“It’s spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you’ve got it, you want - oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

~Mark Twain

It’s Semana Santa here in Oaxaca.  Everyone is heading off to the beach, or back to their hometowns to be with family.  The festivities have already begun around the city.  Several days ago we saw Samartiano, the fourth Friday of Lent, in which churches, hotels, hostels, stores, restaurants all around town offer cups of fresh, flavored waters to passerby in the street, reenacting the story of Jesus’ stop in Sicar, when a woman offered him water from a well.  While Easter is  one of the biggest celebrations of the year in Mexico, you can sense a change in the air beyond just this religious ceremony.  Nature signals that time is turning, too.  The Jacaranda trees are all in bloom, spreading their purple flowers all over the cobblestone streets in my neighborhood.  The blazing sun, and stifling heat is now occasionally broken by tiny showers (or chispita in Spanish) in the afternoons.  Bees, iguanas, mosquitoes and cockroaches all seem to be making their appearance, too, escaping into our homes to escape the sun.

Has Spring arrived in your neck of the woods? What does it look like? Smell like? Sound like?  We’d like to know.  Snap a picture, post it and share it with us through Facebook or Flickr.  Let HarmonyWishes be a part of your transition from Winter to Spring.

We’ve got a lot of new images up in the galleries these days.  You can find some spring-inspired photos and paintings, that share the beauty and transformation of this season.  Take a peak with our newest slide show posted here. Or check it out on our YouTube page. Let us know what you think!

Happy Spring!

Megan

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.  ~Ellis Peters

Some folks over at MIT are in the midst of creating a pretty interesting tool for mapping STUFF.  It’s called SourceMap.  You can check it out here.  The basic idea is to know where the things you use and consume come from–to understand the impact of your purchases.

SourceMap is still an evolving research project.  It has some bugs, which the developers are pretty upfront about. I for one, am in love with the idea!  Think about it: “Some things have vast supply chains that stretch across the world while others are completely regional. Understanding the reach of our sourcing is fundamental to improving economic, social and environmental conditions.”

Getting Started with Open Supply Chains from Matthew Hockenberry on Vimeo.

What do you think?  Why not head over to SourceMap and plug something in.  Then share with us what you learned!  And if you are having any trouble viewing this video on our site, feel free to head over to the source (ha!) and take a look at it directly; here’s the link. The more access we have to information about what we consume, the more control we have to affect the world around us, I think.  SourceMap can be one of many tools to help us along the way.  So go play!

Saludos,

Megan

Not too long ago I caught a great blog (or re-blog, rather) from Colin Beavan, the writer and “star” of the No Impact Man documentary I posted a bit ago. The discussion of a single payer health care system was the impetus for Beavan’s musings.  And while I know that a public health care option can be a divisive issue for many–I think some of the lateral points Beavan makes in his blog are worth sharing.

Exchange of Love, from No Impact Man site

“[The] economic policy in the modern world is generally about strengthening the bonds between corporations and individuals, rather than the other, potentially more meaningful, relationships.” Beavan points out that our relationships with corporations and the private sector are important–that’s where we get our jobs, our health care, our retirement funds, among other things.  That forms a pretty dependent relationship.  However, when the economy goes sour, and things get tight for both individuals and corporations, that same relationship can’t sustain itself.  As we can see from what’s happening around us today–layoffs happen, companies shrink, growth tappers off–and corporations make decisions to survive that can be very detrimental for individuals.

“Meanwhile, because we have invested so much in the relationships with  corporations, the other relationships are weakened, which means that they can’t provide sustenance when the corporate bond breaks. Why would neighbors help neighbors when they barely even know each other?”  It’s a question worth asking.  Are our bonds within our families, communities and neighborhoods weakened by our growing dependence on the private sector to provide what we used to look for internally?

I think about this a lot living here in Mexico.  I met an American family the other day that has recently moved down here to spend two years abroad in Oaxaca.  They had two simple reasons for the move (1) The parents wanted their 8 year-old daughter to learn another language, and (2) They wanted to expose her to the Mexican family identity.  Here in Oaxaca (and in much of Latin America) the bonds between families are very strong.  As an example, most children live at home until they are married and in a house of their own. Grandparents, aunts and uncles often live under the same roof, or within a few blocks.  And everyone eats supper together, every day.  While certainly there can be some drawbacks in that kind of familial dependence, you can also see the benefits.  Families help each other, depend on each other.  And even when things get rough–and they very often do here–most people have their families to count on.  I remember when I first moved to Mexico and mentioned to a neighbor that I was looking for work; she said, “Well, even if you can’t find work, you’ll never go hungry here.  Your neighbors won’t let you.”  In a system like Mexico, where corruption at high levels, massive poverty and marginalization can make for an extremely challenging and fluctuating environment, people have learned to depend on each other heavily within their family units.  I wonder how much stronger that system could work if it extended beyond just our families, to our neighbors, our communities, our region.

Beavan continues, “So what if, instead of investing government money only in corporations to bolster that bond, President Obama also invested in strengthening local community and familial relationships? Suppose he invested in local farming and local business and general strengthening of bonds between people at the proximate level? If he did that, when the crises came, and the corporations shrunk, wouldn’t that mean that we might have the relationship with family, friends and local business that allowed us to rely on each other? Wouldn’t that mean, too, that even if the boom money went away, we would still have the enduring satisfaction and support of a strong community?” Food for thought!  Thanks to Beavan for raising some good questions.

I’m going to let Beaven’s ideas help remind me today to reinforce those relationships I have with my own community–my family, the schools I’ve attended, my neighbors, my work colleagues, the guy from whom I buy my milk every week, this community here at HarmonyWishes.  When times like these squeeze us tighter, it’s good to remember to lift up our heads and look outward for help–help we’re able to give and receive.  We may be surprised by what’s out there.  And if HarmonyWishes can help you do that “reaching out” then make sure to drop by and find an uplifting image that can help you reconnect; that’s what we’re here for!

Cheers,

Megan

I just saw the latest from the imagination of Michel Gondry, one of my favorite music video directors.  The concept is so simple and playful. A great accompaniment for Mia Doi Todd’s  “Open Your Heart.” Check it out:

After watching the video, it had me scanning Oaxaca for interesting juxtapositions of color (an easy task in such a colorful city). Where does color and image play a role in your life?  Can you think of a particular place or time where color evoked a feeling or memory for you?  Are there any images in our gallery that use color in a way that you find intriguing?  Let us know!

Cheers,

Megan

In a past blog post, we highlighted Playing for Change, an organization that promotes peace through music. Their latest endeavor definitely caught our attention, for the sheer beauty of the story behind it, not to mention the music that accompanies it.

Rather than paraphrase a wonderful story, I encourage you to listen to the music, feel the joy, and then read Mark Johnson’s description of this project below.

When we think about the role of dreams in our lives, they serve as both the places we go when we shut our eyes as well as the hopes and aspirations we hold for the future of our loved ones and ourselves. Playing For Change began as a dream to create something that could be full of positivity and inspiration for the human race. We have found that music is the greatest tool on earth for us to achieve our dreams of a better world for everyone. The village of Kirina, Mali is the heart and soul of this dream and a place with music at its core.

I ask everyone who believes in a better world for tomorrow to join us today to build our next great music and art school in the village of Kirina, Mali. Together, it is a dream that we can make come true, and we will always know that there is a place where music and inspiration are passed on from generation to generation for the betterment of all of humanity – Playing For Life!!!

For anyone wanting to contribute, you can find more information on their website, Playing for Change (org) and for more videos, check out Playing for Change (com).

Blessings,
Meg

Well folks, the Ides of March is just around the corner; it’s hard to believe.  I imagine a lot of you are already steadily in the pursuit of your New Years resolutions–or perhaps just about ready to let them fall to the wayside (if you’re anything like me). So now that we’re well into 2010 perhaps it’s a good time to for assessment. With resolutions we often look back, and then forward to consider “how am I,” and “where am I headed?”

So, how are we doing?

I ask this question a lot with my co-workers. We work for a non-profit here in Oaxaca, and often talk about how to measure need, resources and impact in our work-big factors for any organization to consider. We’re frequently asking “How are we doing” and “How can we improve?” More recently we’ve started chatting about how to answer that question; meaning, how do we measure how we’re doing? How do we measure our impact on communities, families and individuals with whom we work? Some organizations understandably use profitability as a measure of success. But is profitability always the appropriate measure of progress? In a recent article in Time Magazine Judith Schwartz discusses whether GDP (for instance) has become an obsolete measure of progress and success. “The GDP, generally expressed as a per-capita figure and often adjusted to reflect purchasing power, represents the market value of goods and services produced within a nation’s boundaries. Sounds reasonable. Until we consider what it doesn’t measure: the general progress in health and education, the condition of public infrastructure, fuel efficiency, community and leisure.” Schwartz uses as an example the rising costs of health care-which can be a major strain on families and individuals-but actually boosts the GDP.

So, what is an appropriate measure of progress? At the Hub in Oaxaca we’ve started talking about well being-and how our work affects the well being in our community. Well being, as a measurement tool, was previously considered mostly inside academic circles. But more recently it has expanded outside that realm as many are realizing the faulty nature of gauging success and impact by one bottom line, profit. “‘You tend to get what you measure,’” says Gus Speth in Schwartz’ article. “‘So we’d better measure what we want.’ In other words, to a certain extent we are what we count.” Luckily, today there are a number of indices used to measure progress in a more holistic way.

Happy Planet Index

There is the Human Development Index (HDI), which the UN uses in its Development Programme; it takes into consideration standard of living, life expectancy and literacy as indicators. There’s also the Genuine Progress Indicator, “which incorporates aspects of social welfare such as income equity, pollution, and access to health care.” Another index that is drawing a lot of attention these days is the Happy Planet Index (HPI). The HPI utilizes complex measures like data from Gallup, the World Values Survey and Ecological Footprint to gauge more subjective indicators like life satisfaction. The HPI considers “the degree of human happiness generated per quantity of environment consumed.”

All this talk of well being measures made me think of my own happiness and satisfaction. I’m all for resolutions if they help me get a fresh start towards a goal I value. But this year, after considering all the ways the Hub I work with can measure its work in a balanced way, I started considering my own goals for tomorrow in the similar manner, with balance.

Feb Issue of Yoga Journal

A good friend sent me this wonderful article by Hillari Dowdle in the February issue of Yoga Journal. In it Dowdle talks about the need to balance our goals throughout the year between our varying priorities. Like diverse indicators used to measure the state of our world, Dowdle’s insights offer an opportunity to do the same at the micro level. “It’s easy to get bogged down in the details, in setting goals that relate to how you think you want to look, or act, or be in this world. But consider bypassing all the particulars-the numbers on the scale, the bank account balance, the starting or stopping of habits-in favor of a deeper approach that can reshape your whole life in a positive way.” I like her suggestion to balance one’s life between the poles of dharma, artha, kama and moksha-basically duty & ethics, prosperity & wealth, pleasure & sensual gratification and the pursuit of freedom. Whatever tool you use to set your goals for the weeks and months to come-perhaps it’s worth taking a page from these conversations about well being and progress, and take a moment to reflect on how we’re judging our own progress as individuals. Can we do that with compassion and balance?

For me the holidays and special occasions, like the New Year, serve as a reminder that time has passed-and they mark a moment to look forward and back. Here at HarmonyWishes we hope that our service can help to commemorate, celebrate and mark those moments in your lives. So as you log onto HarmonyWishes this month and send a card out to someone in your circle-perhaps it’s a good opportunity to ask “How am I?” “How are we doing?” “How shall we direct ourselves forward from here?” And send that message of hope and balance out to someone you love.

Cheers,

Megan