The Practice of Gratitude

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

Gratitude infused the love I felt as I looked around the full Sunday morning brunch table.   I’ve been thinking lately about the value of gratitude in the personal, daily experience of life and about its meaning in human history.

So, when both eating and talking had slowed a little

I turned the discussion at the table to the subject of gratitude.  Asking not only what people were grateful for but also what meaning they assigned to gratitude.

Our three-year-old cousin, the youngest at the table, happily said, “penguin” and held out the adorable stuffed penguin which is her constant companion.

Her eleven year old sister thought and then said, “‘I know I’m able to do cool things other kids can’t.  I go to a great school.  I have understanding and kind people always around me.  I can go swimming.  I go to swim practice every day and that makes me part of a community where I am welcome.”

Our ten year old cousin said, “I’m grateful for nature.  Gratitude is being happy about something.  I’m happy for the things people do for me and I happy to be able to move, to do sports, to run and to play the piano.”

 “I’m grateful to have had such wonderful parents who only wanted me to be happy and were generous to me all their lives,” said their Nana, at 73 the oldest person at the table.

Gratitude became the subject of general conversation and ideas came from everyone, of all ages, bouncing back and forth across the table, starting with “I’m grateful for the Big Bang.” 

“On a daily basis, gratitude is a constant recognition of acts of kindness and generosity.  Recognizing what others do for you.” 

“It feels like being grateful is a luxury.  If you don’t have food you only have one problem and gratitude is a luxury.  If you have food than you have the possibility of having many problems.”

“Imagine the gratefulness our great grandmother must have felt to come to America and live the life she had.” “Sometimes it takes a change in circumstances.”

“I remember being a teenager and coming back from my NOLS

(outdoor education) trip in Utah.  I turned on the faucet and warm water came out.”  That comment got the laughter of recognition.  One of other cousins, in her 40’s, added “like standing in the shower with hot water pouring over you.  It feels like a miracle.”  “It’s like you have to lose something to really understand gratitude.”

“Little things can mean everything.”  “What you do with gratitude – is it a feeling or a practice or both?  Is the practice of gratitude graciousness?”

“If you’re doing something and people are not recognizing it that can be annoying.  So don’t do it for recognition but because it is the right thing to do.”  “Yes, and just feel sorry for the person who can’t feel gratitude.” 

“It’s a shift in perspective that makes you creative.  It’s a consciousness to remember to be grateful when you’re rushing through and doing the normal busy-ness of life and then you realize how wonderful it is to be in this big web of a family.  It’s a rush and makes me feel great and it makes me treasure people.”

Where does gratitude come from?  Why do some people feel it and others not?  Why do some people feel it more than others?

Christmas gives us a special opportunity to think about gratitude.  Christmas is now a commercial holiday and, as such, is as much about giving and getting material objects as it is a religious celebration.  Holidays can be times of joy and fun and they can be times of complicated emotions and relationships.

Don’t get me wrong here.  I love parties and celebrations. I love presents.  I love getting them and I love giving them.  I love the anticipation - especially when I think I’m going to make someone happy.   I’m also very aware that parties and present giving can be emotionally loaded and sometimes cause unhappiness or feelings of debt and obligation.

Before there was a Christmas gratitude was already the subject of philosophers and writers.  Cicero, (b. 106 BCE) the Roman philosopher, orator and theorist said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

Not to be discounted is Piglet, of Winnie the Pooh, who “noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” 

Gratitude is at the core of an honorable life and to live without it leaves an emptiness.  It is an outward expression of empathy.  Gratitude is a gift we give and a gift we receive.

Thinking about gratitude together is the gift I hope to share with you this holiday season.

With All Best Holiday and New Year Wishes and with gratitude.

What Say You? Water Quality and Santa Monica Water Independence

 "SANTA MONICA WATER.  LOCALLY SOURCED.  BETTER THAN BOTTLED!"

City water is now used at all City meetings and events.

Photo credit Thomas Poon, City Water Resources Department

What Say You?  

Water Quality and Santa Monica Water Independence  

SUSAN CLOKE,

Columnist

Water is the issue.   We are in an extended drought.  The City is focused on water.   Setting and meeting water conservation standards; creating opportunities for public reuse of stormwater through regulations, incentives and rebates; meeting the Council mandated requirement for water self-sufficiency by 2020; and water quality are the goals.

History

Many of us learned our Angelino water history from the Jack Nicholson / Faye Dunaway movie “Chinatown.”  Water wars, and the taking by force of the Owen’s Valley water to satisfy the water needs of the burgeoning city of Los Angeles are the back-story to the growth of the City of Los Angeles.

Santa Monicans have a different history.  In 1917 Santa Monica voted against annexation with Los Angeles even as the City worried about water supplies.

And a very Santa Monica story goes with that vote:  “When an Annexation leader claimed he had had no water in his home the opposition arranged for the fire department to go to his home and record on camera as the fireman took a 100 foot stream of water from the fire hydrant in front of his house.”  (Stella Zadeh)

It didn’t hurt that many Santa Monicans were connected to the new film industry and that they filmed the 100’ stream of water going from the hydrant to the house as part of the anti-annexation campaign.

It was the 1917 vote that kept Santa Monica an independent city.  Now the goal is to achieve water independence.

Currently the City supplies 60 – 65% of its own water needs and buys the rest from the MWD. (Metropolitan Water District) This is a steadily changing number as the City moves toward the 2020 date for water self-sufficiency.

Quality

City water now exceeds the water quality standards set by both the State of CA Department of Drinking Water and the Federal EPA.  This is due to the fact that, as of 2010, City water is treated by reverse osmosis.  Reverse osmosis is a process for cleaning water which forces the water through micron sized pores to capture the smallest molecules of contaminates.

Usage

“Water usage in the City is driven by the commercial sector,” said Gil Borboa, the Water Resources Manager for the City.  “We’re really a small city of fewer than 90,000 residents, but on any given summer day we often have a population of as high as 300,000 people.”

Borbora added, “Every customer, both residential and commercial will be asked to reduce their water usage to 80% of what they used in the same month of 2013.”

Water rationing, as some are labeling it, is “really a misnomer” said Borboa.  “What we have is a proposal for a mandatory 20% reduction in water use from the base year of 2013. This proposal will go to Council in January and start in April, if approved.”

Residential homeowners who have already changed their gardens to water- conserving gardens and reduced their total water use to 22 HFC (hundred cubic feet) or less per billing cycle will not be required to reduce their usage. Usage information is on the City Utilities bill.

Santa Monica also provides grants, rebates and incentives to help homeowners convert to water conserving gardens and to the use of cisterns and other stormwater capture and reuse devices.   www.smgov.net/water

“Conservation is only part of the answer,” said Borboa.  “We also need to increase our water supply.  Most of our current water supply comes from the Charnock wells.  About 35% is imported Northern CA water bought from the MWD.

“Our current water usage city-wide is about 13,500 Acre Feet. (‘AF’. An AF is 326,000 gallons or the equivalent of a football field covered with 1 foot of water.)  The 2020 demand is anticipated to be approximately 15,490 AF.

Water Independence

 “We are now pumping 9000 AF.  For self-sufficiency we will need an additional 5000 AF of supply and, at the same time, the conservation of 1500 AF.  The 5000 AF will come from three new wells, currently proposed for the Olympic median, and the use of the planned conservation measures,” said Borboa.

 “If we do both we will be able to meet the total gap between what we use and what we need to be able to supply by 2020.

“Our groundwater assessment for the aquifer which supplies Santa Monica shows 300,000 AF of storage in our basins. Basins are recharged by precipitation and deleted by pumping.

“Santa Monica has gone through a series of droughts in its history and we don’t take our groundwater supplies for granted,” said Borboa.

The City is also considering rate increases and is expected to hear the proposed rate increases this December.   “Rate increases are necessary,” said Borboa, “because the Water Resources Agency is funded through the sale of water.  We will need to pay for ongoing operations and maintenance; the replacement of infrastructure built over 50 years ago; running our water treatment plant; digging new wells to meet the goal of water self-sufficiency; and running the water quality lab.

“Water rate increases to be heard by the Council are proposed at 9% for the first year and 13% for each of four subsequent years.”

Santa Monica currently draws its groundwater from the Arcadia, Olympic, and Charnock  basins.  Basins that the City has traditionally used. 

In 1923 the city voted to build the Arcadia plant, to build a five million gallon reservoir at Mount Olivette, and to purchase water-rich land on Charnock Road.

In 1948 Santa Monicans voted to replace the previous mount Olivette reservoir and to fund well construction under the San Vicente median.  In 1958 the City voted for a bond to construct a 25 million gallon reservoir at the Riviera Country Club.

Meeting the Goal

“The continuation of groundwater management in conjunction with conservation and stormwater reuse are all necessary to ensure water self-sufficiency,’ said Borboa, “and we’re well on our way.”

I say, conserve water, plant a stormwater garden, be a steward of the environment.  Drink Santa Monica Water. Here’s to your health! 

What Say You?