Skill Building

I just found out about Thriftcamp, September 19th 2010.

"ThriftCamp is a one-day unconference discussing how to live well while living cheap. Discussions may include how to repair your clothes, how to budget your money, how to make your own soap, how to cook great meals on a thin budget, how to fix your electronics, or how to brew your own beer. Because ThriftCamp is an unconference, its content will be determined by its participants."

Seems like a more social way to learn great skills than from internet or books alone, if your own neighbors seem to be too busy to teach you/do thrifty things with you. I lucked out and learned many of these skills from a thrifty neighbor, so I might attend with her (going as Neighbors, on purpose,) and share what we know! Her super-power is recognizing when do-it-yourself is NOT cheaper. A very important skill ...it can save more than just money!

Living by Example

I'm excited to share a description and photo of my friend Carlo Violi's home and neighborhood ethic. He works miles from home everyday, faithfully biking there on his bike with electric assist fueled by the windmill... this is just what he does in his spare time!

Find the article about him in The Enterprise Newspaper, here.

Making Common Sense

The full title of this essay published in a small book format by the Center for Creative Leadership and written by Wilfred H. Drath and Charles J. Palus is:

MAKING COMMON SENSE
Leadership as Meaning-Making
in a Community of Practice

The essay essentially explains the title. The whole essay rings very true for me.

• Leadership is the practice of making meaning, making common sense (making basic, unbiased observations) in the context of a group of people seeking meaning in their togetherness, all practicing making meaning (feeling useful and On Purpose) together.
• Making meaning together is all of our jobs, to be practiced perpetually.

What this means to me is: we are all here to observe through a specific lens (the lens of our talents, attention, and personal, current vision, mission, and purpose) and feed into the common sense of what is going on. As frustrating (and detrimental) as it can be to have convincing evidence of something and nowhere responsible/responsive to put our wisdom, it is our responsibility as leaders to find out where the information we naturally gather, goes, so that all can benefit.

turning to one another

Margaret Wheatley wrote a wonderful book that liberated me from some important cart-before-the-horse thinking. When I started reading 'turning to one another', I immediately felt a deep sense of trust in this author.

I soon found myself scanning the appendices for what schools of thought and conversation formats she appreciated enough to mention there. I feasted on the list: some were familiar, some new. I felt my energy go 'high' out of my desired range and the accompanying thoughts were:
"I must study all of these! I love this! A comprehensive list of the Great Conversation Formats! Yay! ...and... oh no... that would take years... I feel so ignorant... Well, I will always be a beginner, and having a 'beginner's mind' is good..."

I read on and discovered that this wise woman recommends that we Just Do It: Just turn to one another! The title of the book is even devoid of capitalization, as if to say: "this is not a Method, separate from you. this is what humans DO." I feel relieved of some kind of tension I never knew I held. I promptly started sharing my Neighbors On Purpose project with neighbors, and haven't looked back. I have access to more intuition, and feel more rapport with others thanks to this book. I feel I gave myself permission to move forward, to be a neighbor now, freestyle, feeling on purpose.

Transition Handbook, Transition Movement 2

I changed an old post from another blog I used to have now that I have more perspective. This is dated around the time I was speed-reading the book, and the insights that ensued invited a deeper level of my being to become conscious, confident, and loved. I quit a job I loved, so I could more fully embody the wisdom this book aroused in me: wisdom about myself, and about my role in the context of my neighborhood.

If you plan on reading this book, please don't read it alone. Regardless, also, please read the 3 segments in the following order, so your brain doesn't make you top-heavy: Hands, Heart, Head.

Though it's a great thing he did, and I'm very very happy with the book that became my Bible for a year or more, I was never completely satisfied with the causal orientation of it (peak oil, living without oil) (...in fact, noticing the feelings of guilt that came up for me regarding CO2 while reading this book helped me to see the false motivations my environmentalism had been partially based in in the past and let that go.)

Frankly, I was happy at reading the (then) news (to me) of peak oil, since it would cause everyone to be an environmentalist... the thought of which brought me to consider the following issue I find to be both an effect and a cause of environmentally unwise behavior: loneliness (perpetuated by goals to unite too many people to remedy loneliness in one way or another, and frustration to the point of self-isolation).

I think the author has a good point: through collaboration on a local basis, on a manageable scale, guided by common vision, we can transcend the all of issues arising from peak oil and climate chaos without exacerbating either of the 2 aspects... AND I think there is a third aspect... an aspect of human perception very easily exacerbated in cultures where the issue is under-recognized already, an aspect of sustainability that is equally pivotal: the balance of living in both privacy & isolation, uniqueness & loneliness, empowerment & restraint, an image of humanity & a role in the whole, survival & spiritual transcendence, Response-ability & Trust.

I commit to being inspired by the Transition Movement, and embracing it as a wake-up call to my role as an invitation to healthy interdependence on the scale that I can affect, in the realm that I am naturally talented, with an eye for authentic and deep sustainability. I'm not a scientist (anymore). I shouldn't talk about science. I'm a social being. I'll be a neighbor on purpose.

Of course my efforts are part of the global transition, and I am in the 'heart and soul' area described as necessary for a good transition... I just don't want to call it that, and I don't have to wait for someone to host alarming movies in my neighborhood to have the same positive effect. I believe that when my life is a party boat, and more and more people get on it, and they inspire more, and learn how to invite more... there's no need to tell the last few they're on the Titanic. When it's just them, they're bound to get together and find community of some kind... and we'll just keep inviting them to the party... or rescue them out of the water later.

Facing the Future

I love these Curriculum Guides, because they help real, human, loving teachers of all age groups teach Global Sustainability, Biodiversity, the Interconnectedness of All Things, Life-Size Math, Social Responsibility, and SELF-EMPOWERMENT, all the while
- building a curriculum students love,
- getting all types of learners to engage actively,
- accounting for fulfilling requirements for testing and meeting standards, by equipping teachers to evaluate student progress with precision in a non-invasive way.

It leverages free resources and copy-write free materials to provide a rich multimedia, multiple senses ‘workshop’ feeling. It puts the student first, gives them context, and helps them know themselves better as creative, powerful people. I simply can't say enough about good things about it!

I gave a copy to a neighbor who is a teacher aligned with her purpose. Her response? Ecstatic wonderment and enthused gratitude.

Transition Handbook, Transition Movement 1

Thank you Margo Adair!! I'm about to start (speed)reading The Transition Handbook, and attending the Training May 1st and 2nd. I'm so excited to apply myself to this project:
Big enough for my intentions,
Realistic enough to be broken down bite-size,
Author-modeled, and so: inviting...
And! explicitly guaranteeless - and thus, a worthy challenge!

The book offers a full-on case study of the first Transition Town - a town that, in 2006, decided it would be fun to challenge themselves with a living social experiment, sprouting from the question: "How would we choose to live in an age without oil?" Taking one action at a time, doing the inner and the outer work, they now live in resilient local communities that hold a shared vision.