Five Minutes of Peace: A Marvelous Penguin Video

This video of penguin "family life" arrived two weeks ago, while I was in the midst of "urgent" assignments. And it couldn't be clearer what the difference is between the urgent -- that is, things we've promised to do by a particular time, or requests from the people around us for something that "needs to happen right now" -- and the important. I feel as though I got a true Time Out by watching this video today. For me, that's important.

Obviously, we can't "know" what nonhumans "feel" -- to the penguins in this video, maybe the loveliness of the actions and moments aren't noticed. But the acts of observing, of recording, of presenting to others these penguins can be a blessing for us. That, I think, is something we can know.

Thanks, Lucy and Richard, for making this connection. Here's the video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SkY03n0_sD8&vq=medium

Pity Parties, and How to Avoid Attending Them

Gentoo penguins, nesting (from Lucy's website -- see below)

Marybeth, a mother of a college student and step-mom to three other adults, told me this long ago: "The trouble with a Pity Party is, there's nobody to pour the punch."

Took me a while to figure out what she was saying. But I think I finally did: Feeling sorry for myself is a lonely occupation, and it's not fun, either.

So I made a decision to avoid accepting any more invitations to Pity Parties.

The best tool that I found for preventing the invitations from arriving (as well as declining to attend) is to do something for someone else. Marybeth found the simplest form of that activity: Give a smile to someone who hasn't done anything to "deserve it." On the day she discovered this technique, she also commented, "It might be the only smile they get today!"

Working with AIDS orphans and their caregiving grandparents in Namibia kept another friend, Lucy, on an exuberant path over the past decade, where she constantly witnessed the heroic acts of ordinary people who tackle the impossible, one day at a time. (She contributed often, too. Here's her website; the blog gives more details.)

There are less costly routes to "helping out" than going to Africa, of course. Penguins can be part of the picture. Here's a note from a Scottish correspondent:

Nice to be included in all this penguin talk. Thank you! I support Falklands Conservation:

http://www.falklandsconservation.com

who do lots of good work with the wildlife in the oh so wonderful Falklands (where we have visited twice). My knowledge on penguins is not that wide, but I sure do love those cute feathery birds and have been VERY lucky enough to see them in the wild in the Falklands, South Georgia, Antarctica, New Zealand, south Africa and Australia.

Yesterday's map shows the Falkland Islands, lying between South Georgia Island and the tip of South America (pretty close indeed to Antarctica!). I checked out the donation process on the Falklands Conservation site -- it's not quite as simple as the one for South Georgia, but if you get a kick out of donating in British currency, go for it! I think adopting a penguin on this site will be a tool I use to stay positive, too. Every little bit helps, as we all struggle to bring climate change and its effects under contol.

Falklands Conservation is bettering the lives of many kinds of wildlife, including sea lions, penguins, and rock hoppers. Here's an image of Southern sea lions, from the Prince of Whales blog. Quite a party -- who's got the punch and cookies? Or ... err ... fish?

Do the Next Right Thing: Life, and Penguins

Penguins on South Georgia Island

The sun is shining and a summer breeze is blowing. It's Sunday afternoon, and at least three possible activities show up on my to-do list. I've decided to do a portion of two of them -- not quite as much of either one as my "list" would prefer, but enough. Most importantly, doing some of each will let me savor a sense of balance today.

Often I find I have one of these situations: (1) too many options, with no certainty about which to choose; or (2) only two choices, neither of which seems right.

Today's list-making fell into the first group. So I remembered the guideline: Do the next right thing.

Somehow, there usually is something on the list that qualifies as "the next right thing." Then it's simpler to make the choice -- although there may still be a cost.

At  South Georgia Island

I'm looking forward to helping with penguin survival this week. Lucy and Bernd, whose travels around the world included a visit to Antarctica and nearby lands to see the penguins, found a place where even small donations make a difference: the island of South Georgia.

South Georgia is still recovering from devastating sealing and whaling practices that altered its marine and land species drastically. Now another danger has arrived: Brown Norway rats, imported to the island (probably on ships), are eating the eggs of the penguins there.

Any size donation here will help to eradicate the invasive rats -- and protect this colony of penguins. The donation can even be made via PayPal (how easy!).

I am so glad that today's "next right thing" doesn't actually require me to sail across that ocean.

Dreams Do Come True -- And Lead to New Commitments

Lucy and Bernd Steinitz visited Antarctica in December 2010, as part of a long-dreamed-of round-the-world trip lasting a year, a gift to each other after many years of work in Namibia and other parts of Africa. (Being Lucy and Bernd, they also tied this to time spent volunteering as they traveled.)

They invite you to visit their website, to sample the trip yourself. Today I re-read Diary 11-A, Bernd's Dream Comes True, downloaded from their blog (which is reached from the website): It's the part where they arrive at the continent that so few of us will see in person. Here's what I found:

The trip opened our eyes to parts of the world and chapters in history that we never knew about before, and it also re-enforced our commitment to wildlife protection. We can also appreciate for the first time what it must have been like for Lucy’s father to visit the South Pole during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958 (as a journalist who wrote about his experiences in German) and even more, what it must have been like for the very early explorers who often had to over-winter on the ice with little more than the clothes on their backs and a few tools. And as an added bonus, we have fallen hopelessly in love with penguins as some of the cutest, most hearty, and most threatened species on earth.

The photo here is of two gentoo penguins, taken by Lucy and Bernd at Paulet Island, Antartica.

First Things First

What is the first thing today? I start with washing my face and brushing my teeth, simple habits of taking care of myself and preparing to discover the day. It's become my (carefully created) habit to then go to the small porch outside my office, settle on my knees, relax my shoulders and neck, and say -- within the words I've said for more than 20 years -- "Thank you for this day. Help me please to know the way for me today, and grant me the strength and the willingness for that way."

I think about penguins ... about a grandmother penguin that we've nicknamed Rose ... and I remember that joy comes alongside awareness of the fragility of the Antarctic ice pack and its creatures. I want to know more. @BethKanell #penguinistics