Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Sigh. That is about all I have been doing for the past few days as I read the blogs that I frequent. Then I stumbled upon one which poked me into quiet reflection for a little while that put things into a bit of perspective. I highly recommend it, but I also warn that there is some really deep philosophical musing, and the occasional bit of language that some might find offensive.

Casaubon's Book: Sharon Astyk’s Ruminations on an Ambiguous Future
http://sharonastyk.com/2008/04/24/ok-breathe/

The basic message of this commentary is, things in various aspects of energy, climate, economics, finances, food, and population, are getting very interesting, perhaps more quickly than many have previously thought possible. This is the dynamic of EXPONENTIAL GROWTH vs LINEAR GROWTH. However, in the midst of all of this, we should remember what it is that is really important to us. What is it that we need and want most? Sit down and reflect on that.

So I did. I went to my neighbours', had a beer and a sing-song, and a laugh. I played with their dogs and talked about music, and threw the darts around-the-world.

It was a nice night.

The second message of the commentary is that there is much work that we have to get to. We need to reprioritize. We need to take back our communities that have been hijacked by solitary commutes in an automobile to race home after work to catch up on primetime TV.

Last night I felt that we had, in some small way, proceeded to build our community, and not just from the metaphysical standpoint. We also engaged in discussions about building up a (small) community garden in our complex of duplexes. The great thing was that nobody was in dispute that it should or shouldn't be done. We were talking about what we were going to bring to the equation. One guy was going to get a hold of a rotary hoe, we talked about permaculture vs. dig & turn, about acquiring fish carcasses to enrich the soil...We talked about where we should put it, about what to put in it. Everyone contributed to the discussion.

This morning I transplanted out seven more paw-paw plants, and got another 30 ready for distribution to a few others around. The beans are sprouting, the capsicum plants are getting bigger, and I had the most beautiful coconut for breakfast.

Progress isn't all about material wealth.

Peace in our community.