In case you hadn't noticed - there's a provincial election in B.C., and of course, being the social activists we are, several Pacific Gardeners are involved.
Some are supporting the NDP, others the Greens, and those political choices fit with our social justice and environmental values.
But it also means some of us are going to very busy, and that includes me. In fact, that's why you haven't seen any blog posts from me for more than 10 days.
I will be focusing my attention on campaigning for my local Green Party candidate until after election day, May 14th, which means you won't be hearing from me as often.
It's not that I don't think writing about cohousing and the values it embodies are not important. It's just that right now, the election is way more important.
I feel - as do others - that we are at a crossroads in our society. We can choose to go one way or the other, and which way we choose will have enormous consequences.
It distresses me that so many seem to think that we continue on with an economy based on over-consumption, continual growth, and destruction of our environment.
I believe we must change the way we live our lives if there is to be any future for the next generation - that's why I live in cohousing. I want a different way.
I won't preach or hector you about this. But I am going to do my damnedest now to elect people who care about the environment, and have the courage to fight for it.
I hope you will, too.
Kathryn
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Chili for CHLY
As many of you already know, I have been volunteering at CHLY 101.7 FM Radio Malaspina, Nanaimo's Campus/Community Radio Station and, every Spring and Fall Fundrive, I solicit up food donations and prepare and serve Vegan, Blazing Squash Chili outside the Radio Station on the last day of Fundrive.
Most of the donations to produce the chili have been often mostly collected from PGCC'ers, we use the Pacific Gardens dishes so as to not use disposable dishes, and PGCC'ers have helped with the prep, the cooking, the transporting and the serving of the chili and I have always attributed most of the credit to Pacific Gardens and the Green Store (owned by Chad at PGCC) for these events because I think it's a great way to promote our community!
You may wonder why I volunteer every spare moment to our local community radio station.
My life and I have long been dedicated to helping make the world a better, healthier place to live. I grew up on the water and extremely close to nature and it provided me with a truly deep and meaningful experience and connection to nature, our environment and its mind-blowing ecosystems.
My post-secondary career was literally embarked upon for the pure and simple purpose of trying to figure out what was wrong with our world systems that things should be so messed up, and then identifying methods and strategies for improving the state of affairs for people, the environment, and hence, people alike!
What I found from my investigations was that the kind of change that I wanted to see on the planet was implemented only by localized, grass-roots community movements.
I also found that corporately-owned media (which makes up for almost all media outlets in Canada, I can't remember what percent!) and advertising are used for indoctrinating the masses (us sheep) to a peer-pressured-consumer-culture. These corporately-owned media only report to us in a way that benefits their major shareholders providing us with what I like to basically refer to as Kraft News.
Media corporations pay extremely brilliant people lots and lots of money just to develop marketing and advertising strategies that manipulate even our own body's bio-psychological processes, convincing us away from trusting our own, natural, healthy processes and our rejuvenating relationship with the earth and into ignoring, and even distrusting our own innate sense that we are all a part of something fantastic and powerful and we don't need the right sunglasses and cell phone to be included in the party!
In the final year of my post-secondary education I realized that I wasn't being funneled into a career that was going to make me happy nor fulfill my political objectives - that I wasn't going to actually be allowed to change anything that would lessen the powers of the powers that be - I was headed for a cubicle and a computer screen somewhere and later some anti-depressants and then maybe a classy sportscar later on if I was well behaved and didn't rock the boat!
I handed in my final scholastic paper explaining why I was convinced that it was of more justice for me to be growing food and connecting with my own community and environment than producing rhetoric for my professors and that that was what I was going home to do. I stood in the garden and proclaimed: "This is a one-woman revolution!"
But, thank-god, it's not, there's everybody else. All of us. We are all here, in it together and I'm so glad to be with you and not alone! And I'm grateful to have found such an outlet as CHLY provides for real community messaging and such a service to still be available to the general public - this is of utmost importance in our current political environment!
CHLY gives me hope that we have not lost the battle for peace and love just yet, that we still retain some political clout and the ability to deliver an anti-corporate agenda!
This is too long but I just love CHLY sooo much!
Tara
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Happy Earth Day
Last week, one of my fellow cohos and I attended a campaign planning meeting at the home of our future next door neighbour, Ian Gartshore, who is running for the Green Party in British Columbia's provincial election. As we stepped outside after the meeting, we heard the beautiful symphony of frogs croaking in the pond on our property.
I keep on catching glimpses of what it will be like to live at Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community. It gives me goose bumps to think that I will be able to open my window at night and hear the Earth sing.
When I see the kids at the school across the street playing during recess, I hope that this song will endure for them and their children and their children's children.
I keep on catching glimpses of what it will be like to live at Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community. It gives me goose bumps to think that I will be able to open my window at night and hear the Earth sing.
When I see the kids at the school across the street playing during recess, I hope that this song will endure for them and their children and their children's children.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Tofino, there I was
My first visit to Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island was awesome. I went with a friend who knew the area. That helped me to make good use of time.
The bus ride there and back in itself was lovely. The bus travelled through glacier-covered mountains, lakes and forests, including Cathederal Grove. At the high altitudes there still was snow on the forest floor.
Another first for me was staying in a hostel. I was spoiled by the award-winning Whalers on the Point Guesthouse. It has a view worthy of a multi-million dollar hotel. It's very clean and comfortable, and I enjoyed chatting with fellow guests from Canada, Australia and Germany.
Still another first was kayaking. Although I was a bit clumsy while I learned the technique, I enjoyed it. Led by a guide, we kayaked to Meares Island, and hiked in the old growth rainforest there. I loved the huge trees, the ferns, and the moss.
On another day we caught the bus to Ucluelet and did the circular walk, through the magical forest, overlooking the cliffs, to the lighthouse.
We then caught the bus back to Long Beach, where we walked, ran, explored rock pools, and played on a teeter totter [see saw] made of driftwood. I loved the roar of the waves on Long Beach. Fond as I am of Nanaimo, that is one thing we lack. We're protected by several islands just offshore, and we don't get that pounding surf.
Returning to Tofino from Long Beach involved yet another first for me -- hitch hiking. Luckily, a friendly couple who were visiting from San Francisco stopped within minutes and gave us a ride. (They said they'd seen us using the teeter totter they'd made.)
Tofino and Ucluelet are 40 kilometres (25 miles) from each other, and Long Beach is about a third of the way from Tofino to Ucluelet. It would have been a challenge to visit Ucluelet and Long Beach by bus in a single day. Hence the need to augment the bus with hitch hiking.
Had we gone to Tofino a few days later -- from April 9th, 2009 onwards -- it would have been easier. Each day there would have been two southbound buses to Ucluelet and two northbound buses back to Tofino instead of just one bus in each direction.
With that said, I feel we visited Tofino at an ideal time. The town was relatively empty and quiet, compared with the summer months, when the population reportedly swells by 20,000.
Everyone warned me that rain was very common on the west cost of Vancouver Island. They all said that the area's outdoor activities still were wonderful in wet weather, as long as you dressed appropriately.
I packed a Goretex jacket and rain trousers, but didn't use them. As it turned out, we had glorious weather. Local residents were astonished at how warm and sunny it was.
Walking around the quaint little town centre was fun. The art gallery that housed the paintings of Roy Henry Vickers was particularly inspiring. This was recommended by both my real life friend and my cyber friend, Rob. The Common Loaf Bakery was a cute place to stop for hot chocolate.
Stupendous as the west coast of Vancouver Island is, it is not immune to imprudent exploitation. Clearcut logging already has taken place. The only stands of old growth temperate rainforest left are those in Pacific Rim National Park and on Meares Island. (By comparison, the First Nations people of Canada harvested bark and planks in such a way that trees continued to grow.) Local residents are concerned about plans for a copper mine on Catface, a mountain just across the bay from Tofino.
There are complex relationships amongst old growth forests, wild salmon, the ocean, streams, and bears. Human activity, unless it is conducted with care, upsets the natural balance that sustains us. The guide who led us on the expedition to Meares Island gave us a great explanation of this.
I was attracted to Vancouver Island because it felt to me like Paradise. But, even during my mini-vacation, when I would have been more than happy to escape from the real world, I received many reminders that our unparalleled quality of life depended on dedicated stewards.
British Columbia is gearing up for a provincial election on May 12th, 2009. I am more conscious than ever that I want a government that values different kinds of capital -- ecological, social and financial. Our environment is the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs. God forbid that we should kill it. Then we may as well kiss our financial capital goodbye, and I dare say our social capital as well.
The bus ride there and back in itself was lovely. The bus travelled through glacier-covered mountains, lakes and forests, including Cathederal Grove. At the high altitudes there still was snow on the forest floor.
Another first for me was staying in a hostel. I was spoiled by the award-winning Whalers on the Point Guesthouse. It has a view worthy of a multi-million dollar hotel. It's very clean and comfortable, and I enjoyed chatting with fellow guests from Canada, Australia and Germany.
Still another first was kayaking. Although I was a bit clumsy while I learned the technique, I enjoyed it. Led by a guide, we kayaked to Meares Island, and hiked in the old growth rainforest there. I loved the huge trees, the ferns, and the moss.
On another day we caught the bus to Ucluelet and did the circular walk, through the magical forest, overlooking the cliffs, to the lighthouse.
We then caught the bus back to Long Beach, where we walked, ran, explored rock pools, and played on a teeter totter [see saw] made of driftwood. I loved the roar of the waves on Long Beach. Fond as I am of Nanaimo, that is one thing we lack. We're protected by several islands just offshore, and we don't get that pounding surf.
Returning to Tofino from Long Beach involved yet another first for me -- hitch hiking. Luckily, a friendly couple who were visiting from San Francisco stopped within minutes and gave us a ride. (They said they'd seen us using the teeter totter they'd made.)
Tofino and Ucluelet are 40 kilometres (25 miles) from each other, and Long Beach is about a third of the way from Tofino to Ucluelet. It would have been a challenge to visit Ucluelet and Long Beach by bus in a single day. Hence the need to augment the bus with hitch hiking.
Had we gone to Tofino a few days later -- from April 9th, 2009 onwards -- it would have been easier. Each day there would have been two southbound buses to Ucluelet and two northbound buses back to Tofino instead of just one bus in each direction.
With that said, I feel we visited Tofino at an ideal time. The town was relatively empty and quiet, compared with the summer months, when the population reportedly swells by 20,000.
Everyone warned me that rain was very common on the west cost of Vancouver Island. They all said that the area's outdoor activities still were wonderful in wet weather, as long as you dressed appropriately.
I packed a Goretex jacket and rain trousers, but didn't use them. As it turned out, we had glorious weather. Local residents were astonished at how warm and sunny it was.
Walking around the quaint little town centre was fun. The art gallery that housed the paintings of Roy Henry Vickers was particularly inspiring. This was recommended by both my real life friend and my cyber friend, Rob. The Common Loaf Bakery was a cute place to stop for hot chocolate.
Stupendous as the west coast of Vancouver Island is, it is not immune to imprudent exploitation. Clearcut logging already has taken place. The only stands of old growth temperate rainforest left are those in Pacific Rim National Park and on Meares Island. (By comparison, the First Nations people of Canada harvested bark and planks in such a way that trees continued to grow.) Local residents are concerned about plans for a copper mine on Catface, a mountain just across the bay from Tofino.
There are complex relationships amongst old growth forests, wild salmon, the ocean, streams, and bears. Human activity, unless it is conducted with care, upsets the natural balance that sustains us. The guide who led us on the expedition to Meares Island gave us a great explanation of this.
I was attracted to Vancouver Island because it felt to me like Paradise. But, even during my mini-vacation, when I would have been more than happy to escape from the real world, I received many reminders that our unparalleled quality of life depended on dedicated stewards.
British Columbia is gearing up for a provincial election on May 12th, 2009. I am more conscious than ever that I want a government that values different kinds of capital -- ecological, social and financial. Our environment is the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs. God forbid that we should kill it. Then we may as well kiss our financial capital goodbye, and I dare say our social capital as well.
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