Showing posts with label Sustainable living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sustainable living. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Patika


Bir yol. Dağlardan, orman içinden, su kenarlarından geçen dik, bazen düz, bazen taşlı, bazen camurlu yollar. Bu yollar eski köylerden, tarihi yerleşim alanlarından, müthiş manzaralar eşliğinde geçerek esrarengiz ve rahatlatıcı bir hava akımını başlatıyor. Bir yerlerde bu yollar, patikalar birleşiyor, ve sonra yine ayrılıyorlar. İşte bu yolların birleştiği noktalardan biride Faralya köyündeki Patika Merkezi.
Buranın nasıl bir yer olduğunu anlamak için internetten bakmak araştırmak yetmiyor, oraya gidip kendi gözlerinizle görüp, kendi bedeninizle tecrübe etmeniz gerekiyor. Orada kalarak, bahçede büyüyen doğal şifalı bitkilerin sayesinde hazırlanan yemeklerle, içeçeklerle, yogayla, manzarası, doğası, havası, insanları ve kesinlikle bu projenin ana damarı, kalbi olan Erol ile sohpetler ve belki ev yapımı şarapları sayesinde tam oracıkta oraya aşık olmak gerekiyor. Belki bu da yetmiyor, oradan bi ayrılmak gerekiyor, oranın değerini daha iyi anlayabilmek, özleyebilmek ve geri dönüş planları yaparak bu yola, Patika projesine katkıda bulunmak için.
Yağmurlu bir Salı günü varmıştım Patika’ya, Ölüdeniz, ve Kelebekler Vadisi manzaralı ve nefes kesen dar virajları olan dağ yollarından. Nisan ayında bahçe bayram ediyordu. Baharın gelmesiyle tüm ağaçlar yeşerirken, rengarenk çiçekler her yerden bana gülümsüyordu, aralardan fışkıran otlar, papatyalar kaplamıştı Patikanın kendi yollarını. O dönemdeki sevgili gönüllü çalışanlar, Meriz, Una ve Sandra’nın yardımlarıyla güzelim taş evime yerleştikten sonra açık Akdeniz manzarasına daldım. Erol günlük güzellik uykusundaydı:) Sonra uyandığında bahçenin turunu verdikten sonra hep beraber mis gibi yemekler yedik, Patika üzümlerinden ev yapımı şarabı içtik ve gece uykumuza daldık. Ertesi gün pırıl pırıldı. Güneş arada bi yüzünü gösteriyor, havayı ısıtıyordu. Bende çevreyi, bitkileri, dağları, manzaraları keşfetmekle meşgul buldum kendimi. Gönüllü çalışanları, köyden gelen yardımcılar, ustalar, Erol ve o ortamda yaşayan herkes tam bir doğal çevre oluşturarak doğayla uyumlu bir şekilde bahçe, yemek, ev yapımı, ev onarımı, vs. gibi işlerle uğraşıyorlardı. Permakültür. Yani permenant culture, süreklilik sağlayan bir çevre. Doğayla iç içe yaşayarak, ondan almakla kalmayıp, ona geri vererek. Tam anlamıyla geri dönüşüm uygulayarak.
Ben bu doğal oluşuma, Erol’a ve çevreye seyrekalmıştım. Çok yorgundum geldiğimde, İstanbul, şehir yorgunluğu vardı üzerimde. Konuşacak ne halim vardı ne de çok isteğim. Tam istediğim gibi izole, sessiz, sakin bir yere gelmiştim sonunda. Patika’nın akışına bırakıverdim kendimi, geri kalan herşeyi unutarak. Arada salata için otlar topladım, bahçenin çiçekleriyle masaları dekore ettim, mersin ağacının yaprağını keşfettim, ve çay yapımında kullandım, vs. yani bende ordan burdan ufak ufak bu çevrenin bir parçası olmuştum. Bazı günler ve bazı saatlerde çevrede olan işlerden dolayı elektrik kesintileri, ve su sorunları oluyordu, geceleri soğuktu, yani tam bir dağ köyü hayatı gibiydi. Geri kalan dünyadan tamamiyle kopmuştum, ve aslında bu durumdan memnundum. Bu hal bana çok iyi geldi. Zaten oradayken başka şeyleri insan nasıl düşünebilir bilemiyorum. Yapmam gereken Yoga Terapi eğitimi için ödevleri bile zar zor konsantre olarak tamamlayabildim. Tek isteğim sanki doğayı tüm duyularımla içime çekmek, kucaklamaktı; doğa ile bütünleşmek. Bir bebeği sever gibi sevdim doğayı, bu doğal çevreyi. Ormandan denize inen yolları keşfettim. Havlamayı pek seven şirin beyaz köpek ve şirin keçilerle, sürekli gülümseyen köylülerle karşılaştım. Diğer yolları, tarihi patikaları tam bulamadığımdan keşfetme şansım olmadı bu sefer. Patika’ya en yakın sahil denilebilinecek yer, hiç öyle düşündüğünüz gibi bir sahil değil. İlk gördüğümde gözlerime inanamadım. Böyle bir yer daha önce görmemiştim. Kalbim durdu sanki, nefesimi de tutmuş olmalıyım ki hafif esrarengiz ve ürkütücü görüntüsüyle bedenim bi yandan alarma geçerken bi yandan doğal oluşumun, renklerin verdiği uyumla beraber güzelliği de beni heyecandırmaya başladı. Tepeden bir kaç dakika bakakaldım kayalıkların içersindeki muhteşem doğanın bize sunduğu esrarengiz sahile. Ve sonra dik bir yamaçtan indim sahile. Ufak ama müthiş kristal kayalıklarla, çakıl taşlarıyla şekil almış, tam anlamıyla turquaz ve kirlenmemiş serin suların yer aldığı, krater görünümlü  bir sahil diyebiliriz. Su soğuktu ve mayom yoktu. Fakat ben bir şekilde o sulara kendimi bırakıverdim:) O kayaların, suyun, ormanın, etrafdaki kokuların, havanın şarhoşu oldum. Amerika’da yaşadığım yıllarda Boston şehirinden de arada bi uzaklaşmak için trenle gittiğim Rockport adındaki şirin ve kayalık bir kasabayı hatırlattı bu sahil bana. Rockport, yani taşlimanı anlamına gelen bu kasaba okyanus kenarında ve kayalıkların tepesinde şekillenmiş bir kasaba. Kayalıklardan müthiş açık okyanus manzarasına seyre kalırdım, taze yengeç ve sonrasında yaz ise ev yapımı dondurmalarından yiyip, kış ise zencefilli havuç corbası içip, ilginç taşlar, kristaller, vs gibi şeyler satan dükkanlarda gezip tazelenmiş olarak Boston’daki evime dönerdim. Fakat, Faralya köyündeki bu sahil çok daha güzeldi, ya da farklı bir güzelliği vardı diyelim. Rockport’u hatırlatsa bile ikisinin de kalbimde çok ayrı yerleri var.
Günler geçtikce ve yorgunluğumun yerini temiz hava, dinginlik, sakinlik aldıkca, ben sadece bulunduğum çevreyi gözlemlemekle kaldığımı fark ettim ve ayrılık vakti yakınlaşmaya başlamıştı. Son günümde o ufacık ama kayaların sayesinde müthiş enerjiye sahip olan sahilde güneşe karşı meditasyona oturdum. Kimsecikler yoktu, güneşin ısısı ve ayağıma kadar gelen dalgaların sesleri ve serinliği eşliğinde bir meditasyon. Yinede sanki hiç oradan ayrılmayacağım gibi hislerle, İstanbul’da beni bekleyen işler, öğrençilerim, müşterilerim, ailem, ve sorumlulukları tamamen unutarak devam ediyordum oradaki yaşamıma. Sanki İstanbul başka bir dünya, çok eskide kalan buğulu bir hayat gibi. Aslında, çok da yanlış değil. İstanbul’a geldiğimde şok içinde kendimi uzaya gitmiş falan gibi hissettim. Patika’da toplam 5 gün kalmıştım halbuki, beni oraya bağlamaya yetmiş demek ki. Daha önce yine Amerika’da yaşarken gittiğim Kripalu yoga merkezinden de 1 hafta sonrasında buna benzer hislerle ayrılmıştım. Ve daha 3 gün oldu İstanbul’a geleli, geldiğimden beri içimde bir hüzün kaplı. Şehir içinde, tanıdık ortamların içersinde çevreme alışıyor gibi oluyorum ama bi yandan da sanki burası benim ait olduğum yer değil. Üstelik Erol ile konuşmak istediğim bir sürü konu vardı, Patika’da öğrenmek istediğim, deneyimlemek istediğim bir sürü neler neler...ne oldu onlara? Sanki aklım durmuştu oradayken, ya da başka bir diyarlardaydım. Belki de Patika’daki yaşam ayaklarımı yerden kesti.

Aklım hala Patika’da, dağlarda, ormanlarda, kayalıklar içersindeki sahilde...nasıl geri dönmeli oraya acaba...



Wednesday, December 22, 2010

PINK Music

So I'm actually not into music videos or pop music that much anymore, but through some breastfeeding related research group I was informed that the singer PINK has a new music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVNlG5cZyQ) in which around the mid point of the video you see several women sitting tied to breast pumps that are attached to some tubing that feeds a baby cow. Really interesting that a famous singer is so openly questioning how come humans are feeding cow milk (based formula) to their babies and why not the other way around.
Well actually, you would know if you read some of my posts that I am totally a promoter of organic food and sustainable living and so I'm also a promoter of breastfeeding (and of course that is party how I became a lactation counselor). So, feeding other foods when breast milk is the best and readily available food for babies doesn't seem to be ideal. Would you think of feeding cows your milk? Actually maybe humans haven't tried feeding cows human milk, but they have tried so hard to feed cows food that they normally don't eat, such as corn and soy which tend to be genetically engineered as well, which makes the cows sick and then the people who eat those cows get sick too. Cows are herbivors, and they eat grass and whatever else is mixed in the soil with grass, so should not be fed anything else.
Anyhow, I wanted to share this to spread the energy of women and especially breastfeeding women around for the sake of sustainable living. I would love to hear from you if you have ideas about this as well.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

FRESH!

FRESH is a movie/documentary about Food of course, fresh food, fresh thinking, a fresh movement, sustainable living and all that good and delicious stuff. It is somewhat similar to the movie that was made before this, Food, Inc. but is supposed to give us ideas on what to do to promote a sustainable and fresher life-style and environment. So far, I know this movie is showing in several cities in the US. I hope it will spread abroad and maybe you and I can help do that. See their website for lots more great info and how to host a show! I recommend Food, Inc. as well and see my recommendations list for books about this issue.
So, its not really a new movement or thinking as organic and sustainable small farms have always been how our food was grown until the money maniac companies became powerful enough to control how food is grown or I should say made as in a laboratory. Oh damn the politics...but not that easy, it can be up to us individuals to get united to spread the word of the torture thats going on to animals, plants and out planet and to start taking little steps and developing it into bigger steps to eventually return to sustainable living and save our planet. See my previous post, Down to Earth, about what you can do.
But I know sometimes it seems like organic might be a new movement or new idea for growing food which is just too expensive for the general public to afford. Nope thats a Incorrecto! Like I said its been the way food was grown before, the food that smelled and tasted awesome and had all the necessary vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients we humans need to function well and not get sick often and just die from natural causes or aging instead of complications developing from morbid obesity and type 2 diabetes. And that is why it's not as expensive as you think, eating all the other non-organic food may not really have the same nutritional quality as the organic varieties and plus has the added growth hormones, antibiotics and pesticide residues which eventually could make us very very sick which would require a lot of money to treat. And at the end you keep spending all that money to get well when you are already sick but could have spent money on organics from the start to help prevent sicknesses. Well don't count me on all of this...this last part is partially my theory which needs to be researched better. So there you have it, a new post from me again on Organic Food, oh so boring. How dare you! Stop that yawning and go and buy fresh organic food (almost everything is available in organic now, well at least in US) and let me know how it goes...it's the only healthiest and sustainable food we can trust right now (oh yes unless you grow your own organics). All done for now...

Monday, April 26, 2010

Down to Earth...

It was such an inspirational weekend. So isn't each day and moment supposed to be an experience and inspiration for better living for the next days and years. Why are we not doing this all the time? Part of my job as a dietitian is to remind this to my patients, friends, family and most other people I connect with and myself. Well believe it or not reminding it to myself is the most difficult, and I am learning that for me the best way to remind myself of how important every moment in my life is by doing yoga everyday. If one day goes by I don't do it I feel horrible and miserable and worse if more days pass without any yoga. No one is perfect, I am not able to do it every single day, a few days may pass by but I try to get in some yogic breathing or awareness or consciousness or other exercises in my day to make it meaningful to me. Anyways we can't get anywhere without struggling through miserable times either. Well that was part of my inspirational weekend. I struggled a lot through my yoga class realizing that it has nothing to do with me being tired or hungry or out of practice for a day or 2, but that I am struggling through my life at the moment and that was why. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe and let whatever was stressing me get through me...most things have to end at some point. So its okay, struggling is good. When it comes to coping with stress, your breath is one of the best remedies there is...and its free!
Because, this breathing and struggling helped me to cope with the miserable, yet must-know and learn from type of journey in the later hours. So later during the weekend I read more of Harvest for Hope and miserably learned again that what we eat nowadays is not the product of nature or mother earth but is the product of food science made in labs with no care, no love, no concern for beings. Even if we think we are eating healthy and buy all organic and stuff...there is so little we know and even less we can control. But nothing is impossible!
So how can we give back to Mother Earth? We took so much from her, we poisened her soil and plants and water and played around with the genes of her useful products, melted the wonderful icebergs and destroyed coral reefs, rainforests to leave many useful living creaters to be extinct! We may not be able to return all the lost back to alive but we can give back to the Earth to help it heal and recover from the torture we have done to her so she can once again give us useful and healthy products for us to continue living.
Some Ways to give back to Earth and save Our Lives:
- use less electricity, gas, water.
-  unplug electrical devices when not is use such as toaster and cell phone charger.
- watch less TV and go out more to spend more time with nature.
- drive less and walk more or ride a bike or at least use public transportation.
- recycle paper, plastic, cans, glass and especially electrical stuff such as batteries.
- or resuse, plastic containers make good pen or crayon holders, glass containers can be reused to store dried herbs, coffee, teas, dry beans, dried fruits, occasional sweets, candy, pins, sewing materials, jewelry, etc.
- when shopping bring your own paper bags or hangbags or choose paper instead of plastic when asked and then recycle the paperbags.
- grow your own vegetables and herbs (all you need is a small garden or dirt and seeds in big pots in a balcony or window sill).
- As much as you can buy organic, local and seasonal fruits and vegetables.
- Eat more plant proteins such as beans, legumes, lentils instead of animal proteins such as meats, poultry and fish.
- drink mostly water and less of juices, sodas, alcohol and other sweetened and high calorie drinks.
- Whenever you get a chance protest against GMOs (genetically modified organisms- plants) and the use of pesticides.
- use organic cleaning supplies for your home such as vinegar and baking soda, and clorax and seventh generation products seem to be environment friendly. (http://www.clorox.com/, http://www.seventhgeneration.com/ )
- spend time with children to teach them about the environment and let them observe and learn from you.
- take action with Greenpeace or learn more about them: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa
I'm sure there are more ways to give back to Earth so let your creative imaginations take you forward and share some of them with me! Peace...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Earth.

Today is Earth Day! What does Earth mean to you? Dirt, living things on earth, the world, recycling, mountains, or living as a whole with all the living things on earth. So, probably the living things that come to your minds right away are us human beings, animals and maybe you also think of plants. True, but what about the soil, the air, landscape, and the rest of the universe such as the sun and stars. Are they not living as well? A very debatable and perhaps controversial question. Well thinking scientifically I would say yes they are living because all of them have cellular molecules that use different molecules or particles to make energy for themselves and then produce other molecules that can be used to make energy in other cells. For example, think of the air, we might not like to think of it as having cells or bacteria in it, but it does and they travel in and out of us all the time. These cells are not necessarily bad, it could be carrying chemicals that produce the smell of the fig tree you are now approaching and then translate to a wonderful crisp after the rain smell that could make you fall in love with summer and the fig tree so much that you go and eat a few figs off the tree. Well later as you digest the figs and absorb the nutrients your body can and is meant to absorb, the remnants and some left over cells of the seeds from the fig pass out from you which later hopefully mixes with soil (not oceans). And this soil which could be miles away from where you live, maybe will produce another fig tree or plant and so on...So this shows how almost everything on and inside and outside of earth is so unbelievably connected. This was probably a complicated and weird way of explaining it but its reality. I'm realizing again and again that we humans alone don't realize how connected we are to each other by simply breathing, yet alone how humans are so connected with the rest of the earth as I described in the example. Is this surprising to you or does it seem nonsense or stupid or a waste of time? Well then I hope you do more research on this on your own and start saving the world, the earth and yourselves from what we humans have disastrously created....the toxic earth! Otherwise, this earth that we step on and share the air of every single day is not lasting much longer! And we may become extinct just like the dinosaurs!
Also I recommend you read Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall to learn more about these issues and find ways on how to save ourselves and the earth from disappearing. I am reading it right now. Other great and amazingly related reads are books from Deepak Chopra.
And, if you have never heard of or seen a fig tree or never had the experience eating fresh figs from the tree itself I strongly encourage you to get that in your life experience. They are so delicious and incredibly healthy for you. Well we now know that figs and other fruits are very healthy for us from research that the money spending governments provide, but before studied science, people probably ate it because it smelled and looked good.
Wait, not the end yet...I just remembered a great way to help you understand. One of my favorite movies The Bandit (Eskiya in Turkish) has a line towards the end that goes something like this.... the shot and dying man says, I am scared, and a friend, a much older man responds, don't be scared, you are only going to go back to the soil and the soil will use minerals from your body to create a flower, and then a bee will use the nectar from that flower to make honey which someone could later be eating, and maybe that person will be me...Ah, isn't this beautiful!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Green Day!

This is not about the music group Green Day, although I do like them. (Sorry if I've disappointed any fans). It St. Patrick's Day (well evening by now) in which many people dress up in green. Green is one of my favorite colors and I love color. But have you maybe noticed that the green clothes, hats, shoes and stuff are not the only things that could be green today. Maybe you could also think of eating something green today or tonite before going to bed that would go along with the greeeeen of today:) As I prepare my green and yellow pepper, green onion, basil, and oregano omelette for dinner tonite here are some super green food suggestions: kiwi, green apple, green beans, pistachios, edemame, green onions, broccoli, kale, bok choy, or avocado. Fruits or nuts or a combination of both are great night time snacks, so you could pick the green ones tonite and tomorrow switch to a different color.
Whats the benefit of green foods....oh my....lots of benefits such as Vitamins C, K, A, and E, folic acid (folate), potassium, antioxidants to fight off cancerous cells...and lets not forget the opportunity to celebrate St. Patty's day and stay healthy at the same time!
Well okay, guacamole with baked chips is a healthy enough snack to have with your possibly green beer this evening...or maybe you could consider green tea....just maybe:)
Oh and guess what else...eating more green fruits and vegetables also goes along with the Go Green Initiative, going back to earth theme....of course the fresher your greens are the closer you are to the Mother Earth and the cleanier our environment...which helps us humans to live longer on Earth, Ha! who thought of that:)