ThinkLady

Bare trees

Dear December 2011  --

I’m just coming off a week-long staycation and the peace it brought to my life is yet another reminder of the joy found in simple rest. I’m thankful for the opportunity you brought to dawdle a bit with family and friends, to ponder endings and beginnings.

With ThinkMan on staycation too, our little family made art, read books, lounged, watched movies, talked, went out to eat, took a day trip to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, a wildly beautiful place, and in general did what we wanted when we wanted. Callie and I stayed up late every night and slept late every day and got our days and nights completely turned around. It was heavenly.

Now, it’s back to reality, a reality that after our tranquil pause seems to have fewer edges, a reality that turns my mind to the meaning of work, a reality that finds me thinking on being 55, closing in on 56 and the years to come.

It’s 2012 now; in 2016 I will be 60; in 2018, 62 and eligible for early retirement, unless that too changes in this constantly shifting world. I remember thinking when I was in my 20s how any year after 2000 sounded so far away, so futuristic, so beyond imagining, and here I am, my oh my, living the future, contemplating what retirement might be like.

Post-50 life evolves differently mentally, physically, spiritually, and in our society it is not a particularly easy process. We are forced to compete for a living with energetic, lively, saavy 20- and 30-somethings at the start of their careers. They are beautiful in their enthusiasm and zest, and in some work environments, the integration of generations is smooth and gracious. In others, well, let’s just say the situation is one that does no generation any favors.

If the experience and wisdom that comes with working for 30+ years were indeed valued or honored in our society, the paradigm for the less-than-ideal situations might be different, but increasingly such is not the case. Well-documented deleterious effects of ageism are sadly alive and well in the job marketplace, leaving many in the 50+ crowd scrambling for jobs or out of work, and vast swaths of younger adults reinventing the wheel, sailing into storms without the benefit of sage guidance. Profit, celebrity and image reign as monarchs, experience and wisdom are deemed unfashionable, dowdy, and too expensive – and indeed the overall message is post-50, you best get out of the way. 

The question then becomes, get out of the way where? For unless one is a white-middle-aged or older male CEO, in which case your worth is hundreds of times that of the common person – the job prospects and the pay for those post-50 is on the decrease, at times astronomically. I’ve seen it happen over and over with family and friends and I’ve experienced it first-hand. It’s an achingly brutal and cruel process for a so-called civilized society, but then there are dark niches and corners aplenty in these modern times that are not gracious.

All the more reason, December, why I am grateful for you – you bring a flow and pattern to our lives, a language I understand more clearly with each passing year, a ceremonial and metaphorical housecleaning in a world we have not one iota of control over. You break down the reality of things – it’s like seeing the forest bold and tall, tree trunks darkly outlined against the sky, all their leaves gone. You bring serenity and clarity, the wisdom to know what might still be changed, and what must be accepted, and just as the trees let go of their leaves year after year, I’ve come to realize, during your visits, this is part of what I too will do the rest of my life – let go.

Time marches faster and faster, often whizzing by at a dizzying pace. I realize there are some things on my bucket list that I will probably never do. I realize I cannot save the world. I realize I am insignificant, not in a demeaning way, but in a natural way that always has been and always will be.

In making peace with this, and with my aging body and mind, I gasp from time to time. This is not an easy process, and yet I realize it is the same process every animal, human and non-human, faces in one way or another.

Can I do it gracefully, with meaning, with graciousness? I ask myself this often; I am sure I am not always successful at it. I prioritize the things that are most important: Family and friends; laughter and joy; days spent in the garden feeling the essence of life in the dark earth crumbling between my fingers, days in the sun, rain, snow; and days of listening to the world around me. I say goodbye to those things (or try to) that are not important, that are not necessary or that do not fulfill.

Success looks and feels different. It is often tiny, magical, intimate, anonymous. It is doing meaningful things with whatever time I have left -- or doing nothing at all but enjoying a winter’s day -- the thousands of hues of browns, maroons and greys in a landscape, the thin pale blue of sky, the slight yellow of sun filtering through bare trees warming my skin.

When someone laughs, I know in the deepest marrow of my bones that these fragments of joy are what life is all about – that the modern world we live in is not black or white or good or bad -- it just is – a distraction -- and it too, with all of its luxuries, amenities, and cruel indignities - shall pass. When it does, whatever humanity lives on may yet learn again what life is all about – may return to that ancient way of knowing -- of just being.

December, you are always welcome at my hearth. I’m looking forward to being with you again in a few months. I know you’ll be here before we know it.

With gratitude --

ThinkLady

Technorati Tags: change,ageism,time,life,family,friends,resilience

When being a greenhorn means hope

Tricia Dameron, a.k.a Oklavore

My friend Tricia Dameron, 30, has been blogging as Okla-vore since 2007. In her blog she passionately explores her interest in all sorts of foodie things: cooking, baking, preserving, eating, shopping, food culture and traditions, endangered food ways, farming, ranching. Tricia brings an adventurous spirit, indefatigable curiosity and plucky, self-deprecating humor to her blogging endeavors, sharing her triumphs and failures so we can all learn from them, and I’ve come to greatly appreciate her careful research and knowledge.

Because of her passion for fresh, healthy local food and farming, Tricia’s organized a very cool event – happening Saturday night, June 25th – the Oklahoma premiere of the film The Greenhorns, at IAO Gallery. The documentary …

“ … explores the lives of America's young farming community - its spirit, practices, and needs. It is the filmmaker's hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can build the case for those considering a career in agriculture - to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming.”

According to the film’s website, there are very compelling reasons for the making of Greenhorns:

“The average farmer is 57. America loses two acres of farmland per minute. One third of today's kindergarteners will develop type 2 diabetes. The last 30 years have seen a protracted crisis in American agriculture. We have fewer farmers, less land, a degraded soil base and intensifying corporate control over production, processing and technology.”

So we’ve got plenty of reasons to be concerned about current the state of agriculture, but here, joyfully, energetically, enthusiastically, ebulliently enter The Greenhorns and Tricia. Both give us plenty of reasons to hope. 

Technorati Tags: Film,hope,agriculture,awareness,change,sustainability,local food

When one is not a lonely number

Photo credit Julie Evans

YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip screened last night at the deadCenter Film Festival and will screen again tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Harkins Theater, Oklahoma City. I couldn’t go last night but am getting very excited about the Saturday screening. Just in case you missed it, YERT was winner of the Audience Award at the 2011 Environmental Film Festival at Yale.

Today I’m hoping to snag some cool YERT swag at the Meet & Greet with Mark Dixon Transition OKC is hosting from 4-6 p.m., Elemental Coffee, 815 N. Hudson. Come on down! First ten people at the Meet & Greet win a reusable YERT ChicoBag, and Dixon will also be giving away two copies of Better World Shopping Guide by Ellis Jones.

Couple of days ago on a conference call with Carolyne Stayton, executive director, Transition US, I mentioned YERT was screening here (Carolyne is interviewed in YERT), and boy, she really perked up. Her voice got all and happy and she said, “I love those guys. They are so much fun.” I can’t think of any better recommendation.

Final words.

And finally … the last installment of the Q&A email interview with Mark Dixon and Ben Evans, YERT’s producers and directors. A huge heartfelt Okie thanks to them for being so thoughtful in answering the questions and for taking so much time with this. Gotta say -- these two guys are rich with insights – realistic and hopeful – a useful balance for all of us as we keep on transitioning. Be sure to read all the way to the end – they saved their best words for last.

Q: What was the most inspiring thing you discovered on your journey?

A: Wes Jackson and the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., were particularly inspiring. He's really addressing a number of problems simultaneously by rethinking the entire idea of agriculture.  His visionary concept of a perennial polyculture addresses soil erosion, water scarcity, food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, fossil fuel use, pesticide use, biodiversity, and general ecological health in one fell swoop. t's pretty amazing stuff. And once his work is done, he plans to give it away to humanity. Our children and grandchildren will be thanking him, big time.

Q: Most interesting?

A: In Idaho we found a guy with an idea to pave all the roads in the U.S. with solar panels. His invention, Solar Roadways (which is featured in the film), was one of the most interesting ideas we found all year - largely because it seems so outlandish and impossible on the face of it. But the more we dug into it, the more sense it made and the more brilliant it seemed. The short video we created to help get the word out about his invention has been our most watched video by far - amassing a million YouTube hits in the past ten months. So apparently, other people find it pretty interesting too.

Q: Most meaningful?

A: It's hard to pin down a single most meaningful part of the trip.  Certainly WWOOFing in Wyoming was very meaningful - getting to dig in the dirt and really be a part of growing our own food. Visiting with Wes Jackson at the Land Institute was an incredibly profound and meaningful experience, as was our time spent with Joel Salatin on his farm in Virginia. 

Bob Berkebile's story of turning personal tragedy and disaster into the inspiration for our modern green architecture movement and, by extension, a way to help others (like the people of Greensburg, Kan.) rebuild more wisely in the wake of their own disasters is an incredibly meaningful example of the power of one person to leverage their own pain in the service of humanity.

And of course, the unexpected pregnancy on the trip amplified the meaning of just about everything we encountered and served as a constant reminder of exactly what's at stake as we navigate our way through these challenging times on planet earth.

Q: Most discouraging and/or darkest moment?

A: Covering mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining in West Virginia was probably the trip's darkest hour. We all went into a depression after that - it was hard to wrap our heads around a country bombing itself in that way. While we had heard about MTR and knew that it was a problem well before we got to West Virginia, nothing could prepare us for seeing it up close and first hand from the air and from the ground. The complete and permanent devastation of an entire region of our country - one of the oldest and most bio-diverse regions on the planet and its uniquely American culture - in the name of a very marginal short-term increase in profits for a few coal barons is an almost unimaginable crime against humanity and nature. The insanity of this practice really hit us hard, and we hope that the film, in some small way, can help end this ongoing environmental and social tragedy once and for all.

Q: Happiest and most fulfilling moment?

A: As a self-professed sunset hound, Ben filmed a lot of sunsets all over the country on the trip which have been fun to relive on film, although Mark ended up filming perhaps the most memorable sunset from the back of a ferry leaving Alaska. The wonderful people that we met all along the way in every corner of the country and the tearful hugs and mutual inspiration that we shared with them has been one of the best things about the experience. And it was especially wonderful when we could use our journey to connect people from different walks of life or different parts of the country who needed each other (but perhaps didn't know it yet) - something that happened a number of times on the trip.

Introducing people all around the country to the solutions and ideas that we've fallen in love with - like Earthships or Solar Roadways - and hearing them get excited and say they want to build an Earthship now or help make Solar Roadways a reality has really been fulfilling. And of course, the journey of the pregnancy and birth, while it was a little challenging for Mark to deal with at the time, has proven in the months and years since to have been one of the most fulfilling moments, not only for Julie and Ben, but of the trip itself in that it really gave the entire experience a new level of depth, meaning, and humanity that it might not have had otherwise. 

Q: What do you hope people will take away from the film?

A: We really hope people come away from the film recognizing that the most powerful solutions to the environmental challenges we face happen to also be the most satisfying, nourishing ways to live, and that people are joyfully exploring and sharing those solutions all around the country.

And we hope they recognize that they too have the power of "one" - that none of us has to be any smarter or prettier or richer than we are right now to have an enormous, immediate, and lasting positive impact on our own communities and on the larger world around us - as exemplified by the everyday heroes in the film. That's a pretty empowering idea, when you tap into it.

Technorati Tags: environment,film,hope,sustainability,transition,YERT,change

You are not alone: learning more and growing community

Part 4 of wake-up calls, insurance and having a plan

This is the final post in a four-part series started in March on resiliency and emergency planning. Part 1 covered waking up to our vulnerabilities; Part 2 explored responding versus reacting; Part 3, sobering up, covered a few, very basic food and water storage strategies.

In this post, Part 4, the focus is on resources for learning more and opportunities for connecting with others doing the same work.

If you have time, doing your own emergency planning and research will uncover a host of resources to help tailor a plan that’s most suited to your unique situation. A variety of books, blogs and websites offer plenty of information but sifting through them can take time, energy and patience. At the outset if you would rather cut-to-the-chase, here are few resources to serve as a portal.

• Get a Kit – FEMA’s emergency planning guide & check lists
• www.72hours.org – The City of San Francisco’s very comprehensive emergency planning guide
• A Simple Plan -- A post by my dear friend and blogger, Christine Patton, a.k.a. Peak Oil Hausfrau, on short and long-term planning. Plenty of additional info on her blog, about everything from backyard gardening to cooking with a solar oven. She’s one of the most prepared people I know.
• “Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs: The Thrivalist’s Guide to Life Without Oil” by Wendy Brown. Personable, down-to-earth, easy to read, full of useful info and resources and mostly geared to longer-term planning.
• “Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens,” by Kathy Harrison, another book with a practical, down-to-earth approach.
• “The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide,” by John Seymour. Although geared toward longer term self-reliant living for those on small farms, it may seem like this book doesn’t have much to offer urban dwellers. Guess again -- this book offers a compendium of how-tos on a range of subjects, from soap-making to composting and is full of beautiful illustrations and graphics. A great resource for the home library and even if you never do any of these things – fun to read and browse.

Organizations providing a portal for actually meeting other people doing the same things, working on the same issues, providing ways and means of sharing knowledge and building community:

• Transition OKC (TOKC) –  a local Oklahoma City group working on these types of issues, sharing info, and networking (I volunteer with this group). TOKC offers an ongoing slate of free or low-cost workshops, films, presentations and events focused on helping people and communities in OKC become more prepared and resilient in the face of climate change, peak oil and economic instability. We like to have fun while we’re doing this work. We collaborate and partner with other groups, businesses, and organizations, serve as a catalyst and connector, and we organize practical projects, often with an emphasis on localization, a strategy that a growing number of leaders around the world believe will help offset many of the challenges we face. We eat a lot of potluck meals together (a lot). We are part of the vibrant Transition movement, which has more than 300 initiatives around the world. My friend and fellow Transitioner, Christine Patton and I started TOKC in Jan. 2009; it’s a program of Sustainable OKC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
• Oklahoma Sustainability Network -- a statewide nonprofit networking resource with a wonderful listserv and multiple chapters involved in an array of sustainable endeavors.
• Transition US – a nonprofit organization that provides inspiration, encouragement, support, networking and training for Transition initiatives in the U.S. There are now 90 Transition initiatives across the U.S. -- take a look at the map on their website and seen if there’s one near you, or if you’re interested in starting one in your community, school, or town, they can help.
• Transition Network -- the international hub for the Transition movement. You can sort through Transition initiatives from all over the world here and browse loads of ideas and resources.

More books. If you’re into reading, dive into this big fat list of recommended books. Every book on this list is part of our personal library, guiding our family as we work on our own resiliency planning.

Again this is just a starting place. You may have a whole different set of resources you’ve found that work for you (good on you if you do) and if you’re up for sharing, please feel free to do so. What websites, books, blogs do you recommend for resiliency and emergency preparedness planning?

Technorati Tags: awareness,books,change,climate change,community,emergency planning,home,hope,peak oil,partnerships,resilience,sustainability,transition okc,transition movement

Full-scale Permaculture course comes to Oklahoma

I’ve been working with Transition OKC (TOKC) as a volunteer co-chair and co-founder for going on three years now. The Transition model is deeply rooted in the Permaculture design system, and although I am still very much a beginner when it comes to understanding Permaculture’s beautiful principles and how to implement them, no matter how often I read about them, and see them in action, I never fail to be inspired.

So it is with great excitement I write about this Permaculture Course TOKC, which is a program of Sustainable OKC, has organized. And full disclosure – I’m selfishly really looking forward to taking the course myself!

A full-scale Permaculture Design Course, all 72-hours of it, is now open for enrollment, and will take place in Oklahoma City and at Turtle Rock Farm near Red Rock this fall. The course will be taught by Scott Pittman, of the Permaculture Institute of Santa Fe, with guest teaching by Oklahoma City permaculturist, Bob Waldrop.

The course will take place from Aug.–Nov. 2011 and is designed around two long weekends (Thurs.-Sun.) and two weekend-only sessions (Sat.-Sun.), for a full 12 days of instruction. This means working people will miss only four work days total (calculated on a regular work week being M-F). Classes are generally 9 a.m.–5 p.m. This is a certificate-level class.

A $300 deposit is required to reserve a spot in the class and a short questionnaire/essay is also required, to be submitted at the time of deposit payment. The Permaculture Institute is handling registration via their website – dates of the classes, registration, course syllabus, essay outline and other details are available.

Permaculture design offers an array of solutions for growing and designing resilient, healthy and sustainable communities, and compliments fields such as biomimicry which emulate natural models. Or as Bob put it in a recent article about Permaculture in the Oklahoma Gazette,

“It [permaculture] is the art and science of designing sustainable human habitations and systems that care for people, care for the planet and have a care for the future.”

Some long-range planners, analysts, designers, sustainability advocates and environmentalists believe Permaculture has the potential to guide humanity through many of the challenges we face, such as economic instability, volatile energy supplies and prices, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. As an affirmation of this concept, last year the U.S. Army sent several members of Oklahoma's National Guard through a specially designed Permaculture Course at the Permaculture Institute in Santa Fe prior to deployment to Afghanistan. You can read more about that inspiring effort here.

Transition OKC received a grant from the City of Oklahoma City Office of Sustainability which lowers the full fee for the class to $750 (a very nice discount from the usual $900 or $1,000) so we’re very blessed. Big shout out to Transition OKC team member Randy Marks for obtaining the grant. Lodging and meals are not included in the tuition and are the responsibility of course participants.

The first session will take place at Turtle Rock Farm Retreat near Billings, Okla., about an hour and half north of OKC. This is a working farm, Platinum certified with Oklahoma Tourism’s ECO program, and part of the Oklahoma Agritourism program as well. They serve as a center for sustainability, spirituality and healing, and are located on the beautiful, rolling Oklahoma prairie. Grounds include a labyrinth, a recently completed straw-bale hermitage and lake. The farm has alpacas, honey bees, gardens, chickens, wheat and cattle.

• Meals – Bring your own lunch.
• Lodging. Participants are responsible for their own lodging.
• Turtle Rock offers a limited number of accommodations on a first come, first serve basis. Accommodations include a 100-year-old farmhouse overlooking the prairie and a brick rambler overlooking a lake. Some rooms include double beds so if you’re willing to share a bed with someone, more spaces are available. If you stay at Turtle Rock, a continental breakfast is provided. More details on Turtle Rock’s website or contact them directly if you have questions. You’re also welcome to camp out on the farm and utilize their bathroom facilities. They may also have a teepee available for camping. Please bear in mind it will be Aug. – likely very hot.
• Perry and Ponca City are about 20-25 minutes away (Perry is south of the farm, Ponca City is north) and both offer lodging and eateries, with Ponca City being the larger town. Both offer the usual hotel/motel chain lodging as well as locally owned B&Bs and inns. TravelOK.com offers great information on lodging and dining for both towns. Just go to the website and enter the town/city name in the search line, you’ll get info on the offerings in both categories – just click through to see what appeals to you.

Please feel free to share this info with others.

Here’s to happy Oklahoma permaculturing!

Technorati Tags: biomimicry,change,community,design,ecology,environment,future,hope,green living,gardening,inspiration,nature,species,sustainability,resilience,permaculture