Self-Taught Continued Education and the Learning Bug

There are individuals who would enter a pool in no other way than to dive, head first and with conviction. Some with knowledge of depth and others with a keen intuition and trust in skill and judgement.

Either way, these individuals do not waste time. They do not care about temperature or slimy, aquatic life lurking below. Divers just go for it.

Swim team ended over 15 years ago and I still find myself diving into deep and unfamiliar waters. There is a certain lust in the unknown, in the possibilities and opportunities of increasing one's understanding of the world and connection to place.

Swimming in the unknown waters surrounding Galapagos Islands

The lust increases and a bug attacks me, forcing me to dive. This learning bug assaults me every so often, leaving me in fits of late-night research, over-consumption of coffee and high fevers of passion and excitement.

Most recently, it has been rivers.

Ok, you're right, its always been rivers.

It began with learning to descend them safely in a kayak, moving to gaining familiarity with flows and locations and ultimately sharing this process with other newbies. Separately, I explored ecosystems, habitats and environmental services as a scientist and environmental educator.

Now these passions meet. Or perhaps they have been good friends all along, finally awakening me to their intrinsic connection.

So now I dive again, into the turbulent waters of river conservation and advocacy.

I assign myself projects: digesting complicated documents loaded with obscure verbiage, filtering through countless blog rolls for real news headlines, recording notes and thoughts for no exact purpose other than proof of accomplishment.

This all might seem pointless to you. (Or to my family who wonders if I will ever get paid for this type of dedication.)

To that, I point out that dedication to knowledge acquisition is never pointless. Especially when combined with intention to use the information for positive change. In other words, I know this information will prove useful for me. As I learn more and swim deeper into these waters, I feel the weight and pressure grow, becoming more excited by the second. Rather than gasping for air and swimming to the surface, I'm growing gills.

I think I'll be swimming down here for a while.

Condit Dam, murky waters of Northwestern Lake surging over 185 ft. dammed dam.

Interpreted, synthesized and reformatted for the ease of others' understanding:

Wild and Scenic Rivers in Oregon and Washington

River Trip Permit Window Closing

Condit Dam soon to be freed

Currently attacking:

Hydropower Reform Coalition: Citizen Toolkit for Effective Participation in Hydropower Licensing

Filling the cup, at 6 am

The rain spit at my face at 5:30 am this morning. I could hear my bike wheels draw up the water and hit my fender, as my movement broke the stillness of such an early hour.

A glowing flower from Costa Rica. If a flower can glow...I can too.

Whether part of a resolution wave or just simple interest, I have enrolled in a week-long yoga intensive that gets me out of bed long before the sun. In fact, it returns me to my house before the sun's alarm clock even goes off. Almost as if my transformed mind and body gently rub the sun's back and draw him into consciousness for the day.

"Good morning sweet sun. The day has begun, you should get out of bed and bring light to all the people who have already awoken and encourage those who have not to lift up and out of their slumber. I've already gotten the wheels turning, all you have to do is rise now."

The biking element is my personal icing on the cake of breaking into a tough daily routine.

Thus, each morning this week I will suit-up in my rain gear (rapidly aging here in Portland) and pedal my way to North Portland Yoga at a silly early morning hour.

Of course, the pay-off makes all of these petty difficulties cower.

The studio's warmth first draws you in like a fresh apply pie on grandma's window sill. Then every participant welcomes you with a smile, that you naturally return. You settle into your own body and wipe away everything that could possibly put you in even the slightest bad mood. Gone.

Just you and your breath and your body and the insightful and calming words of Sweethome Teacup, my teacher.

Balance: always seeking.

Ivan Steifel in a stern squirt on the Gauley River, WV

Now, I begin my Tuesday with a cup so full, it seems that the whole day will float by without impediment. Or perhaps, I will simply deal with impediments in a different way.

Staying Accountable for Resolutions

This time of renewal flashes into our lives every January.

Couch potatoes spotted purchasing yoga mats. Recycle bins more packed than the garbage. Junkies putting down the crack. Wait, I don't know what junkies do.

It's all a package deal with the strike of midnight on New Years. We are given the opportunity for change, for improving our circumstances and making life better. Despite actually possessing this ability every day of the year, something about the rolling over of a new year makes these commitments somewhat more solid.

Breaking out of old habits, like clipping the fence to jump into moving traffic.

At least until we fall back into a lazy, distant relationship with all those commitments which would have significantly made life better had we just kept with them. My estimation is February 3rdish.

But not this year, right? (It is, afterall, still only January 10th).

So how do we make ourselves accountable when the freshness of the New Year blows away and the recirculated air of our routine reemerges?

I believe we must first develop a connection, a link between each of our committments.

Just as one, oval chain link will not suffice, an entire chain becomes one unit, strong and unified.

• A better diet and more exercise? Ride your bike to the local farmer's market.
• More exercise and keeping in touch with old friends? Write a letter for every hour of exercise you do.
• Keeping in touch with old friends and using less energy? Use regular mail instead of email.

If our resolutions depend on each other for a stronger presence, each will become easier to manifest. I see each individual goal as getting easier, the more we focus on the others. Often the first change is the most difficult to adapt, with each successive growing easier and easier. Like cookies during the holidays, each easier to consume than the last.

I think this chain idea will help me integrate more of these positive elements into my daily (post February 3rd) routine.

Don't go to the left.

Additionally, I must also give myself time. I think of it as a little present on my desk, that just pops into existence mid-work day. Under that lavishly gold sequenced bow, two whole hours to keeping my resolutions going.

I sometimes accept with the smile of a teenage boy holding his Aunt Phyllis' banana hammock birthday present. Really, I don't want this gift. Not right now at least.

Of course, to avoid family feuds over inappropriate gifts, I use the present. And, just like that boy, I learn to love it.

Just give the banana hammock a try.

Therefore, each week I will accept the gift of time to the practice of all of my new goals, at least once. Hopefully each week, this will become so second nature that the air of resolution will surround me all year long.

Ahh, the bliss of pre-February 3rd.