let's talk dirt

Did you know that food waste is the largest component of solid waste in landfills? As much as 15 to 20 percent of the food supply in this country ends up in the household garbage can. 

Not a pretty sight: food waste in landfill

Our family began composting to give us a place to put to good "use" most of those kitchen scraps. My practical husband gets all the credit--he has been composting for many years, way before it was cool to do so! 

Want some other practical reasons to compost?  

According to experts, soil made from composting has many advantages over the soil in your garden or yard that might be depleted of nutrients. Other reasons to compost, courtesy of the Texas Co-op Power e-newsletter:

• You’ll water less—a nice benefit in the midst of drought—because compost absorbs and retains moisture.
• You’ll use less fertilizer because compost is rich in nutrients.
• Compost improves the structure of heavy clay soils as well as loose sandy soils.
• It makes plants healthier and therefore more resistant to disease and pests, reducing the need for herbicides and pesticides.
• Less watering, fertilizing and treating saves money.

At our house, we keep things uber simple. There’s a plethora of options for commercial kitchen “compost bins”—but we simply use a ceramic pot with a lid that we line with plastic bags, the ones we use to bring home the produce (another simple recycling).

our compost pile

Again, your options for an official "composter" are many. Or you can do what we do. In a corner of our yard, somewhat contained by a chicken wire divider, we dump daily our kitchen scraps and mix in freshly mowed green grass and our raked dry leaves.  That’s about it.

A good rule of thumb is about one-third green and two-thirds brown by volume. Green, nitrogen-rich items include grass clippings and food scraps. Brown, high-carbon items include dry leaves, newspaper and cardboard. 

I know you’re supposed to “turn it,” but to be honest, we mostly let our compost simply be. The result is still beautiful, rich soil that I mix into my pots for growing herbs and that Michael breaks into the soil of his vegetable garden.

Here’s more information for those of you who want something a little more academic on composting, also here. Or if you prefer to go about it a little more “controlled,” also here.

However you do it, may I suggest you give it a go?

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“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." 

~Genesis 1:1 

Michael and Elenita mix compost into garden soil

"The Earth is indeed a precious gift of the Creator who, in designing its intrinsic order, has given us bearings that guide us as stewards of his creation. Precisely from within this framework, the Church considers matters concerning the environment and its protection intimately linked to the theme of integral human development.”

~Pope Benedict XVI, 

General Audience, August 26, 2009

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“The world is not something indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit. Rather, it is part of God’s good plan, in which all of us are called to be sons and daughters in the one Son of God, Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:4-12).”

~Pope Benedict XVI, 

Apostolic Exhortation 

Sacramentum Caritatis, 

February 22, 2007

to strip ourselves naked before God

In his book “The Mindful Traveler,” author Jim Currie describes the Buddhist practice of mindfulness or attentiveness as an invitation to pause and take in the marvel of the moment. 

“The Buddha taught that on everyone’s path are a series of opportunities, hindrances, and obstacles that in some way reflect what is inside us. Inner and outer reality dance together, giving us a chance to affirm our own higher powers and break out of our conditioned responses, attachments, and self-limitations. In some cases this simply requires breathing deeply and letting anxieties pass. In other cases, it requires taking stock of our surroundings, penetrating self-created distortions, asking ourselves--what is the big picture here? What is the pattern that I am caught up in? What choices am I making that determine my day? What forces and energies are at work that I am pointlessly opposing?”

Every day we are engaged in a miracle, wrote Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, a miracle 

“which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child––our own two eyes. All is a miracle...[M]indfulness itself is the life of awareness: the presence of mindfulness means the presence of life, and therefore mindfulness is also the fruit. Mindfulness frees us of forgetfulness and dispersion and makes it possible to live fully each minute oflife. Mindfulness enables us to live.”  

All we have to do, he said, is “enjoy each step you take.”

In our Catholic Christian tradition, living in the present moment is at the heart of living in the Spirit, of knowing that God is––and that He lives––in the here and now. Saints, mystics, and contemplatives throughout the centuries have written about the importance of recognizing the presence of God in each moment. 

In the brief yet powerful work “Abandonment to Divine Providence,” the 17th century French mystic and Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade challenged believers to embrace the present moment as an ever-flowing source of holiness. He explained it this way, 

“Every moment we live through is like an ambassador who declares the will of God...Everything works to this end and, without exception, helps us toward holiness. We can find all that is necessary in the present moment. We need not worry about whether to pray or be silent, whether to withdraw into retreat or mix with people, to read or write...What does matter is what each moment produces by the will of God. We must strip ourselves naked...so that we can wholly submissive to God’s will and so delight him. Our only satisfaction must be to live in the present moment as if there were nothing to expect beyond it.”

[from "The Journey: a Guide for the Modern Pilgrim," a book I co-wrote with my hubby of 31 years, Michael]

signs and symbols

On April 1, 1981, Michael and I announced to all our friends that we were engaged.

A very very young Michael and Maria, 

standing in front of the University of Texas Catholic Center, where we met 

We thought we were SO funny—not to mention clever—choosing April Fools' day to make the official announcement. As if our friends couldn’t already recognize the signs revealing where our relationship was headed!

I’ve been thinking a lot about signs, symbols, and the powerful ways that they genuinely reflect our inner lives, my inner life—and what’s important to me, while simultaneously becoming a metaphor for the big picture of (read everlasting) life.

It was a beautiful, intense and eventful Holy Week and Triduum, packed to the brim with symbolism.

And I hope you will forgive me, but even though we’re beginning the Easter season, it’s going to take me a while to process and digest the powerful liturgies of these past few days, particularly the Easter Vigil and all its signs and symbols.

following the yellow arrow, Camino de Santiago

Speaking of symbols--and before I forget, as promised, here’s what I wrote for the New York Times section “Room for Debate” on the topic, “What is the purpose of Lent,” which was published on Good Friday.  

By the way, the actual question proposed to me was, “is there a point to giving things up for Lent?” My response:

Ten years after my friend Pat and I walked 350 miles of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, we laugh about the vigorous women we were then. Pat is battling life-threatening brain cancer, and I’m learning to function with a diminishing chronic autoimmune condition.

It would be too simple to say our physical circumstances are a metaphor for the struggles and challenges of the Camino. In so many ways, the Camino is a metaphor for our whole lives: I can’t anticipate what struggles today will bring, but anything is doable one step at a time. Every uphill has a downhill. Hardship becomes manageable with a friend. Every single thing that I carry weighs me down, so I must choose wisely. 

In our culture, pain, suffering, worries, difficulties and grieving are all things to conquer — and to anesthetize as quickly as possible. Each of us is an addict looking for a quick fix. Drugs. Food. Exercise. Sex. Shopping. Disposable relationships. Whatever it takes to not feel bad, sad, hurt. 

Thus the question for me is not whether there’s a point to giving things up during Lent, but whether I should ever stop fasting from all that numbs, dulls and deadens me to life, all of life, as it is today — the good and the bad. Fasting makes me willing to try. 

For Christians, Good Friday stands alone in holiness and singularity. The day defines who and what we believe — and what makes us different. Christianity scandalously proposes a God who becomes human out of love for humanity. The scandal deepens when this God-made-man willingly accepts suffering and death out of complete trust. 

The Passion of Christ is not ultimately about how Christ suffered; it’s not a documentary on the History Channel. The Passion is about Jesus’ response. 

In the midst of intense pain, in spite of undeserved persecution and profound discrimination, Jesus keeps his eyes on God, commending his heart and entire being to the one he trusted completely and without reservation. Each Lent, I fast to remember.

Go here to read all of the entries.

I’m trying very hard to follow my friends’ sage advice to not read the comments published online! That being said, I want to thank you in advance for considering taking the time to write a comment at the NYTimes site demonstrating to the editor that you read my writing!