Letters to the Editor 1-16-14

Community garden oasis
Editor:   
It is not too early to start thinking of gardening. In Cloverdale spring seems to come in February. We have plots available for you to start to prepare for your favorite vegetables. Lease prices have decreased to $35 for a small 10×10 plot and $70 for a 10×20 plot, for the year. The lease money pays for the water and is a real bargain these days. We also require a leasee to work a few hours a month in the communal area of the land.  We already have tools and everything you may need. We even have a Master Gardener amongst us who can guide you if you are a beginner.  Be outdoors, get exercise, enjoy social contact and grow your own food. Call Mardi Grainger to start the process at 894-2736.
Mardi Grainger, Cloverdale
Chinese New Year of the Wood Horse
Editor:   
January 30th is the second new moon after the Summer Solstice. It is the time of the Chinese Spring Festival the beginning of the New Year. We are at the end of the Black Water Snake year, a difficult year for many, belly to the ground, or swimming up to our necks in water with no ground! It has been a year where we are challenged to wake up to a new reality.
This next year promises to be brighter. The Wood Horse is predicted to be a time of energy, action, general optimism in life. Horses like to roam, to travel, to seek adventure. The wood element represents spring itself, and is a time of new growth, freshness and the color green.
The Wood Horse sounds a little Greek to me, and a caution to beware of hidden agendas. It is certainly a time for restructuring for mobility and community by networking and piecing our plans together a board at a time.
We are ready for some good work and to put our new reality to the test in association, collaboration, and co-creativity. How do we create a sustainable community, keep our independence and yet work together. This is the challenge of the Wood Horse year.  Like Horse people this year we are full of integration yet underneath there remains an independent even a rebellious streak. A wonderful time for building a community garden, but everyone needs to have their own personal little plot to grow the way they want.
Qigong practice always promotes “Being in Harmony with Nature.” This means not only being in harmony with Mother Nature but with our own personal nature. How can we better understand and care for Mother Earth including how to use our precious water. And yes we may have to sacrifice our green lawns to conserve our water this year. And on a personal level how can we better care for our precious bodies our minds and our spirit. PYNK Qigong offers a simple practice of standing moving meditation to massage all the joints and organs of the body for optimal health of body and that will also help the mind and attitude.  Move your body change your mind. Be healthy be happy.
“Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions louder than your words. “ — Dali Lama
Classes are held every Monday at 10 a.m. at the Cloverdale Senior Center. You must be a member of the Senior Center and pay $12 a year. Class is on a suggested donation basis of $3 to $5. Every one is welcome. Wear comfortable clothes, no equipment is necessary. Movements are done from a standing position and done within your own range of motion. Qigong helps improve balance and flexibility and reduces stress.
Instructor: Janet Seaforth has been teaching qigong and Tai Chi for over 30 years.
Janet Seaforth, Cloverdale
Not that ‘confusing’
Editor:   
Your front-page story last week emphasized how “confusing” signing up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act can be. While that may have been the case for some, the experience in our family was the opposite. We found that it was far less confusing to enroll in Covered California, than it was to buy health insurance on the open market, which we had to do last year when our Cal-Cobra ran out.  
With Covered California I created an account, filled in basic information, stated income for each family member, and picked a family insurance plan within 20 minutes. Covered California emailed a confirmation; I called the insurance company and paid the premium on January 6.
Contrast that experience with what we had to go through under the old system. To begin with, when it comes to “confusion” comparing insurance offerings was the essence of confusion. The variety of lifetime caps, of procedures covered or not, and deductibles and co-pays, etc, made it impossible for the buyer to compare. Under the ACA we are comparing like plans to like plans.  
When it comes to tedium and hours invested in applications, nothing in the ACA comes remotely close. Last year I filled out five separate applications for each family member. Each application was 24 pages long. Each one asked endless questions about each and every encounter with the health care system in the last 5 to 10 years, depending.
Then came the processing, equally as time consuming. Just keeping track of the progress of each application was an adventure in insurance company bureaucracy. On top of that, the company claimed to have lost two of the applications, so I had to fill out two replacements.
For anyone who is confused about the ACA, I recommend calling the county department of  Human Services at 565-5800. I found the people who took my calls to be reliable, helpful, and courteous and the wait times were short. The county also has a helpful web page at www.sonoma-county.org/healthcarereform/.
Deborah Dobish, Sebastopol