Join the Delaware chapter of the national organization “Surfrider Foundation” this Saturday the 19th at Herring Point state park in Lewes for the annual beach cleanup.  They picked up a lot of stuff last year and this year should be just as fruitful :)  Starts at 10am!

Monday(s): January 28
Monday(s): February 4, 11, 18, 25
Insight Meditation Community of Lewes, weekly meditation, 4:00 to 5:00 pm,
St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Mulberry at 2^nd Street.  Free and open to public.  Meditation instruction is available.  Contact: Pat Hannon, 644-2514.

Wednesday(s):  January 23, 30
Monday(s): February 6, 13, 20, 27
Insight Meditation Community of Lewes, weekly meditation, 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Mulberry at 2^nd Street.  Free and open to public.  Meditation instruction is available.  Contact: John Sykes, 945-0729.

February 1
Insight Meditation Community of Lewes, First Friday Talk, “The Practice of Tonglen” led by the Rev. Sue Greer.  Tonglen (Sending and Taking) is a meditation practice for cultivating love and compassion, enabling one to embrace pain rather than flee from it.  7:30 to 9:00 p.m., St. Peter’s Parish Hall on Mulberry at 2^nd Street.  Sue, a Tibetan Buddhist, has been teaching meditation since 1970.  Free and open to public.  For more info contact Pat Hannon at 644-2514.

February 16
Insight Meditation Community of Lewes, John Waterman will lead a full day retreat:  “Connecting the Moments,” focusing on impermanence and the importance of maintaining mindfulness from experience to experience.  9am to 5pm, Lewes Library.  Jon has been practicing meditation and yoga since the 1970’s.  He is a leader and teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC.  Suggested donation $40.  For more info contact Pat Hannon at 644-2514 or visit www.imc-lewes.org.

A presentation of Delaware’s Energy Program, including an update on the status of the clean-up plans for the Indian River Power Plant and the proposed off-shore wind farm, will be sponsored by the League of Women’s Voters on Wednesday, September 12 at 7:00 at the Lewes Presbyterian Church Hall at the corner of Kings Highway and Franklin Street.

The discussion will be led by retired EPA scientist John Austin and retired lawyer Pat Gearity, both active members of the grass roots organization Citizens for Clean Power.

The public is encouraged to attend this presentation. We will all be affected by the energy decisions that will be made in the near future.

There is ample free parking in the church’s parking lot on Franklin Street.

How long has it been since any of us non-ubanites walked to our jobs? For most of us, it’s probably been a long time. Yesterday my sister called me wile she was walking home from work in one of our major metropolitan areas, and it got me thinking about the suburban car culture so prevalent here.

My sister is nearing 50, weighs what she did in college, and is in better shape than many 20 somethings I know locally. City life keeps its residents active, outside, and is a constant cardio workout. Statistics bear this out; the incidence of obesity is lower in dense urban areas than in the suburbs.

It’s not just large cities. My husband grew up in downtown Rehoboth Beach during the 1960s and 1970s. His mother walked to a grocery store, to the doctor, to anything she needed for her family. My husband walked to his school in School View.

With the change in the economic structure of Rehoboth, from a place where average families raised children to a place where real estate prices eventually priced services such as doctors’ offices out of the town, came the end of a family’s ability to meet basic needs without getting into a car.

The recent efforts of developers to create city centers and downtowns in their new developments is laudable and an important step towards correcting the problems created by endless series of strip malls punctuated by cul-de-sac filled neighborhoods.

Creating bicycle access between the local towns is another step in the right direction. The bike path between Lewes and Rehoboth is almost a solution - unfortunately, bicyclists must still, for the most part, drive to one access point or another, thus rendering the path less than useful as means of actual transportation. I hope progress will continue on the path and ultimately make it a true link between Rehoboth and Lewes, so it can actually serve as a means of local travel and eliminate the need to ride a bike on congested Route 1.

It also will require a little action on our part to change our habits. A few years ago, my husband lived in a community wtih a central mailbox about a block and a half away from his home. Although he enjoyed the walk to the box, his neighbors regularly got in their cars and drove to get their mail; the habit of driving everywhere is so pervasive that many of us never think of analyzing our actions to see if there is a different way.

One simple way to reduce our incessant driving is to combine trips for errands. For example - in my little neighborhood, sometimes  my neighbors leave the house for short trips 5 or 6 times during the course of a single day. Combining errands into one trip is a much more energy-efficient way to accomplish them.

There is no single solution to our dependence on cars. It will take years of adjusting our design of roads and communities, years of learning to be more efficient when we do use our cars, and years of learning to think first of alternate methods of transportation. Like many green habits, not only does reducing our driving help the environment, ultimately it helps us by keeping us more active and therefore healthier. Everybody wins.

Recently I counted 7 pink ladyslippers in my yard, two volunteering in the front and 5 in the back. Although the Delaware Native Plant society rates them as “common” in Delaware, in other areas of the country they are rare - and at any rate they are beautiful flowers so I was still excited to find them!

This morning I got to go to the Lewes Chamber of Commerce breakfast where speakers for 14 local nonprofits briefly introduced their respective organizations. Included were the Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge, the Biden Center, and the Delaware Humanities Forum. The last group was of especial interest to me. I was not aware that Delaware had an organized, focused group which supported the arts, philosophy, poetry, and other intellectual pursuits.

For the more outdoorsy of us, the Prime Hook refuge offers a multitude of free events, as does Cape Henlopen State Park’s Biden Center.

Check the LEAVES events page for updated local listings from these and other local orgs.

LEAVES started in 2005 as a free local newsletter, printed on recycled paper and hand delivered to area businesses that agreed to put a stack in their stores. (We have preserved the original list at the old site as a thank you to those who helped us get started.) After a while, it got a little crazy trying to drive all over town, and having zillions of copies printed, when we were running articles on reducing emissions and saving trees.

So to honor our commitment to the founding principles, LEAVES is online only now, and this will also allow for faster updates, fresher events listings, and more articles.

Cheers!