"I am so ready for purpose"

alternate title
"Purple Circus"
Every other Wednesday night is devoted to a meeting we call 'purpose circle'. Its a time when the community comes together to discuss issues and make decisions. Some like to call it purple circus. Sometimes it seems a bit more like a circus. I love meetings and pretty much any type of gathering of people. I find it essential for a community to gather at least once a week. With all the people coming and going here...and because of how different we all are, makes any gathering especially interesting. We have the people who feel pressured to be at PC, the ones (one) who love to be there, the ones who come prepared for an efficient meeting (maybe?), the ones who like to banter, ones who don't know whats going on...and of course the ones who just don't go at all ( so , then, don't know whats going on). Oh wait...also the one who likes to sleep.
We strive for an efficient consensus decision making process. I love consensus! The theory is that a group of any size can make decisions in this way, if they follow the process.
Getting that process down.....seems to be a challenge.
Tonight we talked about quiet hours. Should quiet hours start at 10 or 11 on weekends? R thinks we should just get a stun gun to use when people are not using 'common sense' about quietness around sleeping areas. In the past M has mentioned that maybe we don't need rules at all for the community. And I wonder, isn't it all about common sense? common courtesy? respectfulness? compassion? taking responsibility to say something when a person offends you with their loudness or anything else?
then i remember the cake and bliss incident 2009......
apparently some of us need some boundaries and rules

but, as usual, that is just my version of the story

being well

Every Tuesday night we have well being meetings. Last night , I forgot that my well being was going to be roller skating with R. Tuesday night is also Christian night at the roller rink (which means 2 $ admission- the cheapest time to go ). But we both forgot! So , after dinner I chose to go to the LV well being which was a shamanic drumming journey.
some other well beings of the past have included....
cranium game night
personality tests
nonviolent (compassionate) communication
heart of now style activities*
men/womens circle
drum circle
dancing
movies
crafts
talking
hot tub
sauna

* Heart of now is a program that used to be taught here on a monthly basis. It is one of the top reasons I moved here. A few months before I moved though, it turned out, HON moved out of LV. I recommend this program to everyone. This may be a generic thing to say, but, HON changed my life. Check it out
www.heartofnow.org

koskay and his grumpy little friends

I have not been in the best mood for the last few days. Even though I might laugh at the silly conversations at lunch or enjoy a massage from K , I go back to my blah feeling. When everyone raves about the meal that M cooked, I get jealous. When someone changes the love chore* board, I get personally offended. I start wondering if F is actually working or just pretending. I joke with Koskay about joining his drum group of happy little friends and feel rejected. When W tells us about how kids in her community are respected and never thought of as a burden, I cry and then steep with anger. I walk around and dont offer hugs. I want people to come to me.
Like people living in NYC... I am surrounded by people yet feel lonely and not understood. What happened to compassion? What happened to our goals to be different... to live in a supportive village model? Sometimes it just seems like we are all struggling to get by on our own and cant imagine working together cooperatively.
Some of us believe in 'the secret' and manifesting what we want etc. I know I could change my attitude and have a whole different outlook in the next moment, but i guess i want to be negative for a few minutes.

*my love chore is 'love coordinator'
i am in charge of the love chore board. this is our attempt at getting random jobs done such as cleaning the guesthouse, checking the mail, catching mice, composter, organizing the first aid center, laundry...I'm still not sure about the effectiveness of this system.

many hands make light work

This permaculture principal was uttered today while in our Ostara lunch circle. Principle number 8, integrate rather than segregate ("many hands make light work"). Sometimes after our community meals we have a blitz clean. Thats when everyone chips in about 15 minutes of clean up time and the whole kitchen is clean in about 30 minutes. Otherwise we have a rotating schedule with 2 people cleaning up for 1.5 hours.

This principle is also the one that I have taught in 4 PDC classes (Permaculture Design Certificate). I teach it in relation to 'kids in the community'. Integrate the kids rather than segregating them. That is much easier siad than done for me. When I am working, I really like to focus on what I am doing. Ideally, Ama would be home schooled or unschooled and right now she is in public school.

hmmm

there is alot I could say about this.

I just want to leave it at that for now.

My biggest struggle, and yet, the topic that I teach others....

kids in the community

...and the daffodils look lovely today...

Welcome Spring!

I just have to acknowledge the daffodils.

In this time of Ostara, I am releasing the sharp, thorny seriousness, mask of protection that the blackberries embody. I am inviting in the fun, delicate, beauty of the daffodil.

best weekend ever

This is weird. I have been in such a good mood lately. It helps to have a bright sunny springlike Friday, and then a weekend packed with goodness. Rain or not, the weather couldn't stop me from doing... well, just about anything.
First, I took Ama to the seed swap/propagation fair at Lane Community College. We both immediately found some friends. She played with a few girls she has known for 2 years. The cool thing was that they entertained themselves and didn't disturb the class I was in. That prompted me to finally talk to one of the parents about a tribal playgroup that happens in my area. I am so excited to finally join the tribe! I also talked with a person about a part time Americorps job, and ran into multiple friends from the LV community, past and present. Such a fulfilling morning yet not overwhelming.
I was also an unofficial photographer for the event.
Next, it was Ama's choice. She wanted to go to family day at the museum. We made crafts, completed a scavenger hunt and looked at art.
We took a break at my moms house.
The grand finale of the day......
.........
World Naked Bike Ride!
Yes, it was cold and raining and there was a good sized audience.*
but soooo worth it!
We rode in honor of bike commuters everywhere, to promote more bikes, less cars!

Sunday was NW trackers day here at LV. We had a great turnout. About 30 people came out to learn how to track animals, make a fire without matches and cooperation. The highlights of the workshop for me were
throwing and catching wooden swords using our intuition
this follow the leader game that is difficult for me to describe in words
making a bow and using it to -almost- start a fire!
I finished off the weekend with moving -mostly- in to my new room (with help), and some wonderful chats with intriguing people.
yay


* disclaimer
I was decently clothed

iron chef - celery

I am cooking on Wednesday again and I need to plan my meals in advance. I have a box of celery, a box of leeks and a box of cabbage....any ideas?
other than soup?
We have all the other staples, like grains and some nuts and beans.
Please let me know if you have great recipe ideas that highlight these veggies.

from a to b

This weekend I moved from guesthouse room A to cabin 11B. There was a slight mix up in which room I chose...I thought I was going from a to a. I am so excited to be sitting in this luxurious 300 sq ft loft room. It is almost too big. I havent had this much space to myself in so long. I have plenty of room to divide up an area for Ama. We can have 2 beds if we want ( actually I have 3 set up right now). Pretty soon, everything I own will be in this room. I have decluttered from a 4 bedroom house in Phoenix with boxes of items in multiple cities for whatever reasons to (almost) this 1 location. Almost. I am getting it done. I am working on it. I know it will feel so good when its done. My feng shui- ness will be in balance. Thats why I have been working on this simplification project. How/why it has taken so long?....I am working on accepting my own timeline. I am improving myself and getting better and better, everyday in every way.

is that a hardcore hippie or a draft from the compost pile?

Permaculture principle number 6 : produce no waste. Our bodies naturally produce waste everyday and we can close the loop by using this great resource. Many people dont know that urine contains valuable nitrogen that our soil and plants need. Even less people actually choose to use it, and instead flush it down the toilet...which then, wastes more water and other things. So, most of us here, pee into buckets... or in the forest... or right into the compost pile.
On a sunny day last week, we sat outside to eat our lunch, and a disturbing smell wafted by. I eventually asked if R recently poured out the pee buckets into the compost. The land interns said maybe, but he also fertilised the apple trees with the buckets that morning. M said " oh I thought that smell might have been a hardcore hippie."

hungexican

Oh, James...why did you have to leave me...my blog might be so blah without you here. At least you went out with a bang, giving me the best theme for a meal yet...hungexican. Hungarian Mexican.
I might not have mentioned what I actually do here at LV. I work in the kitchen. Up until this week , I have been an intern. I worked lots of hours in exchange for room and board. This week I applied and got hired as a kitchen assistant. I will be paid...but its just a part time job and my hours (pay) will be just enough to pay LV back for my expenses. I will move into staff housing (a bigger room!) that i need to pay for. I think its worth it to have some pressure relief. I will have a set schedule of 13 hours a week and plenty of free time to relax, write more blogs, do more projects, or get another part time job if i need extra cash.
So, with my new job, I will be developing recipes for the upcoming busy season. Today I was trying out a simpler way to make veggie burgers and tamales. Instead of grilling or frying up every burger, I smooshed the veg/bean mix into a long pan and baked it, then cut them into squares. For the tamales, I followed a cornbread recipe and replaced 1/3 of the corn meal with masa. I also made garlic mashed potatoes, agave cooked greens, and enchilada sauce. The items had seasonings such as cumin, coriander and paprika.
It all turned out pretty good. I really wish that I had green chiles and cilantro to exemplify the mexican nature of the meal. I was told that hungarian food has lots of paprika, so I used alot of that. Now I need to remember all the ingredients I used and how much I used, and get started on the 2009 conference cook book!

pat cam

There is a guy here, we will call him pat. Some think he could have his own reality show, he just needs a pat cam. I think LV totally needs a reality show- it would capture my stories so much better than I can explain with words. Today D is going to nominate Pat for one of our fake LV awards*.
Dr. of phun.
is the nomination
it has something to do with Phd's and fun
Pat has had the opportunity to offend many of our residents and guests including our most recent celebrity students, Juno.
He has this ability to question everything and philosophize anything. I offered everyone chocolate at lunch today and he said ' whats this?'
"chocolate"
"whats it mean?"
?
i probably laughed or said chocolate again...
earlier I ran into him conversing (gossiping) with C about a past LV intern
they were debating on whether or not she was gay. they had differing opinions, but both thought for sure they were right.

* someone came up with the idea of nominating people for an award. the prize was allegedly this weird trophy thing, but it disappeared recently, and i never actually saw anyone win it. anyone can randomly nominate a person for pretty much anything. nominations dont happen very often unfortunately. some past categories were...
best Amish couple
official werewolf narrator
best cilantro debate 2008
best kitchen drama
most huge
cult leader
best tabler at tayberry jam-me

drama of the day (feb17 2009)

A few weeks ago I lined up a great deal on some Coconut Bliss. This is a vegan's dream*. It's a very yummy ice cream made out of coconut milk, agave and chocolate ( thats the flavor we got). I paid for the bucket o bliss out of the kitchen budget and notified everyone that the price would be 3.50$ a quart or about 50 cents a scoop. Well, on this night I discovered a problem... there was at least 1 dessert addict sneaking into the bliss! It was half gone and a spoon was left in its place. But, thats not the only thing missing... a whole sweet life** cake was also gone! Now, that wouldnt be sooooo bad... if the empty box and 2 knives werent left in the freezer- YUCK!

*I'm not a vegan, but sometimes I crave this ice cream

** sweet life is a bakery in town that generously donates items to us instead of throwing things away. I would happily pick up more free sweets for the sugar addicts if they asked me to - but dont leave empty boxes in the freezer!

low key sunday

I need to get adjusted to an earlier bed time so I can wake up earlier. Last night I went to bed fairly early. I even resisted the temptation of the hot tub. Ama woke me up early as usual... I think she was up at 6 or 7. I couldnt drag myself out of bed until 8 or 9 or so. I'm also not quite sure of the times because the time changed again. I grew up in AZ where we dont have daylight savings time... oh, theres another positive thing about AZ. It just does not make any sense to me to change the time. I wouldnt even change my clocks if I didnt have to get Ama to school ' on time'. I put that in quotes because time change or not, I dont get her to school on time. We have been on time probably 3 times.
other than that... other things that happened today...
computer work-resume writing, emailing, blogs
dr. suess video hour
snow! sun! more snow!
welcome home hugs
cleaned room
laundry
leftover lunch
I interviewed Ama and she interviewed me
stories and rest
day after hot tub dip
found out LV staff has to take a 10% paycut
checked out some bigger rooms to move in to

hippies go skating (feb 17 2009)

What happens when you let 20 lost valleyites loose on a field trip to a roller rink? Total mayhem! Imagine, any big group of friends going anywhere would be pretty crazy. We dominated the rink. The dj willingly played music more appealing to us - less Hannah Montana, more funky 80's. The 5 other people there didnt seem to mind too much, until J demanded more 'reverse' skating. JW and I eventually led a revolt to get back in the regular skating direction. Some of us showed off our sped skating abilities, L perfected the crouch, D learned she DID need to let go of hands when she falls and D @ M were groovin. Others enjoyed the snack bar with its sodas, cotton candy and pumps of dyed yellow sludge with chips. At one point we all stopped skating and went to the middle of the floor to dance and spin and do crazy legs. R learned to skate, J did a head stand, A checked video games for money and I think we all learned how important a "mandatory" (or highly encouraged), fun trip can be.

time warp

Yes. I know. I havent written in 2 weeks. I have been in a whirlwind time warp that is called Phoenix Arizona. It is almost a complete opposite to what I have been living for the last 9 months. Add that to the fact that I can go from LV to Phx in about 3 hours time and 100 dollars cash. From forest to desert- community to individualism- clouds to sun- 40 degrees to 80 degrees- biking to driving- lichens to orange blossoms-love to fear- that is a major transition to make in just a few hours. I am used to a more natural pace of travel, and actually, I am getting used to a more natural pace of life all around.
Visiting the city I grew up in, validated almost all of the reasons I moved to oregon. The biggest one is community. I love my phx people...my permie family, my alternatives cafe family, my azmamas tribe, and my real family.... and.... it is just so weird to have my families spread out over an 80 mile radius. Weird and unnatural for me. My need for connection and community is so strong, as is my need for NOT driving... I could hardly handle the phx reality. I felt sad that so many people struggle so much because they have chosen individualism/isolation and have so little support. People choose jobs that are so far away, they spend more time with their cars than their families.
I am seeing good projects happening and attitudes changing. Good things are happening there... more and more good things- I think. It is so tempting to want to stay, just to teach people and create great things and smell the orange blossoms and bike around in the 75 degree evenings mmmmmm... but, I love it here. I am teaching here. I bike here.
those orange blossoms will just have to wait until the next time I can soak up the sun.

if any az people are reading this and want ideas to create community in your neighborhood...
check out
portland city repair project
or take a trip to tucson and visit the dunbar springs area
or look up info about transition towns
join the phoenix permaculture guild
meet your neighbors
do something