About Me

I work for a lively, entrepreneurial green biz by day and research and write the Village of Ordinary and its companion blog, Realizing Ordinary
in spare minutes, too spare. Blog posts and lens updates are irregular,
but always committed with passion and love. Image copyright 2006,
Valerie C. Bauman. All rights reserved.

That's Bamboo? Wow!

Bamboo is the eco-wonder of the world. It pumps oxygen into the air faster than trees, feeds the hungry, clothes the body, soothes the ear, carries water, digs potatoes, shelters the homeless as well as the privileged, and in case all that is not eno...

Why buy organic cotton

The scent of it, fresh from the dryer, the rich plush of thick Turkish towels in the bath. And who doesn't feel comforted the moment they crawl between freshly laundered cotton sheets? So what's all the buzz about organic cotton, and why should you c...

Village of Ordinary

What if ... every child grew up feeling wanted, loved and completely supported by family and community? What if ... we could all do work that gave us joy? What if ... we were so full of love ourselves that we viewed all other beings with compass...

Ten minute meditation

When you can't drop everything and take a walk in the woods, this exercise can give you instant relief. You can do it anywhere. Use it when tensions rise in a meeting. It will calm you and help you focus on the task at hand. Take ten after work befor...

Building Ordinary--Sustainable Community

  They're known as eco-villages, cohousing or intentional communities. This lens explores several of them and answers these questions:        What is cohousing?        What do we mean by sust...

Earthaven Ecovillage

Earthaven is an aspiring ecovillage in a mountain forest setting near Asheville, North Carolina. We are dedicated to caring for people and the Earth by learning, living and demonstrating a holistic, sustainable culture. Earthaven EcoVillage Image: Ke...

Crystal Waters Permaculture Village

Located an hour and a half north of Brisbane, Australia, Crystal Waters is a planned eco-village. It's a place where everyone, from kids to grannies and grandpas, get their hands dirty and have a lot of fun doing it. Join me in discovering the journe...

Graceonline

My passion, my mission is to make sure my grandbabies, and theirs, get to run wild in fields of tall grass, get to lie down and make snow angels under a crisp blue sky, and get to stand in awe at the wide, wide ocean stretching far and tall above the...

Grasscycling--Easy way to a cleaner, greener lawn

How much time do you spend each week cutting your grass, stopping every few turns to remove the grass catcher, shake the clippings into a garbage sack, and reattach the bag?

Shop Green!

These days, it's easy being green. We've tons of choices, from the food we eat to the homes we build and furnish to the vehicles we drive and the fuel that powers them. Got green? Buy green! Photograph courtesy Free Nature Pictures

Plan B 2.0: What's it all about?

That's what it's all about. Saving our planet and ourselves. Here's what Brown says about why he wrote the book. Plan A, business-as-usual, has the world on an environmental path that is leading toward economic decline and eventual collapse. If our go...

Plan B 2.0 Roadmap: You are here

Road maps get us where we're going--if we know our starting point and our destination. This lens helps each of us find our starting point on Lester Brown's Plan B 2.0 map to worldwide prosperity and sustainability. With this lens, you can begin your...

Lester R. Brown

From tomato farmer to "one of the world's most influential thinkers" (Washington Post) and "the guru of the environmental movement," (The Telegraph of Calcutta), Lester R. Brown's roots are deep, his vision wide-spreading. Learn m...

Join the Plan B 2.0 Team!

Word of mouth made Plan B BIG. People bought extra copies to give their friends. They sent them to their mayors and congressional leaders, sent them to the president. Author Lester Brown and the folks at Earth Policy Institute realized they had a hug...

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

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