What Is Next For You?

By Sandy Watchie Stamato

It’s almost time to celebrate the New Year: A time of renewal and, for many hope for a better tomorrow. Yet, have you noticed how three weeks into January all those good intentions go awry?

Why is it so hard to change? Who wouldn’t love to lose those irritating 10 pounds, get that new “perfect” job or meet your soul mate? What’s the hang up? Why is it so hard to change?

Why is changing so hard?

Our brains are geared to resist change. It’s a survival thing – a chemical reaction. When we want to make a change in our life, it’s fraught with the unknown and all of this causes anxiety and fear. Our reptilian brain comes to the rescue and tries to save the day. “CHANGE bad. Cookies GOOD” and there goes our diet plans.

But there’s hope

One of the most effective means for circumventing our reptilian brain – so we can be open to changing and tapping into what really lights us up – is the practice of gratitude. 

What does gratitude have to do with change? It’s nearly impossible to feel anxious and fearful when in a state of gratitude. The feelings of gratitude create a very profound shift in our brains and create a sense of abundance, expansiveness and possibility. 

We are able to make different decisions and move forward with more ease. Possibility, curiosity and excitement abound in a grateful mindset. It truly is the antidote for anxiety and fear. This opens the door to making lasting changes in your life.

Let’s use the example of looking for a new job. Practice being grateful for your current job and you’ll be surprised at what pops up. You may end up loving the job you have or, be much more receptive and curious when job applying. 

Try this experiment

Take the time to write three SPECIFIC things you’re grateful for everyday. Go into great detail about each person, place or thing. Identify the highlight of your day.  (A complimentary two-week gratitude journal is available at www.whatisnextforyou.net). Try it for two weeks. Then you can thank me!

Solar For Your Home?

By Bill Thorness

Are solar panels right for your roof? Answer that question, learn how solar energy works, and access a group discount at a Solarize Seattle: Northwest educational workshop coming to the PNA in January.

The workshop is Saturday, January 26, 10-11:30 am at the Phinney Center. Local clean energy nonprofit Northwest SEED will present the workshop as part of the Solarize Washington program.

Solarize is a community-led effort that simplifies and streamlines the process of going solar. The Northwest Seattle campaign is offering free workshops, free solar site assessments, discounted pricing, and help understanding the tax benefits, incentives and financing available. The limited-time campaign intends to install 150 solar systems Northwest Seattle by summer of 2013. 

Solarize is an innovative group purchase program that helps residents and businesses tap into more affordable solar energy. It is funded by Seattle City Light, managed by the nonprofit Northwest SEED, and supported by seven community organizations, including PNA.

Solarize Seattle: Northwest is the sixth campaign in Northwest SEED’s Solarize Washington program. Previous campaigns have been in Queen Anne, Magnolia, Northeast Seattle, Stanwood, Camano Island and Mukilteo. Together, they have added 139 solar systems to the regional electric grid, totaling more than 600 kilowatts of solar electricity capacity and investing $3.8 million in our local solar economy. 

To sign up for the workshop or to get more information about Solarize, visit www.solarizewa.org and fill out the brief "Bring Solarize to me" form. If you can't make the January 26 workshop, others will be held throughout Northwest Seattle neighborhoods during winter and early spring. Let your neighbors know about this program to help us achieve our goal of 150 solar roofs in Northwest Seattle!

Learn more at solarizewa.org.

Western Swing Honky Tonk Concert & Dance

Titans of Twang

Saturday, November 24 - 7:30 - 10PM

Phinney Neighborhood Center

Community Hall (lower bldg)

The Seattle Folklore Society presents a post-Thanksgiving dance/concert with two great bands: The Jangles and The Titans of Twang. The Jangles specialize in Western Swing (also called Texas Swing) while The Titans of Twang favor Honky Tonk and Country. Both bands feature strong vocals and their music is perfectly suited for dancing or listening.
The Jangles are, Mike Faast/lead vocals/guitar, Paul Anastasio/fiddle, Roger Ferguson/guitar/fiddle, Lance and Laurie Haslund/vocals/bass/ukulele, Toby Hanson on accordion and Mark Drake on drums.. You’ll enjoy their hot picking and three part harmony western swing. The Titans are an all-star band with a big sound: steel guitar, electric & acoustic guitar, harmonica, bass, and drums. They are Lisa Theo, Kim Field, Bob Knetzger, Terry Kingen, Bill Shaw, Robin Cady.
Come enjoy some classics from the old-school country/western duet tradition, then kick up your heels and dance off that Thanksgiving dinner! If you’re not a dancer, there will be seats for you to enjoy wathching the musicians and the dancers! $15 ($13 SFS/PNA, seniors, students; $7 youth 6-17)
More info & reservations: http://www.seafolklore.org/folksche.html or 206-528-8523

The Jangles

An Elevator in the School House

An Elevator in the School House

a short story by PNA volunteer Charles Forsher inspired by the construction of the Blue Building elevator

THE SPANISH FLU WAS RAGING WORLD WIDE.

Ten year old Susan Bower of Phinney Ridge had been one of those struck down, and had lain on top of her bed sweating profusely as well as being in a delirium. Mrs. Bower had been sitting in her grandmother’s rocking chair in the same room keeping a vigil, and unable to sleep reciting prayers for her daughters recovery all through the night before, the illness beyond the help of aspirin. 

Mrs. Bower was quite exhausted now, her Gibson Girl appearance frazzled, but having a confidence her daughter would live. Patience now was what the grown woman needed.  About the tenth hour of the morning little Susan Bower suddenly took two deep breaths and then opened her eyes. Her mom half shrieked and then loudly summoned ‘papa’.

The husband entered his daughter’s bedroom. He was a burly man, hair parted down the middle and sporting a handle bar mustache. He walked over to his daughter and looked down at her sternly, then to his wife, who was standing next to him.

“The fever’s broken, Ellie.” Mrs. Bower nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. A two car train of the Seattle Everett Interurban rumbled by outside on Greenwood Avenue.

 “Oh papa! It was so strange!”

 “What was strange my child.” Mr. Bower asked as he looked back down at his daughter, her voice softening his heart.

“I had gone back to the school house, where I knew I would be safe, and entered by the north side. Everything looked different in a way, much older somehow, and there was an elevator in the schoolhouse.

“You were in a delirium my child!” Mr. Bower insisted lovingly.

“Honestly, papa. It was so real, all of it, and it made no sense. The door to the elevator was not made of glass like the one in the department store downtown; mama’s favorite.”

 Mrs. Bower nodded her head, agreeing with Susan. “That’s your favorite part of our shopping.”

“Besides the street car ride!” Susan added, color returning to her cheeks.

“Oh mama! The door to the elevator in the schoolhouse was made of polished steel! It slid open and some strangely dressed children walked out. I became so frightened that I fainted dead away!”

 Mrs. Bower started to swoon, but her husband came to her rescue.

“Now Susan, you know the schoolhouse doesn’t have an elevator.”

Mr. Bower reached down now and picking up the pitcher of water on the small table next to Susan’s bed, then picked up the tin cup that had been placed next to the pitcher, and poured some water into it. The small chain of Mr. Bower’s pocket watch lurched as the man bent down and offered his daughter the cup. Susan didn’t realize how thirsty she was, and quickly drained the cup of its contents. Then Susan settled back, pushing her head against the many pillows her parents had provided, a few days before at the onset of the symptoms.

“Papa, do you think there will ever be an elevator in the schoolhouse?”
 The burly man put down the pitcher and the tin cup handed back to him by his daughter, reflected on her question, and then smiled.

“Surely my daughter, in the Age rockets really carries men to the Moon and back!”

At that the Bower family had a good laugh.

They Keep The Food Coming--Meal Program Volunteers

Planning menus, procuring food, preparing dishes and serving meals: this is the ongoing work of hundreds of volunteers who support the PNA's meal programs. They work on different teams at different sites, but they all warmly welcome and nourish the community. The PNA is grateful for the reliable, time-honored support of many dedicated volunteers at these meals.

Greenwood Senior Center Lunch Program: The daily lunch program at the GSC is possible only with the dedication of our fabulous weekly volunteers: they plan and shop, prep and serve, and best of all, clean up after each meal! Together, they offer a three-course, balanced meal from a variety of cuisines – and all on a budget. Special thanks to Neil Banta-Blacker, Esther Dean, Inga Ilich, Fannie Jin, Cindi Kozai, Keiko LaPoint, Maria Marabella, Candace Mathes, Chet Nachtegal, Suzie Paulson, Dixie Rae and the many more volunteers who aren't afraid to cook up a storm.

Hot Meal Program: Committed volunteers such as Anne and Dick Harrison, Ida Hamilton, Jack Herndon, Jim Osness, Janet Recher, Sharon Swift, Tom Vincent, Hilde Wilson and dozens of other committed volunteers have formed a dependable, compassionate community that is the foundation of this program.

Together they serve more than 350 meals weekly at three meal times. These competent and caring people move comfortably through their kitchen space, fluidly sharing responsibilities and welcoming and training newer volunteers.

"While it's rewarding to be helping out, it's most inspiring to work with long-term volunteers who have so much dedication to service," reflects one volunteer. Another says, "It is a joy to work with such a fun, dedicated, skilled, caring group!"

Thank you to all of the reliable volunteers who support the meal programs!

Do unto others: The Platinum Rule?

As a mother of a preschool aged son, I have been reflecting on what values I most want to instill in our family ethic. What were the seminal values of my own upbringing? Respect for authority, helping wherever possible, neighborliness, frugality, work before play. These were the expectations in my New England-based family, and thankfully I mostly agree with them, because they are deeply ingrained in who I am and how I live today. I couldn’t completely eschew them if I tried.

The Golden Rule is one of those values. Of course we should treat others the way we’d want to be treated, right? To me, this was axiomatic—until recently, when the PNA encouraged me to attend a workshop about leading in a multicultural organization. My attendance, along with two coworkers, was part of my work with the PNA Cultural Engagement Workgroup, focused on social justice and equity issues in our community. The training was led by two fabulous presenters from Cultures Connecting, which provides professional development to help organizations enter into conversations about race, culture, and social justice. The facilitators challenged us to consider that to respectfully connect with people from cultures other than our own, we need to take the Golden Rule and make it even better. Instead, they said, we should consider trying to do unto others as they would have done unto them! I later learned that the business management sector has named this concept the Platinum Rule.

It’s important to me that my son learn to feel empathy for others. We talk a lot about feelings, and I’m helping him learn to name his own and others’. Often I have asked, after he yanks my carefully folded laundry and tosses it onto the floor (or some such destructive act), “How do you think you would feel if someone took apart your train set and threw it all over the floor (or some such analogy)?” I’m honestly not sure if this is even a legitimate parenting technique. But now I wonder, does this feedback miss the point entirely? Does this help him imagine how I am feeling? And more importantly, am I taking the opportunity to imagine how he is feeling? Separated in our different stages of life and brain development, we will never really know. But the journey is in trying to imagine.

Putting myself in other people’s shoes at home, at work as Volunteer Coordinator, and in the greater community involves carefully listening to their words and paying close attention to their body language. It also requires a level of understanding of the ingrained cultural values they might hold and the family history in the background—and how they may differ from my own cultural values and history. I realize that I still have a lot to learn about the diverse cultures of the people I live and work alongside in Seattle and the community we build at the PNA. The more I can learn about our community’s multicultural history and the ethics different groups tend to impart on their children, the more empathy and respect I can hope to share. My son at age 3 is wired to observe with exquisite sensitivity the reactions that follow after his every attempt to communicate with someone (these are not always as vexing as knocking the laundry on the floor). Can I as an adult, well marinated in white, middle-class, Puritan-based, college-educated culture, be so attentive and learn so astutely from my interactions with others?

I’m proud to be part of an organization that openly seeks to be inclusive and welcoming to people from all backgrounds. The Cultural Engagement Workgroup regularly hosts events featuring works such as Seattle in Black and White, Put This on the Map, and Looking Like the Enemy. These books, films, and discussions have expanded my awareness of how others in my community may view themselves and why they may hold different values than my own. Each event brings people together to exchange perspectives openly and honestly and leaves me feeling better equipped to try to treat others the way they may wish to be treated.

Many people are fearful of conversations about diversity, race, power, and inequality. Beyond the jargon of politically correct or taboo phrases, the fear of insulting someone or being judged, and the specter of deeply rooted social inequities, the heart of this work for me is learning and deep empathy. If I expect my son to respect all people equally, I have a lifelong journey of learning the Platinum Rule along with him.

If you’re interested in the work we are doing to be more culturally competent and inclusive, we welcome your input or resources. Please comment here, visit our webpage, or contact the Cultural Engagement Workgroup chair.

Ali Saperstein, PNA Volunteer Coordinator

Help Students Be Spiffy!

Headed to the store to buy a few things for a child you know who is headed to school in a few weeks? Consider buying a few extra things to help a child in need start the school year off on the right foot, too.

Phinney Neighbors in Action is hosting its annual Back to School Donation Drive from now through mid-September. Whitman Middle School has asked mainly for newly purchased school supplies such as flash drives, highlighters, 2" binders, pencils and erasers, and colored pencil or pen sets. Treehouse has asked for newly purchased jeans, hoodies, t-shirts, and backpacks.

Having snappy new supplies and clothing goes a long way to help a child start the school year feeling confident and ready to learn and make friends.

Donations can be dropped off in the Blue Building of the Phinney Neighborhood Center through mid-September. 

Thanks for your generosity!

Wipe Out Graffiti in Greenwood!

Graffiti is a growing concern in Greenwood.

A community meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 6/19, 7-9 pm at the Greenwood Senior Center. Join us to discuss the problem, brainstorm solutions, and plan an initial neighborhood paint-out party this summer.

Seattle Police Officer Penelope Fulmer will discuss the connection between graffiti and other crime. Local business and property owners, neighbors and concerned citizens are all welcome.

To join the effort, sign up online, email AliS@phinneycenter.org, or just show up to the meeting!

New Sculpture Coming to Heart of Phinney Park

 

Local artist Matt Babcock will be installing a new sculpture in the Heart of Phinney Park this Friday, May 25th. The sculpture's pedestal is located in the Heart of Phinney Park, in front of the Francine Seders Gallery. The sculpture, titled Curtsy, will replace his current sculpture titled Samaras. Both sculptures are for sale. If interested, please contact Pamela Jaynes, the Arts Coordinator at arts@phinneycenter.org 

Sales benefit the Phinney Neighborhood Association Arts Program and the local artist who created the work.

For more information on the artist, see www.mattbabcock.com

Greenwood Elementary School Garden

Greenwood Elementary School is breaking ground on a beautiful and inviting community and school garden and they are looking for your participation. Bring your green thumb and passion! Groundbreaking will take place on Saturday, April 28, at 9 am. There will be a community meeting with refreshments at 9:30 am and work parties from 9 am to noon and 1-3 pm.

Greenwood School Garden goals are to create a garden so all children at Greenwood Elementary can participate, partner with local food banks and senior centers, teach students about contributing to their community, and create a space that will become a popular locale for school and neighborhood events.

Phase 1 Garden Project Includes:
• Six natural cedar raised beds that students can participate in assembling.
• Cedar garden shed and cedar fence and trellis.
• A central "outdoor classroom" complete with benches and tables for student learning.
• Cedar-chip-lined pathways to suppress weeds and reduce mud.
• Compost spinners and worm bins.

This garden will grow with the ideas you bring. The project is sponsored by the Greenwood School PTA, Seattle School District and the Seattle City Department of Neighborhoods. Community members can contribute as a volunteer, donor or sponsor. Follow the project at greenwoodschoolgarden.wordpress.com.

For questions or more information contact Jessyca Poole or Stephanie Magill at gwoodschoolgarden@gmail.com.