Cohousing article

 

A couple of weeks back the Guardian had a couple of articles on co-housing and communal living… we’ve always been interested in the co-housing idea and there was some interesting stuff in the articles… mainly on how hard it is to start a co-housing project. Anyway as time is too short to sya anymore now, here are the links if you are interested:

Communal living: Grand designs on living in perfect harmony
Communal living: Love thy neighbourhood

100,000 paper airplanes and Heima online

Just watched the video of 100,000 paper air-planes being released from the roof of buildings in Michigan, while 20,000 people below sing, hum or play an instrument to the tune of sigur ros’ “olsen olsen”as part of “artprize” event. Strangely pleasing and fun!

Also this week you can watch in full Sigur Ros’ brilliant ‘Heima’ film online on Pitchfork.

The End of the Line

Recently watched The End of the Line, which is currently available in the UK on More4 using  4 On Demand (The End of the Line – 4oD – Channel 4) and soon to be out on DVD.

It is an incredible story about the shocking decline in global fish stocks – sadly not a film about what might happen in the future, but what has happened already… well worth watching.

The film asks that consumers should choose only sustainable seafood – which means, first and foremost, that they agree to avoid eating actively endangered species, for example, the bluefin and bigeye tunas and the common skate. Details of what to do in restaurants here and when buying fish here.

Rowan Williams – climate crisis a chance to become human again

Rowan Williams is in the news this week talking about the climate crisis and our human dignity and spirituality, and our connection to the earth’s rhythms. It comes as he gave the Operation Noah lecture last night, which I’m sure will be available  online soon:

“If I ask what’s the point of my undertaking a modest amount of recycling my rubbish or scaling down my air travel, the answer is not that this will unquestionably save the world within six months, but in the first place it’s a step towards liberation from a cycle of behaviour that is keeping me, indeed most of us, in a dangerous state — dangerous, that is, to our human dignity and self-respect.”

via Dr Rowan Williams says climate crisis a chance to become human again – The Guardian.

He said that Britain had to get back in touch with the “natural rhythms of the seasons … the fact that the Earth turns, things grow here and not there, now and not then”. He added: “More people ought to have allotments. It’s part of reconnecting — the sense of connectedness to natural processes.”

via Dr Rowan Williams: ‘Dig for victory over climate change and grow your own food’ – Times Online.

Understanding Prayer – Something Understood

In this week’s Something Understood on Radio 4, Mark Tully talked to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, about his personal understanding of prayer… and it is one of the best descriptions of prayer that I’ve heard in ages.

He talks of prayer as stilling your body and imagination, which aid communion with God and make us present… practices that I’ve been exploring particularly over the past year, and which I’ve found helpfully explored in the book Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird.

But what in particular I found helpful in this interview was Rowan’s explanation of intercessory prayer, especially when viewed from this understanding of a more ‘internal prayer’. He moves us away from the ‘shopping list of prayers’ that we often find practiced in the church, and moves us towards a definition of intercessory prayer that says: “I’m going to spend ten minutes just thinking about you and Jesus.”

“You don’t send in a list of requests. You don’t bombard God with your demands. You just hold the image, the sense of a person or a situation in the presence of God, as if you want to let the one seep into the other, bringing those realities together in your mind and heart.”

That he says is how he finds intercession works, which makes much sense to me.

Inevitably our emotions move us towards asking for help for this person or to let this to happen, but Rowan says – “the bottom line is holding them there, your emotions push you to saying these things, and there is no need to be ashamed of that, but the reality is letting God into the situation.”

You’ve got a few days to listen to the programme itself on the BBC iPlayer if interested.

Ten things about Greenbelt 09

Greenbelt 2009 AS 1193, originally uploaded by Greenbelt Festival Official Pictures.

Another great Greenbelt this year… here’s ten things I liked:

1. Having cups of tea with lots of friends and camping with Home folk… thanks to Jim & Mary for organising the spot, and Rich & Sarah for helping us get the tent up in the wind
2. Making tea using the Kelly Kettle and cooking on our charcoal stove from Zambia… without setting the racecourse alight…
3. Ockham’s Razor performing their aerial theatre in the Big Top
4. Connecting with Chris Sunderland of Earth Abbey and getting to most of Permaculture inspired spirituality with Bruce Stanley
5. Duke Special (with Ayla asleep on my back) and The Welcome Wagon at the mainstage
6. Bumping into Jenny (fellow house244 resident) and knowing community is like family
7. Sharing a tent and the weekend with Polly and Ayla
8. L’Arche washing of the feet service
9. Despite missing so many talks knowing I can download them later (notably, Alistair McIntosh, Eugenie Harvey, Shannon Hopkins)
10. and not looking at a computer screen all weekend.

Greenbelt 2009 ED 0214, originally uploaded by Greenbelt Festival Official Pictures.

Tea Making Tips 1941

All tea lovers know that there is an art to making a good cuppa… and that art is nothing new as this little clip from 1941 shows.

Do you follow the ‘Six golden rules’?

Thanks to the Tea Appreciation Society for the link to the clip.

Inspiration

Just thought I’d share a few things that have been inspiring me lately….

Conversations
Had some great conversations with a few people lately… sharing hopes and sparking ideas… conversations with people you love and respect surely have to be one of the best ways of finding inspiration.

“Be the change you want to see”
Enjoying the quote above, credited to Mahatma Ghandi, at the moment. Came across it recently here, and finding it inspirational especially when played alongside the song Given, from the album Hope for a Tree Cut Down.

Do lectures
Have enjoyed catching-up with some of the Do Lectures from last year, and looking forward to the new ones coming up later next month.

Riceboy Sleeps
Really enjoying the sounds of Riceboy Sleeps.

Later in the week we’ll be heading to Brussels for a few days… and then we’ll be looking to Greenbelt for some further inspiration…

Age of Stupid

There has been a spate of films on climate change and environment themes of late – I’ve mentioned Home already, there is also End of the Line, a film about the effect of overfishing which I’ve not seen yet… and there is The Age of Stupid that I saw a few weeks back at a local school, and that we are showing on 30th July in East Oxford…

The Age of Stupid is the new film from the director of McLibel, Franny Armstrong, and starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at actual footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

“We could have saved ourselves, but we didn’t. It’s amazing. What state of mind were we in, to face extinction and simply shrug it off?… We wouldn’t be the first life form to make itself extinct. But what would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly. What does that say about us?”

The film uses a mix of news footage from the past few years, along with widely accepted scientific predictions, to paint a picture of the impact that climate change is having, and will have, upon the earth and humankind. Weaving in and out of this are the stories of a diverse group of real people from across the world – a wind farm developer, a business man starting the first cheap airline in India, a glacier climbing guide, a woman suffering the consequences of oil spills in Nigeria, a retired scientist who has spent his life searching for oil, and the demonstrators against a local wind-farm. The film presents these peoples lives so that you catch glimpses of some of the apparent contradictions, and attempts to try and not answer those contradictions too much, leaving the viewer to chew on them instead. This is a brave, helpful move… we’ve all got contradictions in our responses to such a complex issue… and the ‘holier than though’ approach only ends up alienating everyone from each other.

Despite being well made and of a high quality, I can’t tell you it is the best film ever made, it isn’t. But then given that it is a self-funded film with no corporate sponsorship, it is an amazing example of independent film making. It also means that it isn’t a Holywood blockbuster – and that is what makes this film so powerful. Using real news footage is not ‘Hollywood’ and looks ‘cheap’ in parts. And yet using real footage is probably the most convincing way of sharing this message… for sure its much harder to ignore or argue against actual footage and widely accepted scientific predictions.  And the film uses this to its advantage.

It won’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside – but then it isn’t intended to. It’s a wake up call to us all, that if we carry on as we are then all predictions say that we are heading for serious problems… and for that this is the best film I’ve seen.

The downside to this serious edge, however, is that despite the film being backed up by the Not Stupid campaign, if you leave the film without the chance to share with others, you’re likely to feel overwhelmed and of little hope… and we are then in danger of carrying on as usual… And so its important to see this film with others, and chew over its contents together.

So how can you see this film at it’s best (i.e. with others)?… Well, guess what? Perhaps the most revolutionary nature of this film, is that the creative guys behind it have developed a way that anyone can buy a license to show it anywhere… all completely legally and meaning you can keep the profits (incidentally as Yann Arthus Bertrand has waived his copyrights you may be able to do a similar thing with Home), and this Indie Screening marketing technique I suspect could really catch on…

Not wanting to miss out on a good thing we are putting on an Indie Screening at House244 in East Oxford on 30th July – booking details here – but why not go one better and put on your own screening – details how to here. Failing that you can obviously catch it where others are putting it on – details here – it will also be on at Greenbelt).

If you do put it on yourself I’d suggest resisting the temptation of having a speaker there to answer everyone’s questions, as in my experience these tend to end up veering towards a bear pit and lead to endless debates concerning whether ‘one should have an Aga or not’ (important for sure for some people, but it kind’a takes the energy out of things, in more ways than one)… rather I’d suggest spending time reflecting, leaving to one side all the questions for a moment, and asking yourselves “What is stopping you from doing something about climate change?”… and spending time breaking that down with others.

Perhaps inevitably after seeing the film I was left with the following words from the old hymn, City of God, in my mind:

Awake from your slumber! Arise from your sleep!
A new day is dawning for all those who weep.
The people in darkness have seen a great light.
The Lord of our longing has conquered the night.

HOME – a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

I first saw the Earth from the Air photograph exhibition by Yann Arthus-Bertrand years ago at the Natural History Museum in London and it was, and still is, fantastic. His photography is breathtaking and inspirational – and the exhibition has always had at its core a goal of inspiring people to act on what they see… Well he has recently released a film that brings his distinctive style of photography to the big screen.

Exploring the miracle and mystery of the earth the film looks at the beauty of the earth and all its creatures… and follows the story of humans short presence on the earth, both our creative use and mindless destruction. Just like his photograph exhibition the film weaves history and facts through story with a back drop of amazing photography. The film producers say:

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

There are a few films out at the moment that bring the environmental impact of humans on the earth to life, and which hope to call us all to action ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks in December (the follow up to Kyoto)… Age of Stupid being another I saw recently (more of which I will blog about soon)… but with the Home film you can currently watch the whole thing for free (until 17th July) on youtube: Home – Youtube minisite. If you miss it on youtube I think the DVD will be out soon after: Home Film website.

Watch it whilst you can… no in fact don’t just watch it, lets respond to it and take our part in our collective responsibility to humanity and the earth.