Summer—and Two Years

It's the summer solstice, and it's hot! This has been fairly warm year so far, and summer is just starting. It's enough to make you believe in global warming.

Two years ago on the solstice, I started this blog. It's been a busy couple of years.

And my life is getting busier. I notice that I don't post that often on my blog any more. It's not that I don't have anything to say--I've got a growing list of things that I want to blog on. And I still have one more zine (using the posts I wrote on our real needs) that I would like to publish.

But I am busy doing things, connecting with friends, building raised bed gardens, helping weatherize buildings, serving food, doing stuff at and for the co-op I live in, etc, etc--not to mention that it's been busy at work as well.

I do have some posts I hope to write soon, but we will see how busy my life remains.

I also have one exciting adventure later this summer. I have plans to attend the Radical Urban Sustainability Training (RUST) in Albany, NY, at the beginning of July. This is being run by the folks who wrote the book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living and helped found the Rhizome Collective. (I mentioned the book in my post of 10/18/08 on Sustainable Resources.) I'm very excited about this and will have to blog about it when I get back.

If I have time...


Quote of the Day: "This is the time of the rose, blossom and thorn, fragrance and blood. Now on this longest day, light triumphs, and yet begins the decline into dark. ...we have planted the seeds of our own changes, and to grow we must accept even the passing of the sun." - Starhawk

Step Back and Look Ahead

This is a busy time for me. I've given notice at the house where I live. It's sort of jumping without a parachute. I don't have a place to live and I don't have people to live with. I could be in trouble.

The goal is to build a simple, sustainable community that mirrors the world that I want to see happen. I have lived in community before so I do know that it's possible. Also, there must be some other people who also think that this is worthwhile. I don't think that I am putting out anything that unusual.

But, the first step is finding a place and that's where I am stuck. I thought that the Cambridge neighborhood where I know some other people living in a simple and sustainable manner would be perfect. It turns out that: a) there aren't many four bedroom apartments there, and b) most apartments available (even three bedrooms) are way too expensive. How can I advertise for people interested in simple living and offer a place that charges a bundle for rent? So I am trying to extend my search.

Plus work has been busier than usual, so I haven't had a lot of time to write posts. I have a bunch of them in mind, so when things slow down (at work or in my life) I will start rolling them out.

One thing that I am aware of is that I have been more inwardly focused in my blog lately--doing a lot of posts on spirituality and personal growth. I do intend to address this in an upcoming post. And I also have more posts planned of this nature--it speaks to what I am currently struggling with.

Another hope of mine is to put out another, and perhaps final, issue of my zine this summer. I want to get the information I researched and wrote about regarding 'Real Needs' out in paper copy.

And at some point I plan to write a post about this attempt at community building--but first I have to see how it all works out. This could be the start of something worthwhile or it may be a disaster in the making. I will let you know.



Quote of the Day: "Your daily life is your temple and your religion." - Kahlil Gibran

Two Hundred

Blogger informs me that this is my two hundredth post. It's hard to believe that I've written that much.

It's the middle of the first week of 2010. Between the new year and the milestone post number, I am taking this as another opportunity to look around at what I've written, and more importantly, what I'm planning to write.

At this point I am finally posting when I want to and about what I want, which is what most people do with their blogs. I have completed three long series in this blog, the first on what I believe, the second on US history, and the third on what our real needs are. I've also turned my first six months of posts into two zines--the latest being made up of the series 'What I Believe'.

I have said that I would do two things, one with my zine and the other with my blog. Now I am not sure of either of them. In fact, one of them I am not going to do.

I said at the end of the last zine that I would make the zine based on my series about US history. In fact, considering all I wrote in that series, I said the next zine would be Part One of US history. I've changed my mind. At this point, as far as I know, I've made absolutely no money from the zines. As the woman at the copy place said, this has been a labor of love. In fact, I have given a bunch of the zines to friends and family as well as places (good places that I wanted to support) that have sold them and pocketed the money with my blessing. I am glad to have gotten the information out into the world, but it has been costly and makes me think about what I really want to do with the zine. The stuff on US history just doesn't seem that important to me, so I am now planning to skip it. I do want to get out one more zine, probably some time in the spring, putting the series I wrote on real needs into print. We will see if I publish any issues beyond that.

And I have been saying since early on that I would write a series on education/changing consciousness. It needs to be done and I should do it, but I'm wavering and I am not sure when I will do it if I do it. Unlike the other series, I am not juiced to write about this and I'm not clear exactly how I would frame it and I am a bit burnt out on writing series. Plus, I am hoping this year to create the community I've been dreaming of and would rather put my energy into that.

I do have a bunch of posts that I am planning to write however. I am not abandoning this blog. Besides book reviews on some of what I am reading (I won't bore anyone with reviews on some of texts I've been reading on ecology and soil science, but I have also been reading some stuff I do plan on reviewing) I am planning to write posts on a bunch of interesting things that I have been learning about or thinking about. Upcoming topics include Prisoner's Dilemma, Passive House, and Embodied Energy as well as a post on what makes me want to work for change. I am also considering one on making decisions and another on (believe it or not) smoking. I also have two chapters from my last zine that I wrote fresh and I'm now thinking of converting into posts. I'm not sure all of these will make it into print but this is what I'm thinking at this point.

I do appreciate the opportunity that blogger gives me to put my thoughts out in cyberspace (as well as being able to read and comment on lots of other interesting blogs). Still, as fascinating as 'virtual communities' are, I'm yearning for flesh and blood connections.

Those are my thoughts now--I make no guarantees about the future.


Quote of the Day: "...life don't clickety clack down a straight line track, It comes together and it comes apart..." - Ferron

Out of the Darkness

This is the time of Halloween, of Día de los Muertos, of All Saints and All Souls Days, the time the Pagans call Samhain. I blogged last year on Darkness in my post of 11/1/08--in it I talked about 'death, disorder, and decay', and entropy. Another aspect of darkness is fertility: the deep, dark earth where seeds germinate and the darkness of the womb where life is nurtured. Darkness allows us to see things (the lights of candles, holiday lights, and especially the stars) that we can't see during the day.

In that spirit, I want to talk about my month off from blogging. As I said in my post of 9/22/09, after five months of intensive posting every three days, I wanted some time off to do other things. So I didn't post anything during October.

Unfortunately, one of the main things I did during the month of October was to work on the second issue of my Zine, which was originally supposed to have come out at the autumn equinox. It is now at the printers and should be out next week. (The zine is called Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists and issue is entitled 'What I Believe'--it is basically a republishing of my posts from last fall with a little new material. Check the link for more information.)

But I didn't spend all my time working on the zine. I helped work on a house in Boston (the JPGreenHouse) that is being rehabbed to be very low energy use (I will blog on this at some point); watched Michael Moore's Capitalism with my housemates and The Greening of Southie at the Somerville Library; took little classes on energy use, wormbins, seed saving, and insight meditation; and helped out with the Massachusetts Relocatization Conference and the Boston Under Water Festival that took place on October 24 as part of the International Day of Climate Change. Don't think that I was doing exciting things, however. I did cleaning and taking nails out of boards at the JPGreenHouse, sat at the registration table at the Relocalization Conference, and taped up some sagging signs and helped with the clean up at the Boston Under Water Festival. But I think the important thing is to support people who are doing things that move us in a more progressive direction.

And, as I said in my post of 9/22/09, my goal for the next little while is to do what most people do in their blogs--to post irregularly, on whatever strikes my fancy. I will probably pick another theme and explore it at some point (hopefully the series on education that I have been promising since the early days of this blog) but for now I want to focus on my own learning and doing. Winter is coming, a good time to turn inward, and I intend to spend it nuturing myself and my work on community building. Hopefully, the darkness of winter will be nourishing and spring will see me working on many things--among them, my garden, this blog, and building a community. And, of course, I will continue to try to support social change efforts in whatever little way that I can.


Quote of the Day: "... perhaps it is up to us all ... to reach into the dark and reshape it into a clear night sky where we can walk without fear, into a well of healing from which we can all drink, into the velvet skin of life, the newly fertile ground." - Starhawk

Harvest

Today is the Autumn Equinox, the beginning of fall and the time of the harvest. It's a good time to look at what I have accomplished over the past year and where I may be going from here.

I've certainly done a bit in this blog, from covering what I believe (my posts last fall on SECS, CDIP, and SLoBIND), to an overview of US history, to my last five months of posts on our real needs. I've also published a zine from my first three months of posts on this blog and I'm working on a second issue of it. (More about that shortly.)

In my personal life I've made some important connections which I am hoping will lead to me creating a simple, sustainable community next year. I've been reading, thinking, talking with people (and listening to them). I've joined climate change and transition groups, a time trade circle and an urban homesteader's group, and taken workshops in Loving-Kindness Meditation and Urban Permaculture. I tried to grow greens in our garden, with very meager results--but it has been a learning and I plan to keep going.

And I am feeling this is time to make some changes. I am burnt from the zealous posting I have done and want to take time to do other things. So, one decision is to take the month of October off--that's right, I won't do any posts in October--and return in November with a very laid back posting schedule; ie, post when I feel like it, the way most folks with a blog do. I do have a bunch of things that I want to post about, but they are only lightly connected and they will come out as I see fit. I'm planning just one more post for this month--one that I feel strongly about and I hope will set a more relaxed tone for this blog.

Instead of blogging, I want to devote more time to other pursuits: including building and maintaining my connections with people that are important to me, and developing new relationships, and focusing on building community and supporting social change.

I am also running behind on publishing the second issue of Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists (my zine) which will cover my posts from last fall with a couple of additional chapters, which may turn into posts at some point. I am entitling this issue, "What I Believe." I had said that I'd publish it by today but I am nowhere near ready. My new publishing date is the end of October/beginning of November (Samhain by the pagan calendar). I think this is doable and I expect it will be ready then. If you want to order in advance, send a check (made out to Spirit Movers Enterprises) for $2.50 (which includes postage) to MoonRaven, c/o Spirit Movers Enterprises, 50 Churchill Ave., #320, Cambridge, MA 02140. You can also order the first issue the same way for the same price (or both for $5.00).

Okay. Enough about me. In this season of fullness, what will you harvest? And where do you go from here?


Quote of the Day: "As Lammas was the celebration of the first harvest, the Autumnal Equinox marks the time of the waning Sun, when food is harvested and stored for the coming of Winter, and seeds and grain are gathered for future generations of crops." - Pauline Campanelli

First Fruits

It's the beginning of August, and the time of the Pagan feast Lughnasadh, better known through its Christianized name of Lammas. This is the time when the first harvest begins, the first things are brought from the farm and the garden, a time sometimes known as the time of 'First Fruits'.

It's a good time for taking stock and looking at what is beginning to come in from your (sometimes metaphorical) garden. In my case, I am assessing what is going on with my blog, with my zine, and with my efforts toward community.

In terms of the blog, I'm two-thirds of the way through this segment and hoping that all this work is going to be useful to someone. I still have another fifteen posts left in this part. To review what I'm doing, I am cataloging what I think are the real needs people have and how we can meet them. I identified forty-three specific needs ranging from air to breathe to our needs for freedom and I am also listing some resources that I know of that might help us toward meeting those needs. I am certainly open to suggestions for needs I may have missed, or other things to help meet those needs, or even pointing out how something may not be a real need. My thinking on this is that we need to start focusing on meeting these real needs and stop trying to fulfill some of the artificial, consumerist 'needs' that this society foists on us to replace our real needs (plasma screen giant TVs, SUVs, owning multiple McMansions, etc).

The first issue of my zine, Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists, is out and I have it available at several places in the Boston area (the Lucy Parsons Center, the New England office for the American Friends Service Committee, and the Papercut Zine Library) as well as being available through Spirit Movers Enterprises. I am now working on the second issue which should be out by the fall equinox (September 22nd).

And I am beginning next steps on my ever evolving path to community. I have come up with a plan, and in my careful and unhurried fashion, it begins next summer/fall (2010). I already have a few people on board with it and I am looking for a few more. I feel hopeful about this.

These are the fruits I am beginning to see from the work that I am doing. (Although what is actually growing in my garden is another story...) What are the early fruits of your work?

Next, back to my needs segment, where I'll be focusing on communication.


Quote of the Day: "We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings. But, once recognized, those that do not enhance our future lose their power and can be altered. The fear of our desires keeps them suspect and indiscriminately powerful, for to suppress any truth is to give it a strength beyond endurance. ... For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation and with the numbness that often seems like their only alternative in this society." - Audre Lorde

***A Year!***

I began this blog on the Summer Solstice of 2008. Blogger tells me this is my 146th post. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up but I am determined to get through this series of what our real needs are and how we can meet them. Following the timetable that I've set for myself, this part should wind up around the autumn equinox.

And, partly in celebration of a year of blogging, I am proud to announce:

Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists!

This is a 'zine' that consists of a collection of my posts from last summer. The cover art (that's Emma Goldman, Audre Lorde, and Malcolm X done up as superheroes--which, of course, they are) is by Cam Wilder, an artist that I know. Why would you want to send for this (and pay me $2.50) for something you could look at on the internet for free? Well, if you believe in peak oil there is the question of how long the internet will be around...

Seriously, this is my way of reaching out to a different audience. Some folks don't own computers--either because they can't afford them or because they don't like them--and other folks, who may use and even enjoy computers, prefer to read longer pieces on paper. I travel on public transportation and generally bring a book or periodical to read while I'm on the bus or train. I know that some people bring their laptops but I can't imagine doing that. I also know that some people bring their laptops to bed, but I'd rather curl up with something I can turn the pages of.

I gave part of the history of my blog and zine in my second post (6/22/09) when I mentioned that I had the idea to write a book I would call Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists. Although the ideas I wanted to write about are things I'd been thinking about for a long time (some of which I've covered in this blog), the title was relatively recent--and, in fact, partly came from a idea I had a couple of years ago to put up a website that would support activists and social change people that I was going to call SASS--the Social Alchemists Support Society. In some ways that website was what this blog became. I only hope that some of these last 146 posts have been useful to people. That is still what this blog is about: "Offering Some Tools for Creating a World that Works for Everyone".

Anyone who wants a copy of the zine, please send a check for $2.50 (US dollars) to MoonRaven, c/o Spirit Movers Enterprises, 50 Churchill Ave, #320, Cambridge, MA 02140 and I will send you the first issue. (Please note, this is not my address. Spirit Movers Enterprises has simply agreed to pick up my mail and help distribute the zine.) I am hoping to have a second issue out in time for the autumn equinox.


Quote of the Day: "There are no new ideas, just new ways of giving those ideas we cherish breath and power in our own living." - Audre Lorde

Mayday!

It's the beginning of May. Pagans and witches celebrate this time of the year as Beltaine. Beltaine is one of the two pivot points of the year; the other is Samhain. (See my post of 11/1/08 for more about Samhain.) Where Samhain is about death, darkness, and decay, Beltaine is about life, love, and lust, about flowers and fertility. Beltaine is about joy, sillyness, dancing, and above all, living, breathing, flowing, flowering life. Beltaine is teaming with life, bursting with life.

Taking advantage of this amazing point in the year, I want to introduce a few new things.

The first is the subject of the next segment of this blog. I want to look at what people actually need and how we can meet those needs. I know I've looked at this before, particularly in the first segment of my blog. But the emphasis then was about cutting down on consumerism--which is something that I still believe in. But now I want to look at needs from the point of view of building a simple, egalitarian, cooperative, and sustainable society--particularly one facing the challenges of peak oil/everything, climate change, and economic uncertainty. What is it that we actually need to survive? What do people need in order to thrive? And how can we meet those needs, simply and sustainably? So for the next few months, I am going to look at human needs in detail--as a way to give us the tools to build, create, nurture a new society. Yes, another world is possible. Now we are going to focus on how to build it.

As an experiment, I am going to try posting every three days. I'll see if that's too much given all I hope to do this summer--so the posting schedule is subject to change with very little (if any) notice.

And I have an announcement. As of June 21st (the first anniversary of this blog) I will be publishing a 'zine', a small publication basically printing out my posts from a year ago. I'm calling it Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists, the name I originally had for a book I wanted to write. That book became this blog and now this blog is becoming a zine. 'Volume One' will be entitled 'Some Theory'. Spirit Mover Enterprises has agreed to distribute it. The only thing new in the zine will be an introduction, the cover (with Audre Lorde, Emma Goldman, and Malcolm X drawn as superheroes by an artist I know named Cam Wilder), and a few things in the back pages.

Why reprint this blog as a zine? Mostly I hope to reach a different audience. Young people, for example, who are the prime readers of zines. Also, I have friends that dislike computers and there are others I know that might like using them but don't enjoy reading long pieces on a screen. And, of course, there are all those people who don't have a computer because they can't afford one. All these people may be more likely to read my ideas in a zine. And maybe, hopefully, someone will just stumble upon my zine and find it useful.

And if you, or someone you know, wants a copy, you can send a check (made out to Spirit Movers Enterprises) for $2.50 (which includes postage) to MoonRaven, c/o Spirit Movers Enterprises, 50 Churchill Ave., #320, Cambridge, MA 02140 and I will gladly send the first issue to you as soon as it's published. (Incidentally, that is not my address--Spirit Movers Enterprises has kindly agreed to distribute my zine and forward any mail to me.) Bodhisattva Revolutionaries and Social Alchemists will be filled with information (over seventy pages worth). With this zine in hand, if and when the internet crashes or goes away, you can still enjoy my thoughts on social change, love and compassion, peak oil, bonobos, and complexity theory.

Meanwhile: Enjoy the warmth. Enjoy the flowers. Enjoy the spring. Enjoy life.


Quote of the Day: "It begins in spring. ... The gentle warm rays of the Sun provide quickening, urging barren trees to turn green with baby blossoms. Their fragrance perfumes the air.
"We inhale this scent and the waters of our bodies begin to bubble. ... Love is what we are seeking. Love in all its forms: love of Life, love of Earth, love of self, friend, and mate. ...all of us--plant, animal, and human--respond to the bubbling fertility of Earth, the hunger for Birth." - Luisah Teish