January 2020

Belong to where you are I’ve moved many times in my life, growing up in Kentucky, living in Missouri, Texas, Indiana, and for a year Bristol, England. But before I got my job at Weber State, I’d never lived anywhere western—never anywhere with mountain …

Each year, as we have for at least 12 years now, we celebrate Chinese New Year by inviting feng shui practitioner Valerie Litchfield to share her reflections and predictions for the year ahead. New beginnings and rebirth will quietly emerge from the wi …

Getting to know our neighbors at the Natural History Museum of Utah The myths of human separateness are many and varied: Mankind is special—we are the only animal with a soul and emotions, the only tool-users, the only producer of language and culture, …

40 Years with Bagley, Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune. Can you believe that Bagley has been making fun of Utah politics since 1979? Best Friends, Shannon Hale & LeUyen Pham, MacMillan. A graphic-novel sequel to Real Friends (2017) about growing up in …

Osho Zen Tarot:  Going with the Flow, Success, Guilt Medicine Cards: Horse (contrary), Fox, Dragonfly Mayan Oracle: Etznab (upside down), Kan (upside down), Transparency (upside down) Ancient Egyptian Tarot:  The Fool, Four of Swords, Queen of Wands Al …

Yellowstone’s migrating bison herds make grass grow more quickly and last longer according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Typically, grazing animals migrate in the spring to follow a “green wave” depend …

Utah winters generally last November through May, adjourning for a frenetic season of road construction. It’s that time of year when we alternately curse and exalt the four-letter words, snow and cold. I’ve been a winter hater for most of my 39 years i …

What to do and what not to do Years ago, one of my former students took a yoga class at a local health club. My student had been practicing for several years and had developed a healthy range of motion, meaning she was plenty flexible, but not extremel …

40 Years with Bagley, Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune. Can you believe that Bagley has been making fun of Utah politics since 1979? Best Friends, Shannon Hale & LeUyen Pham, MacMillan. A graphic-novel sequel to Real Friends (2017) about growing up in …

Getting to know our neighbors at the Natural History Museum of Utah The myths of human separateness are many and varied: Mankind is special—we are the only animal with a soul and emotions, the only tool-users, the only producer of language and culture, …

A conversation with Kip Yost Last summer, curious to learn more about Salt Lake’s new homeless resource shelters, I was reading everything I could find on the topic. Since the implementation of Operation Rio Grande, the conversation seemed to lack stro …

Reclaiming the caduceus The caduceus, better known as the medical symbol, with its central staff, entwined snakes and feathered wings on top, looks uncannily similar to the subtle energy system described by the ancient Hindus of India. In this system, …

A cross-cultural gathering of growers, makers, purveyors and eaters Now in its fourth year, the Utah Farm and Food Conference returns to Cedar City to showcase an impressive array of farmers, writers, agricultural university professors, lawmakers, arti …

Belong to where you are I’ve moved many times in my life, growing up in Kentucky, living in Missouri, Texas, Indiana, and for a year Bristol, England. But before I got my job at Weber State, I’d never lived anywhere western—never anywhere with mountain …

First Intermountain Psychedelics Symposium meets in Salt Lake City this month If you’re a regular reader of this publication, chances are you’re already familiar with psychedelic therapy. Over the last three decades CATALYST has covered the growing use …

Businesses rewarded for implementing greener ways The Utah Recycling Alliance encompasses all the Rs—reducing, reusing, refurbishing, repurposing…and when all those avenues have been traveled, finally recycling. Their mission is to “empower people, o …

Can a desert tortoise preserve still preserve habitat if it has a four-lane highway running through it? Through January 6, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are accepting public comments on environmental impacts fro …

Public comments are needed on a catastrophically bad Travel Plan for the San Rafael Desert that would turn a remote desert landscape into a motorized free-for-all. Under the BLM preferred alternative, motorized off–road routes would expand from 300 mil …

A community in the thrall of the attention economy feels like an industrial farm, where our jobs are to grow straight and tall, side by side, producing faithfully without ever touching. – Jenny Odell (How to Do Nothing)   Proposed highway endanger …

Ask your out-of-state friends and family to call their U.S. representatives and senators to co-sponsor America’s Redrock Wilderness Act (ARWA)! ARWA will be re-introduced in Congress by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il) and Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-CA …

Inversions are natural events due to cold temperatures and our surrounding mountains (for a more detailed explanation, take a look at CATALYST’s January 2018 issue). When air becomes stagnant, pollution, which normally gets ventilated away, ends up tra …

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has announced that on January 1, 2020 the 14-mile Legacy Parkway will raise speed limits to 65 miles per hour and allow large semi-trucks to use the road for the first time since construction. The rule chang …

Jan 1 Average temps today: high 32º, low 22º. Sunrise: 7:51am. Sunset: 5:10pm. Here’s a timely spiritual practice from Bulgarian philosopher and mystic Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov (1900-1986): Say the first 12 days of the year represent the whole year (Jan …

China’s “National Sword” policy, enacted in January 2018, has changed the landscape for recycling in Utah. In the past, the contents of curbside blue bins were loaded into shipping containers and sent overseas. Now, the U.S. is trying to build back its …