. —Susanne Fest, PhD, Antioch University Midwest

"I was very moved by your movie... so much so that I have gone out each morning since to the wetlands by my house to listen and see the amazing life that awakens with the dawn. Thank you for producing something so beautiful and compelling that will help many of us Remember…"

“May the film benefit many sentient beings.”

“This ever deepening breathe of fresh air will etch new conscious awareness...” 

4 Reasons to Eat Plants

Hello,

This is part of an assignment for a course called Nutrition Fundamentals, part of a series of courses in Plant-Based Nutrition (nutrition as a science and a component of medicine, to both maintain health and prevent disease) authored by Dr. Colin Campbell, which I am taking through eCornell. Dr Campbell is Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University (wow!) and many people know Dr. Campbell for his seminal work, published as The China Study, considered the largest and most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. What I love about the course is the data and science to back up every claim!

Christy

My motivation for taking this course is my desire to be able to communicate clearly the facts and science behind the health benefits of a plant-based diet.

My strategy for provoking interest in this topic is to first begin with myself, and lead by example, and eat a plant-based diet as the basis for keeping myself in optimum health. As many have already mentioned, it is detrimental to push new ideas on a person who is not open to them. Additionally, if that person is already in the midst of an illness, he or she is struggling with so much already, therefore it is best to always leave people free to make their own choices, and understand that we might not always know what is best for another, and to still treat him or her with kindness and compassion.

Alternately, to those looking for answers, a few of the most convincing arguments for adopting a plant-based diet as a way of bringing about health are: it’s inexpensive; no side effects; it’s scientifically proven; it not only benefits your health, but also the health of the world.

It’s inexpensive:

As Dr. Campbell stated, we are currently spending more in the US per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world. Yet, we are not getting better health for all of this spending. We have been using costly pharmaceuticals for the last 50 years, substances which can only provide us with short term benefits, as we can see from the continued increase in disease rates. There is no evidence that these expensive treatments are bringing disease under control, and in fact cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease are all on the rise.

No side effects:

Medical care itself is the third leading cause of death in the US (with prescription drug adverse affects accounting for 106,000--almost half according to the JAMA).

Science:

Adopting a plant-based diet is not a fad, there is substantial scientific data showing the progress of plant-based diets in not only preventing, but reversing advanced late stages of heart disease—an example of the power of the dietary effect. Though the scientific community resisted accepting this, it is no longer disputable that advanced cases of heart disease can be reversed. Data has also shown that in societies where a Standard American Diet has crept in, high in meat and processed foods, a simultaneous rise in the diseases of cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease has been evidenced. Diet is a proven risk factor for both cancer and diabetes.

Worldwide implications beyond your own health:

By adopting a plant based diet, you are not only doing something for yourself, you are doing something for others. There are environmental, economic and political and implications to large-scale industrial meat production—ranging from overuse of resources, pollution, and disenfranchisement of peasant cultures.

Taking responsibility for your own health can be a big step for some, though the rewards are great!

Traversing Chris's New Guide for Observing Nature

I wanted to explain a little bit about Chris’s new Guide for Observing Nature. I feel it is almost more of a guide to meditation. This explains why observation nature can help us regain peace in our lives, balance, and so forth. Nature is constantly, naturally, in this state, and therefore, purposefully putting ourselves on the same wave length with the natural world places us in a direct line of access with creation, pure and unaldarterated by judgment, complaining, and even to a great extent fear. It’s almost as if we allow ourselves to be influenced by how nature unfolds, expose ourselves to her, so to speak, and then when we resume our “regular lives” we carry within us a consciousness of calm, heightened awareness, and rhythmic living. It’s quite practical actually!

I have read the Guide many times, and was recently inspired to apply the nine practices in the book, one by one, to my own life, beginning with the first...

SLOW DOWN
I have just completed about two weeks of “slowing down.” The first couple of days, I was only able to remember to slow down for about five minutes each day! Pretty pathetic! And as I became more determined, I was able to meet face to face with my various alter-egos. One is the woman who says, “Keep busy busy all day long, and you will never be faced with boredom, or have to face the fear of being with yourself during an empty moment!” Another warns, “You are driven by a ‘super woman’ mentality that says you have to do it all, there is no TIME to slow down—things won’t get done!” But I finally did it, I was able to take a couple of days, and went through my tasks with presence and deliberation, only setting a couple of small goals for myself. I found myself with long stretches of time, with nothing to do, wondering around the house looking dazed. One day I even turned the TV on, and in comes Chris to find me watching Ellen and Oprah. He looked perplexed. “I am slowing down,” I said. “Slowing down does not mean reclining on the couch on the middle of the afternoon watching television. That’s not what I meant!”

Needless to say as the next couple of days went by a sort of miracle happened. I have worked with enough spiritual practices over many years to the point where I can clearly identify a “shift” in energy. Spiritual results always come in the back door, and according to the timing of the universe, not our own narrow expectations. Just when you think “nothing is happening,” it’s as if the gears in our universal psyche shift and we are on to another frequency, or into another state of perception.

And this is what happened for me, after a few bumpy, and a bit awkward moments, I settled into this Slow Down rhythm. My anxiety that if I wasn’t moving a mile a minute, that things would not get done dissipated. It sounds paradoxical, but even though I was slowing down, it seemed as if I was getting more accomplished. My motivation was coming from a quieter, less frantic place. Tasks seemed to go unusually smoothly. The universe seemed to be meeting me half way—people who I was waiting to hear from suddenly called, work based solutions were at my finger tips, ideas flowed. And yet, I had extra time. I was inspired resume a writing project, read two books, got back into a new meditation routine, decluttered my house, and reconnected very strongly with my creative impulse, leading to new ideas and possibilities for current and future projects.

A key to successful spiritual development is the understanding that we have many other way of accomplishing tasks besides sheer will. Once again we turn to the effortlessness of nature, how much she accomplishes and how much abundance she has to share with us. It certainly belittles us as we flounder to get though each day and our seemingly important tasks. The beauty of it is that we can tap into this generous energy of nature, we are woven from the same cloth, it is inherent in it, so all we have to do is become aware of it, and this is what Chris has set out to do in this little Guide. Thank you Chris!