Notes from Bowen

2003-11-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

2003-11-17T19:24:00.000-08:00

sting wrote these lyrics about self love and wholeness...the union of male and female in one person...the yin and the yang...

The Secret Marriage
From the album Nothing Like the Sun (A&M)
by Sting

No earthly church has ever blessed our union
No state has ever granted us permission
No family bond has ever made us two
No company has ever earned commission

No debt was ever paid no dowry to be gained
No treaty over border land or power
No semblance of the world outside remained
To stain the beauty of this nuptial hour

The secret marriage vow is never spoken
The secret marriage can never be broken

No flowers on the alter
No white veil in your hair
No maiden dress to alter
No Bible oath to swear

The secret marriage vow is never spoken
The secret marriage can never be broken

2003-11-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

i was very happy this week to meet Raffi, local hero of children everywhere, and have him agree to be on the board of an organization that i'm a part of: Business Alliance for Local Living Economy BC. as well as being a singer and songwriter, Raffi founded Child Honouring, a movement born to advocacy for a healthy life, a healthy planet for all children. in a speech to the New York Academy Of Medicine, he says:

It’s a little odd at times, being both a children’s troubadour and doing advocacy work. There are days at home, where in the morning I’m reading about toxic chemicals in our waterways, and a little later I’m playing my guitar and singing Six Little Ducks. Or I’m on the phone, talking about endangered beluga whales in the St. Lawrence, and later singing Baby Beluga.

The contrast between hearing about endocrine disrupters, and singing songs like This Little Light of Mine (I’m gonna let it shine), can be jarring. But the songs provide an uplifting balance, and a poignant reminder of what the advocacy’s all about.

A COVENANT FOR HONOURING CHILDREN by Raffi

We find these joys to be self evident: That all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, worthy of respect.

The embodiment of life, liberty and happiness, children are original blessings, here to learn their own song.

Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving "village." And to pursue a life of purpose.

* *
We affirm our duty to nourish and nurture the young, to honour their caring ideals as the heart of being human.

To recognize the early years as the foundation of life, and to cherish the contribution of young children to human evolution.

* *
We commit ourselves to peaceful ways and vow to keep from harm or neglect these, our most vulnerable citizens.

As guardians of their prosperity we honour the bountiful Earth whose diversity sustains us.

Thus we pledge our love for generations to come.

2003-10-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

my good friend michael herman posted from kathmandu yesterday at www.globalchicago.net. he included a quote from the breakfast table: ' it is uncertainty that makes everything possible'. later, i came across something on uncertainty from john ralston saul. he says that our ability to live with uncertainty is where the genius in humanity is released. He goes on to say ‘periodially, we seem to stare at this uncertainty in amazement, as if overwhelmed by such an unsatisfactory requirement. And then we turn back to the utilitarian manifestations of our thousands of talents and characteristics…organizing and measuring and executing…as if these talents were more real and we more mediocre…as if we were incapable of embracing what we are.’

2003-10-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

i have a friend who's six years old, who called just now from her room. she was whispering.....her and her brother did something terrible that she doesn't want to talk about and she's now in solitary....she asks me 'penny, what would you do if you were in my situation and were completely bored?'...so i tell her to slide notes under the bedroom door...sprinkle them with hearts and sad, sorry faces....just told her how to spell 'help'...

2003-04-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Check out what friends Chris Corrigan, Carol McKinnon et al are gifting this Island with on Sunday nights…. an excerpt from Kathryn Thomson’s letter in the Undercurrent this week…

On Sunday I experienced something extraordinary – a choir of angels was singing in the United church. This choir must be Bowen Island’s best kept secret but this intimate music is too inspirational to be kept a secret for long.

The music is contemplative, consisting of plainsong (Gregorian chants) and hymns. The vocal harmony is beautiful – each voice responding to the others with great sensitivity, even delicacy. The simple service combines candlelight, silence and scripture with these simple chants to help build awareness of Spirit in our selves and in community. Alison Nixon explains “The chants are meant to be sung for at least seven minutes and ideally for 15 to 20 minutes. It takes at least that long for the chant to penetrate the heart.”

William Allen, Cantor of St. Barnabas Anglican Church explains Gregorian chant this way: “the vision of creation expressed in by this music is one in which the life of humanity is ever more surely becoming the divine life. It’s sound is unified, loving and merciful, pointing to healing and wholeness.”

As I listened to this music, I experienced a deep sense of the sacred and a mood of stillness and reverence. T.S. Eliot contemplated this experience in Four Quartets: “To apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time, is an occupation for the saint…for most of us there is only the unattended moment, the moment in and out of time, the distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight…or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but you are the music while the music lasts”.

2003-03-29T12:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday, March 29, 2003 :::

The tables were cleared, windows were thrown open and Bowen Islanders danced to the music of Los Furios last night. La Mangerie is a favorite hangout that brings in local bands on Fridays and last night was a party. Thank you to proprieters (and talent bookers) Miriam, Remy and Julie for creating a place where people of all ages can burn up the dance floor together. Even the liquor inspector was discreetly tapping his toes. Riley Sparks (13?) won for best t shirt; scrawled in black marker across his back was 'there is no government like no government'(also happens to be a bumpersticker on the mayors car). The last thing spoken by the lead singer was 'Bowen Island rocks'! ...which is what I was thinking too.

More about the band from various sources:

Where have all the rudeboys gone? They're right here in Vancouver, skanking it up to the mad mad sounds of local-boys-gone-bad, The Skatomatics. Everywhere these rude ones bring their fast, fierce, and fun mix of ska, reggae, and punk, the party people are sure to follow.

Los Furios style is Ska, Punk, Latin and Reggae. Los Furios shows have attracted people of all ages from teens to 40 plus. It’s like watching a party on stage. Los Furios have a great stage presence with huge amounts of energy. With Latin breakdowns, catchy punk choruses, booty shaking ska, and reggae jams thrown about. You are sure to dance, cheer some beers, and sing a few lines.

Next up was a six piece Ska band who sounded like they actually rehearsed… this unique quality excited the crowd because they actually shouted and stomped for an encore. WESTENDER, March 6-12th 2003, Chad ‘Fuzzo’ Fraser.

They are currently working on a western Canada tour and later this summer the western seaboard (Vancouver to San Diego). Recent releases include the All Skandian Club 4 CD on Stomp Records (Montreal, PQ) and their premier CD being released April 2003. So if you see them playing your town, don’t miss the party. Peace.

2003-03-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

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Just came across the following at Michael Hermans posting: 'A Critical Path'. http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?CriticalPath.

Written by Buckminster Fuller, it says alot about how individual peace efforts matter.

''The political and economic systems and the political and economic leaders of humanity are not in final examination; it is the integrity of each individual human that is in final examination. On personal integrity hangs humanity's fate. You can deceive others, you can deceive your brain-self, but you can't deceive your mind-self -- for mind deals only in the discovery of truth and the interrelationship of all the truths. The cosmic laws with which mind deals are noncorruptible.

Cosmic evolution is omniscient God comprehensively articulate.''

2003-03-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

I've been involved in some community planning work this week. Also doing some life-planning on my own crazy little planet. A thought keeps coming back..openess doesn't know what should happen next...what is needed. 'knowing' would be an extension of what already is. Maybe I'll have more to say about this later...

2003-03-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

Just came back from taking the dogs for a walk under a really great night sky. Sabu is a visiting Alaskan Malmute who spent his first few years in the Northwest Territories, pulling sleds in his spare time. Bowen had it's first snowfall of the year this week and it's all but dissapeared. Coming back from walking, Sabu pushed the gate open and curled up on the grass. Beside the very last little pile of snow in sight.

2003-03-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

I recently went for tea and a walk around Carol and Peter's farm on Bowen. They've been on their acreage for more than twenty years and at one point were very close to a life of subsistance from this land, trading (neuchatel soft goats cheese, wool etc) for what they couldn't produce. The property has the look and feel of all those years of care. It was easy for me to be sentimental about such a lifestyle but Carol was pragmatic when she talked about what it was like to have fruit ripening on the 110 or so fruit trees. When the first cherries were ready to pick, they were shared with neighbours, turned into jams, pies frozen and canned fruit. Cherry juice stained hands, cupboards and floors...and then everything got cleaned up... to start again the next day, all summer long, whenever the produce was ripe. Two acres of vegetable gardens, berry patches and 110 fruit trees! It's hard for me to fathom.

Carol and I talked about the inconsistencies she sees now in weather patterns that she didn't see then. More draught at odd times of the year. This reminded me of a long time citizen I met in the Pemberton Valley once. He was well known for being able to predict weather and most interesting was a story he told me about the big flood they had there in the eighties. He warned people in the spring that it would happen because all of the mice were building their nests in the rafters instead of below the floorboards. He had seen it twice before in his lifetime and sure enough, again the valley flooded.

I wonder what, if anything, happens to these kinds of natural phenomonon as our weather patterns become more unpredictable.

2003-02-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

Last weekend on a walk in the Cape with friends Finn, Aine, Caitlin and Chris, we spotted a small meadow of pale green stinging nettles growing up among the ferns. Caitlin described a really delicious 'nettle lasagne' she'd been served once so I did a search when I got home and found some great recipes...creamy nettle and potato soup, nettle tagliatelle, shitake & nettle quiche, nettle tea...nettle beer. Also found some handy facts: May 21 - 30 is 'be nice to nettles week' in the UK; Mark Lane, Head Gardener at Buckingham Palace stresses the important role of nettles as habitat for nymphalid butterflies; Horse breeders often add dried nettle to horse feeds to give the animals a sleek coat.

So, I just came back from the Cape again with a small harvest..and the soup is simmering. I wore gloves but must have brushed up against some shoots and my wrists were stung. A few welts don't feel so badly but more can be quite miserable. Not surprisingly, it turns out that even the venom is useful; it contains an anti-histamine, an anti-athsmatic, and seratonin and has been used successfully to treat arthritis.

Just tasted the soup and it is really spectacular!

2003-02-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

Some thoughts about compassion, written by Bhiksuni Pema Chodron Buddhist teacher and abbess, Gampo Abbey, Canada. From YES! Magazine: Winter 2003 Edition.

Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of a mountain. We leave our attachments and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top. At the peak we have transcended all pain. The only problem with this metaphor is that we leave all the others behind-our drunken brother, our schizophrenic sister, our tormented animals and friends. Their suffering continues, unrelieved by our personal escape.

In the process of discovering our true nature, the journey goes down, not up. It's as if the mountain pointed toward the center of the earth instead of reaching into the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. We jump into it. We slide into it. We tiptoe into it. We move toward it however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we will let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of compassion. Right down there is the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.

2003-02-09T08:52:00.000-08:00

Between Vancouver and Lilloett, up and down the Coast Mountain Range, there are approximately 75 unoccupied cabins. Some are old forestry cabins and some were built by adventurous people wanting a place in the mountains. There are no published maps that I know of - Dept. of Forest would prefer that they stayed unoccupied for fire-safety reasons. I know a family who take their children and have hiked into most of them and on these outings they've taken along bare-necessity kind of provisions to leave behind...mostly dishes and blankets that people donate or stuff picked up at goodwill.

Close to Vancouver is one such cabin. It's a 3 - 4 hour hike on an unmarked trail in to a place built by a man in the 40's. One afternoon in December, I hiked in with a friend. Travellers before had left wood, paper, candles and it was also stocked with the basics...no lock on the door, clean and well protected from the elements. A large leather-bound book stays in the cabin and was filled with old photos of the builder at the beginning of construction, drawings, and journal entries. Some entries are now made by the man's children and grandchildren.

2003-02-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

Bowen Island has a new community foundation! After two years of planning to get this off the ground, it was a week of exciting firsts: bank account, post office box, and our first cheque! A community foundation is a collection of ‘separate funds that is established by local citizens and held, in perpetuity, to enhance the quality of life in their community’. Acting as a charity, it allows families, individuals, businesses and non profits to build permanent endowments. Stories abound of the kinds of great things that foundations are able to do and the kind of leverage that gets built from small beginnings, eg, The Vancouver Foundation:

'With its roots in the early 1940’s, Vancouver Foundation is one of the oldest community foundations in North America. The history of the Foundation has all the elements of a good legend. There is an unlikely hero – a little known woman by the name of Alice G. MacKay who had saved $1,000 from her secretarial job and whose wish was to do something special for Vancouver – particularly for homeless women trapped in a cycle of poverty. There is a benevolent power – in the person of industrialist/philanthropist W.J. VanDusen who makes her wish come true. And there is an element of magic – in the transformation of $1,000 into $610 million'.

From the stories I’ve read, it seems that while the ‘umbrella’ fund is growing, other things grow in a community too: a culture of philanthropy, capacity and self-reliance, celebration, responsibility, good work and collaboration on important issues.

One of our first initiatives will be to support the start-up of a Youth in Philanthropy Council. I have a feeling that this group of people will be out front, leading the way for the rest of us. Stay tuned for stories big and small.

2003-02-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

Since hearing O'Keefe's memorial tribute in Florida to the astronauts of the Spaceshuttle Columbia, I've had some thoughts whispering around in the back of my head...thoughts of life lived excellently...life celebrating life...life making love to life.

2003-02-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

Sunday journal

A beautiful, highly fragrant plant is blooming outside my door; thymelaeaceae edgeworthia is native to China and Mongolia,and it’s bark is used to make fine quality paper. A friend brought cuttings back from a trip and looking around, I notice several other species in my garden that came from seed pods or pieces of branch that have been given to me over the years. Sometimes though, I pocketed the small beginnings of plant life while wandering through other gardens. I always felt just a little guilty…until this story…. About 15 years ago my friend took responsibility for the new plantings at a community college. On a trip to gather ideas from the local botanical gardens, he took the tiniest piece of a plant and propagated it. It thrived and later become a planting in his own garden. Over the years his interest in gardening grew and he developed a friendship with the master gardener of the botanical gardens. She was invited to a backyard barbecue at his home last summer and nothing could have made her happier than spotting that same plant in his garden. The original had disappeared under her care and despite an exhaustive search, she had not been able to replace it…he confessed all and she happily went away with the start of a new specimen.

: : :

I’m selling my home and a few people have wandered through looking at it today. During these showings I’ve been climbing up a hill in behind the house. From the top, there’s a remarkable view up Howe Sound over a grouping of smaller islands. It’s been great to sit up there looking down over everything…and it’s given me some reflective time to let go of this particular house. Sitting on a rock today, I remembered an interview I heard with Wade Davis about the nomadic people of the Penan. In the interview, he named less than 15 possessions that they have carried with them throughout history. In their language, there is no differentiation between the material and the non-material things they treasure…no difference in ‘currency’ between a spear and an idea...definitely no concept of 'owning' property.

Voice of a Penan elder: 'The land is sacred; it belongs to the countless numbers who are dead, the few who are living, and the multitudes of those yet to be born.'

Davis says ‘Dependent on the forest for life, and each other for survival, the Penan have, in effect, institutionalized individual generosity as a means of insulating the group as a whole from the inevitable uncertainties inherent in a hunting and gathering way of life.’

for more of this story, visit: www.context.org/ICLIB/IC29/Davis.htm

: : :

I’m drinking a cup of tea I brought back from Mexico. It's full of minerals and according to the smiling women in the little grocery store, is meant to be an aphrodisiac as well. Every country seems to have this kind of heightened folklore around a particular food or drink…would be good to have a love potion for the planet right about now.

2003-01-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

The real work of planet-saving will be small, humble, and humbling, and
(insofar as it involves love) pleasing and rewarding. Its jobs will be too
many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or
rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous."
~ Wendell Berry

today, I feel grateful to all the planet savers out there..especially those with their lives on the line.

2003-01-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

Canada is sending troops to Iraq. I felt this in my stomach somehow.

I needed to work diligently on my thesis today but sat early this morning with the daily paper in front of me and came to a halt. I went for a walk and thought about hope…innocence…faith…how fragile these are and how fragile the people of Iraq must feel in the face of such purposeful destruction.

I later called a dear friend who relayed a ‘planetary healing’ meditation … (this is the mini version)

Picture a small, sweet earth (softball size) floating in front of you. With all loving intention, imagine…

The air covering the planet cleaner and more able to sustain life.
The creeks, rivers, oceans…all cleaner and more able to sustain life.
The earth clean of toxicity growing plantlife in abundance and more able to sustain life.
Healing for holes, damage and stresses to the Earths surface.
Love, compassion and understanding for all people on the Earth.
All animals grown for food in captivity free from suffering.

Then a blessing….

Let the Whole Earth be Blessed with Peace, Harmony,
Progress, Prosperity, and Spirit.

a little hope…innocence…faith…. for now.

I’d be interested to hear about other loving responses out there…

2003-01-19T18:50:00.000-08:00

January 19

A Sense of Place: Wendell Berry, America's best-known bioregionalist, says if you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are. With a sense of place, your identity is defined—to a significant extent—by the natural features of the place where you live. Without a sense of place, what will fill the void?

Mulling this over, a series of vivid impressions came back to me from some of my first experiences of moving to Bowen Island. After a long day of packing up a house in Vancouver, I was sitting in a huge moving truck on the ferry. The moon was up and sky starry. I was tired but full of anticipation for my new life on an Island! As the ferry pulled around the bend into the cove, the dock came into view and on it were crowds of people dancing to live music that drifted over the water... my heart soared and embraced this new community where people danced on the dock on Saturday night!

When I woke next morning, I woke to no sounds. Utterly unusual quiet to my city ears..moments went by and then the sound of horses hooves... Later, driving into the town to buy food, I passed a sign painted onto a wooden box 'eggs for sale'. Inside the small door were cartons of speckled brown and green eggs, bits of hay stuck to them. Based on the honour system, there was an envelope in the box stuffed with bills and coins where I completed my transaction.

These small events were the first of many experiences that have shaped a sense of this place for me.

I'm certain that a sense of place, as Berry and others describe it, is not to idealize how things are. I also feel appreciation for the buzz of the beautiful big city that is a ferry ride away. It seems more borne of tarrying in the unique places and really knowing what the diversity of landscape and culture are offering up for us.

Wade Davis, ethnobotanist, talks about 'spirit of place'and responsibility for global preservation of diversity:

'If there is one lesson I have drawn from my travels, it is that cultural and biological diversity are far more than the foundation of stability; they are an article of faith, a fundamental truth that indicates the way things are supposed to be.... There is a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills, and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame and reinventing the poetry of diversity is the most important challenge of our times.'

Knowing and valuing a place is to protect it.

postscript.....turned out that the annual 'dock dance' was just that... annual, but still made the impression.

2003-01-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

January 11
It's quite cold here but no snow...which is unusual for this far into the winter.

Life is not so balanced today, barely stepped outside and am actually still in pyjamas. Working on this thesis (see jan 4 posting for more on thesis topic) has been such a journey this weekend... going towards the light... climbing into dark holes...and then back out. Yes, melodrama and obsession. But I was thinking about my understanding of 'community' when John sent an email with the url for his friends broadcast out of Dalanzandgad, Mongolia (transom.org). Bill Siemering has been there working on the local public radio station, 'Gobi Wave'.

Bill tells a story: When I first did a workshop here, the translator said, "We don't have a word for 'community' as you are using it." Of course it's not the word that is important but what we do.

I've copied and edited a couple of broadcasts below.

. . . . . .

A time when all attention is commanded in one direction may be a good time to look elsewhere.

For a few weeks after September last year, there was an awareness that (the western world) needs to >listen< more to the rest of the world, but that seems to have passed. Now it's a lesson that was not learned. Small human stories, unrelated to politics, will enable us to become more aware that life is different in most of the rest of the world, where half the people live on $2.00 a day or less. -b.s.

. . . . . .

The famous Gobi wind tosses sand in your face, getting in your mouth. Three story Russian built apartment blocks crouch at one end of an open space bordered by small shops. In the produce stands, I find only onions potatoes, cabbages and carrots; tomatoes are the only fruit. The only cheese was hard brown fist size blocks made from fermented mare’s milk.

Lunch at the best café in town consists of potato, carrot and mutton soup, steamed mutton dumplings and milk salt tea. The total tab for both my translator and me is $1.34. It’s the same lunch we have everyday because that’s all there ever is on the menu. The cold water apartment is only $6.50 a night, soap not included. Some steers wander outside the window, occasionally raising their voices.

This is the setting for Gobi Wave Radio in this provincial capital of 10,000 in Dalanzadgad, south Gobi, Mongolia. On the air 12 hours a day, Gobi Wave does a remarkable job of serving local needs with a combination of informative and entertaining programming, all for an annual budget of $8,000 a year.

When I visited, the story on the opening of school included sound of the hand bell ringing, the kids singing and opening remarks by the principal on the daily 20:00 news program, thanks to training done by Corey when he was a Knight Fellow in Mongolia. In the afternoon, the local appointed Governor came in for his twice weekly live call-in program. The subjects were serious: what to do about the forthcoming winter, what can be done about poverty. After the broadcast he told me that the day before he had taken supplies from the Red Cross to herders who were devastated by last year’s harsh winter: flour and FM radios so they could hear Gobi Wave, the only station they could pick up on FM. When Parliamentarians come to the theater to meet with voters, Gobi Wave takes their Marti and broadcasts it live.

Here are some of their popular programs.

Radio Karaoke - After playing a song, the first five listeners who call in and sing the same song then the listeners vote on the best singer. The winner is awarded the privileged of dedicating a song or sending a message.

Love’s Guide - Listeners write love letters to someone in whom they are interested and if the intended recipient of this interest or affection recognizes the writer, they write back. For example, a prisoner is exchanging letters with the daughter of his lawyer. Some letters are very long; others brief: “We’ve just been divorced for one month, but I still love you and miss you.” Ideal for shy people. Eves dropping on other’s love interests has universal appeal. A book of the collected letters has possibilities.

Let’s Meet - Listeners call in and describe themselves, their interests, may sing a song and tell the qualities of the friend they are seeking. They are only identified by number. If a listener is interested in meeting number two, let’s say, they come to the station and interviewed and checked out with their job, address, sobriety etc. The station then calls number two describes the interested party and if they want, a meeting is arranged. The station records the descriptions of folks who have no telephone if they come into the station.

What’s the News? Described as “News from the people, for the people,” listeners call in their own news stories. For example, a caller describes a flock of goats that has wandered in the yard and asks the owner to fetch them. Or report a shop selling expired food or where they got a good buy on children’s clothing.

Learn a Song - The three reporters play a new song and after the listeners’ votes on their favorite, the reporter teaches the words.

Greetings, Thank you and I’m Sorry - Pretty self-explanatory as listeners send personal messages.

I was amazed to hear the small advertising announcements: a liter of airag (fermented mare’s milk) for $.50 a liter; fresh locally grown vegetables; 40% of on school clothes. They charge $.03 a word and there were 15 in the morning and 30 in the afternoon; they literally walk in the door.

Simba Ice cream has the most effective ad campaign. A coin (Indian) the size of a half dollar is inserted in an ice cream cone and when someone finds it in their cone (ouch!) they take it to the station and receive a prize: a basketball, cosmetics, an electronic game. (The coin is recycled to Simba.) Simba’s competitor told the manager that people had stopped buying his ice cream and he needed to advertise.

I asked many why they enjoyed living in Dalanzadgad (it took me a long time to pronounce this fluently) that to Western eyes may seem desolate. Many spoke of the nearby natural beauty and qualities of the people. A reporter said, “My family and friends are more valuable to me than any amount of money anyone could offer for me to move to another place.”

Having visited here four times over several I’ve grown fond of the place and the people. I’ve also never seen people produce so much with so few resources.

-Bill Siemering

Mongolia

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January 4, 2003

Ahhhh…Saturday. Could be my favourite day.

I’m sitting with tea looking down at the bay from my window..through a lot of rain… days and days of this weather but, we do live in a rainforest. Bowen Island lies off the south west coast of Canada, eighteen minutes by ferry boat from Vancouver. Check out http://www.chriscorrigan.com for photos, maps and adventures.

An architect once wrote about a place “where time lies lightly upon the landscape”. ..that’s how I’ve always thought about Bowen Island and I imagine most of us living here know that the ferry ride between here and the mainland allows it to be like this. It’s a laid back playground, an old and…changing community also.

Thanks to conversations with Michael Herman www,globalchicagi.org and Chris Corrigan www.chriscorrigan.com, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ‘inviting community’ as it relates to a thesis question I’ve been working on for the past year: how do people engage in the long term sustainability of their community? I started writing in earnest a couple of weeks ago when an answer presented itself: by invitation! Chris held an Open Space workshop thanksgiving weekend that invited people to think about Bowen 2042: why do we still love to live here? That weekend created the space for 30 people to discover a passion they hold for this place and go to work to do something they care about. I can’t think of a more simple or graceful way to foster an active civic society… amorphous, emerging, at work….invisible and powerful too.

A colleague sent this, written by and for the citizens of ancient Athens….

We will ever strive for the ideals and sacred things of the City, both alone and with many, we will increasingly seek to quicken the sense of public duty.

...we will transmit this City not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.

Oath of the Athenian Citizen (partial text)

What’s interesting to me is the fullness of responsibility in these words. Collectively and individually, and especially now, more people seem to be taking greater responsibility for the ‘ideals and sacred’ of the place where they live. If you have any stories on this theme, I’d love to hear them.

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Bowen Island, BC CANADA:
January 1, 2003 ...re-discovered this opening welcome from the 1994 Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) Global Strategies Meeting. Thanks to Paul Hawken for sending this to me.

.... hopeful words then, and now. happy new year! Penny Scott

We are poised on the edge of the millennium - no map before us, the taste of fear sharp on our tongues.

Yet we will leap.
The exercise of imagining is an act of creation.
The act of creation is an act of will.
All this is political. And possible.
Bread. A clean sky. Active peace. A woman's voice singing somewhere, melody drifting like smoke from the cookfires. The army disbanded, the harvest abundant. The wound healed, the child wanted, the prisoner freed, the body's integrity honoured, the lover returned. The magical skill that reads marks into meaning. The labour equal, fair, and valued. Delight in the challenge for consensus to solve problems. No hand raised in any gesture but greeting. Secure interiors - of heart, home, land - so firm as to make secure borders irrelevant at last. And everywhere laughter, care, celebration, dancing, contentment. A humble earthly paradise in the now.

We will make it real, make it our own, make policy, history, peace, make it available, make mischief, a difference, love, the connections, the miracle, ready.

Believe it.

We are the women and men who will transform the world.

-Written by Robin Morgan, in collaboration with Perdita Huston, Sunetra Puri, Mahnaz Afkhami, Diane Faulkner, Corrine Kumar, Simla Wali, and Paola Melchiori, at the 1994 Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) Global Strategies Meeting.

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