Published! Terra Lucent World Journal

Hello Blog-family,

I hope this finds you well.

Been awhile, no? Through Northern Naturals I have been learning lots about Facebook and spending time building a community there. I do miss writing and communicating on my blog however. It is more personal, and goodness knows there is an infinite amount of space here. :)

Many of you have joined my Lynda Leonard and Northern Naturals Bedding pages, but some of you are not on Facebook and have missed this announcement below. I have begun writing for an international journal called Terra Lucent. The journal is just beginning and will prove to be a great resource for innovative projects worldwide.

This first article is an overview of Nepal's CCODER, and will be followed by a series of articles focusing on the individual aspects of this sustainable village model. It is exciting for me to have this opportunity to have yet another opportunity to get the word out about the life work of Govinda Dhital and the model that he has created that now exits in 750 villages in Nepal. Now that's an undertaking!

For the sake of the journal, I would love it if you took the time to read the article (it is only one page long) and make a comment at the end of the article. This will help foster its presence. This is a beginning of an amazing web that is to be woven. We are gathering on the ground journalists from every continent who will be the voice for many.

Enjoy the article. And thank you always for your support.

With Love,

Lynda

Nepal’s CCODER: A Thriving, Working Model for Rural Village Development | TerraLucent World Journal

terralucentworldjournal.org

The first article in our series of reports on CCODER, an innovative NGO in Nepal. CCODER

First snow

Missing You, trying again :)

Hello! I have to honestly confess I am missing you all. I am missing sharing photos and words and inner musings. I am missing hearing from you, too and your story line that etch pictures of a world we share mostly in words.

I am committing to revisiting my blog and begin here with a photo from the top of Deception Peak (12,200') taken on Sunday after a 2,200' elevation climb. That's me under the orange hood, bracing against the wind and wishing I had mittens on. More later with love, Lynda

Missing you.

Leonard goes to Australia

Read all about it. Leonard Goes to Australia

Yep, it’s true. Oh I wish it were I making headlines in Australia, but CHERYL LEONARD is. And, it’s big. She has been asked by the Australian National University in Canberra to perform her Antarctic compositions.

If you love creativity at its finest and appreciate the strivings of artists, you will not want to miss this opportunity to support in a direct and conscious way this AMAZINGLY, Creative, Talented musician and composer.

I call her the Andy Goldsworthy of sound and music. A couple years ago Cheryl received a grant from the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and went to Antarctica to record the sounds make them into compositions culminating in a CD entitled Chattermarks Antarctica.

Not only has she made compositions using everything from her field recordings sounds from under the glaciers and a chorus of sea lions, she makes her own instruments for the compositions from bones and shells and rocks.

CHECK THIS OUT!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2139678053/antarctica-music-from-the-ice

So here is the gig. Cheryl is raising funds to get to herself to Australia.

You can purchase any number of really cool things to make this happen. You can help by buying everything from Penguin Music Stickers $5, to a copy of her CD, $15, up to $1,000 where Cheryl will write a new composition and dedicate it to you. Check it out.

Here is her fund raising website which is clever, professional and informative.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2139678053/antarctica-music-from-the-ice

June 16^th is her deadline to fund this project.

From A proud Aunt spreading the word for this most deserving talent.

.

Virgina, March 2011

When was the last time you attended a birthday party for a six year old? Everything happens in 10-minute slots. Well, this is what happened at my granddaughter’s party as Anjoli Marie kissed 5 goodbye.

Here’s a slightly exaggerated thumbnail sketch of her 6^th birthday party. Little girls arrived with parents in tow. These hellos and goodbyes took 10 minutes. Then they all piled into Anjoii’s room to experience the magic land of another little girl’s bedroom. Ten minutes later, Anjoli guided the entourage to the dining table where an art project awaited. For 10 minutes they affixed stick on animals and plants and suns and trees onto foam board and wha-la, then they were done. Juice snacks came next along with the recited rule not to drink in the living room. This was less than 5 minutes followed by the lighting of the sparkler birthday candles on top of the novel “cupcake’ cake. This was devoured in 10 minutes at which point they paraded to the downstairs playroom where presents were unceremoniously torn apart with glee and thank you's. With a pile of ribbons and bows left behind the train of girls ascended once again to the dining area where Anjoli sang two songs broadcasted from a Barbie microphone. With streams still hung and three helium balloons bouncing across the ceiling, the parents returned to deliver their cake-filled children home leaving behind an officially now six Anjoli Marie. This writing should rightfully be a run on sentence to truly capture the flow of these serial events.

I ponder what lies ahead for this little girl who openly says YES! to life, who loves without strategy or restraint, pours her heart into song and who plays a calculated game of UNO.

Her older brother, Peyton now eight, takes a back seat to Anjoli’s exuberance. His sweet nature still allows you run your fingers through his hair and rub his back. Legos are a world he enters with full command of design, and he is an agile soccer player who loves to ride his bike.

Peyton is well liked by all and is now loosing his teeth. His face will transfigure as his adult teeth take over his boyish head and he waits now for his face to catch up with the size of his teeth.

I see these grandchildren in one-year increments, here are still shots of recorded moments. I observe them in leaps of understanding. I care about having relationships with them and am saddened by the limitations of distance. They are coming together as brother and sister in ways that were not apparent last year. And this warms my heart.

Recently I reflected on the fact that my own grandparents always seemed old. They were like figures in a still life portrait. I do not remember them aging they were always the same age, old. I wonder if they too took care to watch my nature develop as I grew? Did they marvel at my accomplishments and did they too contemplate what kind of woman I would grow into. I will never know.

Enjoy these captured moments which begin with Anjoli's visit to the hairdresser for the birthday curls.

Before