Hiking for health and leisure

Hiking can be a fun, enjoyable and relaxing form of exercise. I know. I do a lot of hiking (here and here, for example) in my own leisure time. A chance to get outdoors and enjoy the sights, sound, smell, touch and taste of what nature can offer you whether it's plucking some huckleberries along the way to munch on or a get a whiff of wildflowers blooming along the grassy open meadows or seeing the vast openness and grandeur in front of you. Here's a video of a bunch of deaf hikers enjoying their day in the outdoors. Take some time to "get away from it all." Do something bold. Go outdoors and hike!

Resiliency on bouncing back, your health and livelihood.

Here's an article (Part 1 of 3) that came out recently on resiliency and how it pertains to everyday health and living. It's an important reminder that we all have the ability to "bounce back" and learn how to find the right avenue and opportunity to do so. What is "resiliency"? It's the power and ability to return to the original form. It can be about your physical health, your mental health and/or your spiritual health. It can be about preventative measures or it can be a pro-active ones to limit the damage and reverse it. It doesn't matter if you have a hearing loss, vision loss, or have other limiting conditions, you have that untapped potential within yourself to increase that resiliency in yourself.

Believe it or not, mental, physical and spiritual health is a growing field in the deaf and hard of hearing community seeking that all important balance in life. You have yoga instruction for deaf people, you have deaf nutritionists like Sandria Graham, Project HOPE (Health Outreach Prevention and Education), Healing Hands using Reiki, spiritual retreats, outdoor retreats which can include a get together mountain hiking in the great outdoors whether you're on the East coast or West coast, and many more.

How you recharge your batteries is up to you.  Explore the numerous opportunities out there. Spring is almost here and summer just a few months away. Start your planning and get out of your winter doldrums.

Mine is hiking outdoors. What's yours?

A quick analysis on the vetoed AB2072 bill

After reading the governor's letter on why he choose to veto the AB2072 bill I noticed three things he mentioned why.

1. The formation of an advisory committee would possibly be a duplicative work of other state programs.

2. The use of advisory committee would be quite biased.

3. And lastly use of an advisory committee would represent a significant workload which will require fiscal resources that the state is already short on.

In one paragraph near the end he stated that there are other resources and efforts being done by state agencies and departments that already try and get the information out to the parents with children identified with hearing loss. In fact, the CAA pointed this out in a letter to Tony Mendoza as seen in the first page, fifth paragraph:

Additionally, existing Health and Safety Code, Article 6.5 Section 124119.5 of Chapter 3 of Part 2 of Division 106, related to newborn and infant hearing screening, already provides for the dissemination of this information to parents. The Federal government already sponsors unbiased brochures, which are updated annually, by professionals in the area of communication options for the deaf and hard of hearing. These brochures can be provided to Californians at no cost. Further, there is really no reason, in our view, for such a broad expansion of this program in these difficult times.

This letter is very similar to the governor's own responses for his reason on vetoing the bill. Despite that, with the state continuing budget cuts will likely affect state organizations that are funded and supported through state grants in order to continue with their operations. With the governor vetoing the AB2072 bill means that ASL will not be recognized as a language in the state of California. And because of that pro-ASL deaf organizations who rely on state grants to help work with children and parents with hearing loss may be at risk. Had a similar bill to that of AB2072 with the inclusion of ASL that gets signed by the governor would have undoubtedly raise in recognizing ASL as a language and thereby have a greater chance of surviving any fiscal cuts via through grants to those organizations in California.  So, who really got hurt here?