sustainable lifestyles symposium - day 6

it ended as it began: me, susan, jay, and alta working in the kitchen in the afternoon; this time cleaning and packing up. occasionally i'd run out to the parking area to say goodbye to someone. in the morning we gathered a final time to wrap-up, which at times was very emotional.

so much hope for transformation: in our personal lives, in our communities, in our planet.

i have pages of notes to sift through. in the coming weeks and months i hope to have the time and energy to post and share and to gather your thoughts and feelings.

sustainable lifestyles symposium - day 5

i worked in the kitchen a lot today. alta and kathleen are wonderful. talked with kathleen about her years living in hell's kitchen in nyc, how she was forced from the textile industry by changes in nafta, took up theology at st. mike's, is now a big sister and alta's dear friend and looking for... for something. i rode jay's tadopole, where upon i lost my blackberry which led to a curious string of happenings (it was found, btw). in the evening we went to share's solar power talk. then we celebrated: music, drumming, dance, dress-up!

sustainable lifestyles symposium - day 4

several of us discussed food policy and govenance with tony mcquail. then 8 of us drove to whole village, a sustainable, intentional ommunity and farm near caledonia where brenda gave us an orientation. on the drive down and back, i got to talk with different people: janie and i grew up in the niagara region and share a desire to bring food awareness to urbanites; tony and fran each talked with me about their farm lives; and jay answered all our questions about bikes and trikes. and gord and tony's discussion on vegetarian and meat diets was enlightening. and i found out, much to my surprise, that ian is not a teacher, but a former businessman turned quaker chaplain. the evening we watched and discussed The Power of Community: How Cuba survived peak oil.
pat, tony and fran, and ian had all been to cuba.

while washing dishes with tony, i asked him about being a quaker. i've been lucky enough to spend a whole day with this deeply thoughful, integrated, spiritual, peaceful, considerate human being.

sustainable lifestyles symposium - day 3

i stayed home today to work with family matters. i missed out on some cool stuff, but i had a great time with wes. i got out there for supper (the food is amazing, btw -- alta is an amazing person and cook). i washed dishes with bruce gillis and found out a lot about site 41 and living in nunavut. the evening's speakers were fran and tony mcquail, well-known ecological farmers near goderich. afterwards, i got the banjo out and an impromptu singalong happened with john, ravi, pat, alta, sue, and myself.

sustainable lifestyles symposium - day 2

jillian hovey of the Sustainable Living Network gave three worKshops on permaculture and after supper a slideshow of homes made from natural materials and using natural means of cycling energy, water, and waste. she also brought hundreds of books for sale from www.sustainablelivingbooks.com
of which i bought two: Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability by david holmgren and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by jared diamond.

jay showed a group of us her tadpole trike on which she rides year-round (i don't know if this is the exact model or manufacturer, but it's pretty close).

sustainable lifestyles symposium - day 1

sunday, breezy and sunny at camp neekaunis on georgian bay.

arrived at 2 pm, registered for the sustainable lifestyles symposium, and pretty soon at work in the kitchen making vegan tortiere an roast vegetables for 2 dozen or so. already making heart-friends and sharing life-stories.

met at 5 with everyone for an intro to each other and the symposium. after supper, a teleconference with lois barber of the world future council and pru moore of 2020 vision.

met people with lots of experience and skills in facilitating and/or healing.

bought two books from sustainable living books

homework tonight: strategic planning workbook for my personal future for a low energy, low carbon world. wish i had more time to write in depth.

eco-catastrophe and the new creation

as a teenager when i first became aware of the politics of food, i made a sign with crayons on yellow construction paper and tacked it to my bedroom wall: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

through a series of fortunate coincidences, or perhaps because i am dancing ever closer with the True Music, i came across this quote by John Robbins:

"Maybe we aren't on a one-way road to oblivion. Maybe we're standing at a crossroad, facing what may be the most important choice human beings have ever faced, a choice between two directions. In one direction is what we will have if we do nothing to alter our present course. By doing nothing, we are choosing a world of pollution and extinctions, of widening chasms and deepening despair, a world where humanity moves ever farther from achieving its highest aspirations and ever nearer to living its darkest fears.

"Our other choice is to actively engage with the living world. On this path we work responsibly and joyfully to make our lives, and our societies, into expressions of our love for ourselves, for each other, and for the living Earth. In this direction we honor our longing to give our children, and all children, a world with clean air and water, with blue skies and abundant wildlife, with a stable climate and a healthy environment.

"If you live with fear for our future, you are not alone.

"If you live with dreams of a better world, you are not alone."

John Robbins, The Food Revolution

confession: i've never made it to the end of the bible; never read revelation; afterall, isn't that where all those rapture-crazed fundamentalists find their inspiration? i'm not interested in the rapture; not interested foresaking this world for the next; don't go in for some elitist club of predestined select; jesus came to save us all; and to foresake this beautiful jewel of god's creation seems downright sinful. but evidently, from the discussions in the small groups, the book of revelation lives up to its name; however, it is a very difficult and controversial writing, with many schools of interpretation.

nevertheless, there will be an end of days and a second coming of christ in a world made new. a popular view is that this world will be destroyed and a new one created, like noah and the flood.

but, in conversation with pastor kitson, we discussed an alternative: that this world will be transformed to the new, through a cleansing and purging, as in a crucible.

and i dimly remember a conversation with kate long ago and late into the day, that perhaps in the new world we will come to see god in each one of us and so bring about the second coming.

and perhaps, then, we are in the midst of this transformation, and each of us stands at our personal crossroad, and collectively we stand at the crossroad of creation.

the personal is political, the inward is outward, and within you without you.

so, as you and i stand at the crossroad, be careful we don't take the wrong turn and follow those on the path of destruction, for "their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."

"If you live with fear for our future, you are not alone. If you live with dreams of a better world, you are not alone."

we are what we eat. may we eat well.