In Search of Others

One of the goals of my quest is to try to create and foster community with others. I believe we each harbor a desire to connect with others, to feel heard and to feel important. Community, it seems, is a misunderstood subject in our society. We give the illusion of being connected constantly. Cell phones, facebooks, internet, reality tv shows; images and sounds from others bombard us constantly. Yet, there is no real interaction there. Families spend dinner time watching t.v. together, and that's the lucky ones who eat together at all. We won't get off our cell phones long enough to make eye contact when paying for gas. We believe twittering is the same as communicating. And through all of this I believe, we feel very alone.

So, one of my goals is to try to have real interactions with real people. Even though, sometimes, this is hard. It feels risky to smile at a stranger and say "hi" and it feels awkward to go to a meeting with people whom I've never met before and share myself. A few weeks ago, I joined Meetup. It's this online service that lets anyone form a group and it helps you organize that group with announcements and such. After joining the meetup, you pick out things you are interested in and it tells you if there are groups in your area that fit your interests. This week, I went to a women's study group. Meetup makes this part easy for anyone interested, they give you email reminders and suggest groups that might interest you. Then you get to do the brave part. You get to go to the group and meet other cool people who share your interests.

About a month ago, I received an email that let me know what book the group was reading for this month's women's studies meeting. It was called The Bigger the Better the Tighter the Sweater, edited by Samantha Schoech and Lisa Taggart. I really enjoyed this book. It's a collection of essays written by women sharing their personal experiences about being a woman. There were several times during this book that I laughed out loud - in public. The humor, though, was just a vehicle to deliver very powerful and insightful messages about challenges growing up female. Everything from breast shape and bikini waxes to aging and body shape were fair game for this powerful group of women writer's. As Sunday approached, I couldn't wait to get together and discuss these issues with other women. And I was not disappointed. Although our group was fairly small, 9 in all, our demographics was diverse along with our opinions. A lively dialogue ensued and I had an excellent time. I've all ready requested the book for next months meetup and I've signed up to attend the next vegetarian/vegan meetup. Meeting new people and great food - count me in.

I'd love to hear from others about how they are trying to connect with other people and form community. Join me - literally if you can, figuratively if you will and find ways to foster community in your neighborhoods.

Welcome

This is my first blog - ever, anywhere. so, bear with me while i learn and stretch those rusty writing muscles, which were never particularly nimble to begin with. Why have I brushed away the cobwebs to start a blog? Why even a blog, when i'm not that enamored with technology and may not even have anything very relevant to speak of? Well, I'm kind of on a quest. I believe i may have started it a long time ago but wasn't even aware of it. Or perhaps, i'm finally making a commitment to start it today. My goal is to learn to do as many things as possible for myself. To become as self sufficient as possible. This includes earning a living not working for others, learning and practicing permaculture, organic and sustainable agriculture, alternative building, animal husbandry, sewing, cooking, canning, and i could go on ad naseum. all the things i will need to learn has not even dawned on me. Along the way, my goal is to make as much art as possible, drawing, painting, ceramics, making music, and functional art such as clothing. And to build as much community as possible. I do not claim to be any kind of an expert on any of the above mentioned topics, or even any topics that i will dream of once i go to bed tonight. However, i thought there may be someone out there in cyber world or the real world that may share some of the same interests. They may be following a similar quest and that i could use this blog to swap information. To learn out loud, so to speak. to take notes of my quest and to process some of my learning. Please, eaves drop in on the process, comment, question, post suggestions and ideas. Most of all, consider walking along with me. There can not be too much learning, there can not be too much art, there can not be too much caring about our community of people, animal and plant life. And it is probably time that we left the womb of wal-mart and learned to do some things for ourselves and in such a way that we feel good about our choices.

Stay tuned - I've gotten my seed catalogs, i'll share with you some of the catalogs i've gotten to order seeds for this spring (it's coming faster than you can imagine), and i'll tell you some great places you can look for seeds yourself.