In the winter I have a morning meditation. It starts in October and ends in April. It is one I have to do in the morning whether I like it or not, more to the case whether I want to be warm or not. Before morning tea or toast with sleep still in my eyes I must create fire.

Plastic, I love it. I hate it. Plastic houses my laptop; it makes up my plumbing; it keeps my sandwiches fresh and it's the foundation of my music collection. How would we exist without rubbermaid. What would the world be with out ceran wrap. Plastic seems necessary and insidious and it doesn't go anywhere, ever, literally.

Well I'm a farmer, so in the spring it's all about being outside - preparing, planting, and pruning, cultivating, cutting and clipping - basically doing my imagination and stomach's bidding. Sometimes I think I might like to be inside, out of the sun and on my ass, my hair kept free of debris and my fingernails clear of dirt. But mother nature waits for no one.

People are slowly coming round to zero-waste, and both community and individual initiatives are building, but the concept is still pioneering. I get this all the time: what do you mean you're zero-waste; what do you do with your garbage?
By me saying I'm zero-waste, I am actually saying there is no such thing as garbage. Let me pause while you pick your jaw off the floor.

Either you think it's god gift to the mediaverse or you just don't get it, but the digerati is all alight about Twitter. The user-driven newswire, still in its mere infancy, has attracted everyone from Brittany Spears to your grandmother.

The first thing people ask me when I tell them we've gone to a zero waste household is what does that mean. The immediate follow-up is, does that include recycling? Well we'd definitely have some serious trouble if it didn't. So a zero waste household is a household with no garbage can. Thus no magic garbage faeries to come whisk away our "waste" once a week.

Today at work, I came into the main hall and there written on the notice board was a short tale to welcome new students who'd arrived for the center's silent retreat.

It went like this. Once upon a time there was a woman and she lived in a remote cave where she sat and meditated everyday. People would come from miles around to ask for her wisdom, and this is what she said.