A note from a friend on sustainable neighborhoods.

[eridani]

Dear friends,

This has been a rather extraordinary decade we've just lived through - for so many, many reasons! A lot of those things were terrible, hard on us all and more than just a minor trial to the soul, *and* at the same time, some very good ideas have winnowed their way to the top of the pile and that's why I'm writing...

Some of my friends have begun to be involved with Transition Towns, or Transition Initiatives, or have (like myself), begun reading The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins. This is a variation on a theme that has grown out of the permaculture movement of the past 30+ years. The basic premise is that climate change and peak oil are on the horizon and the impact of those two things and their intersection is in our fairly immediate future. Our "political leaders" have and continue to demonstrate that it's likely they will not be the source of either a solution, or even real movement toward helpfulness. In the face of this, we do have an opportunity, however (wasn't it danger & opportunity that are twined together?), to actually rise to these challenges and meet them from a local/community basis where we have the best chance of building resilience into our communities.

Resilience is many things - it's knowing our neighbors, it's planning for how to care for one another at a community level, it's taking ourselves out of dependence on "long supply chains" where an interruption beyond our control could easily mean no food, or heat (think about Russia disrupting gas lines and last winter in Georgia), so that we can live good lives filled with joy and depth...

Here's a link to a 5 min. U-Tube video of Rob Hopkins talking about Transition Initiatives: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0

Here's a link to Transition USA: http://www.transitionus.org/welcome-transition-us

And here's a link to a local Seattle group working working with these ideas: http://sustainableneseattle.ning.com/

I hope you'll take a moment to watch the video. One of the parts I liked best was where he talked about how this truly is an opportunity for us to work creatively, collectively, toward something that is truly worth doing, and that it is an adventure begging for our participation (well, I said that last part >;-) but it's true. If you're getting this, you're among those I hope to be on the path with,
much love always,
Happy New Year!
>;-)