Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. It’s surprisingly warm here today and due to my new work schedule I was up early enough to see the sun rise. (Granted, I was inside working but I did open the blinds and get to watch from over my laptop screen as the sun rose over the trees.)

Today is a day for merriment, for joy and celebration. For the wheel turns once more toward shadow, and the strength of the Oak King wanes. But today, he is at the height of his power and it is a day for joyous revelry, for soaking up the warmth and light that will sustain us through the dark of the year. Today, take a lesson from the cats and bask in the warmth of the summer sun and be blessed.

After realizing that my blog reader is full of links that I keep taking note of with the thought to write future blog posts on them only to run out of time, I figured I might as well just share the links with you straight out. There’s not much rhyme or reason to this–just things that I’ve been reading or watching recently that caught my eye for some reason. It’s a pretty mixed group but, well, that’s what the inside of my brain looks like. Welcome.

Green Links

Treehugger deconstructs the phantom China vs. US Clean Tech war. Particularly interesting in light of Obama’s recent remarks on energy, which are woefully deficient in the areas of renewable power sources.

A Treehugger post on the FTC and bamboo. I always thought bamboo was a great sustainable fiber, but turns out that the processing might be just as bad as plastic and rayon? (Note: Not sure if this applies to bamboo yarn as well as fabric; further investigation should be done.)

Is Drinking Milk from Bags Weird? by Treehugger. Not really applicable to me, but I still like the idea of things like milk being sold in bags like it is in Canada. If only because it would give me an excuse to have an adorable milk pitcher.

News, Media, & Entertainment

The New York Times takes a look at the most emailed news stories–turns out, it’s the ones that inspire awe. Makes me have a little bit more faith in humanity.

The Wall Street Journal takes a  look at the life of one of the original “news doctors” Frank Magid, and how he helped turn news into entertainment. This makes me have much less faith in humanity.

The Demoiselles ask you to Check Yourselves: Accidentally Contributing to Media Standards. I love their take on body image and standards.

Smart Pop Books has a handy recap of last night’s Lost episode, in case you missed it or, like me, find yourself feeling confused.

Spirituality

Sawtooth Sage: A Soothing Southwestern Nerve Tonic from The Medicine Woman’s Roots. I don’t think Sawtooth Sage is local (any of you green witches know?) and I don’t know how you would get the seeds to cultivate it, but damn it, I want some of this!

Modest Extremes by Wendy Shalit take a fascinating look at modesty. I certainly wouldn’t say I’m leaning in that extreme of a direction–but there are some really great thoughts in there around preserving some mystery in life and relationships. Something that seems increasingly forgotten lately.

The Non-Muslim Hijabi’s videos “Why wear Hijab?” and “Thoughts on Hijab.” Some of you may (or may not) know that I’ve been toying with the idea of covering my hair in some fashion (so far sticking mainly to wide headbands) and I really connected with a lot of what she said.

General Awesomeness

Cup Pies! From the Craftyminx. I want to make Cup Pies to go with my Cupcakes! I especially want to figure out if there’s a way to do, like coconut cream cup pies that’s not super messy….mmmm…

Calling all Lovers: Body Image from the Other Side by The Demoiselles. If you’re a man or woman (or any other gender identity) who loves women, you should absolutely go leave a comment on this post.

Some adorable wish tickets from A Fanciful Twist.  I want to print these out and leave them random places! So cute.

And finally, a short story for you–“The Cannonball Run” by Andrew Fitzgerald. Andrew is one of my co-workers and he’s doing this crazy Kickstarter project writing short stories every week based on words, characters, settings, and sentences submitted by the projects backers. It’s a great opportunity to watch him be tortured by all of us see some crowd sourced fiction get written.

Happy reading!

It always seems a bit strange to celebrate Imbolc here in California. I always envision it as the first stirrings of new life and growth under a blanket of snow, the first stirrings of spring that we can’t see but know  are there. Of course, here it was 57F yesterday, I didn’t even need a jacket, and even managed to open the windows for a bit, much to the delight of the cats.

But Imbolc it is–a time of the first stirrings of new growth and community, and a time to celebrate! As seems to be habit with me, I had lots of plans and ideas that I didn’t quite have time to follow through on. Alas–but tht doesn’t mean I can’t do something! CAYA Coven’s big Imbolc ritual was on Saturday, so I whipped up some cupcakes. Chai latte for the vegans (one of my favorites, because they are both delicious and simple) and the aggressively non-vegan tres leches cupcakes for everyone else!

I’d never made Tres Leches cupcakes before, but they turned out very well. All oozing with delicious sweet milk and cream, and topped with homemade whipped cream.

The chai latte were delcious as always, though the powdered sugar melted disappointingly quickly. I wish I’d had time to let them cool longer.

A fitting way to celebrate Imbolc, I think! Of course, there’s still today and tomorrow to celebrate. I think I’ll make a quiche tonight, maybe, and work on some cleaning. The original plan was to get everything cleaned up and do a ritual cleaning/floor wash deal but that just didn’t happen. Of course, doesn’t mean I can’t still make progress.

Happy Imbolc, all!

What is it about vacation that makes you feel like you need a vacation?

I had last week off work, and I spent most of it hanging around my house, sleeping, knitting, and visiting friends. (I also got a new timing belt for my car, but that’s not really something I’d class in the “fun” portion of vacation.) But, over the weekend I got to go to Yosemite! I’ve never been before, and it was super exciting.

A couple of my friends rented some condos at Bass Lake, and invited a bunch of us to go over. It was fanatastic–the best part was having so many of my friends close together and being able to just wander back and forth between the condos, cook meals together, have a cup of coffee with someone just because…it’s real community, and I so wish that it could be like that all the time.

I actually spent a good chunk of the time hanging out at Bass Lake; I got to wander some, see my friends,  and even coax a couple of them into helping me take some better pictures of new finished objects. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of mine yet since I went old school and took my good camera (SLR) which takes film. So I have to get that developed. Yeah, I know, crazy talk, right? But I also got to see Yosemite and it was gorgeous–totally awe-inspiring, to see all of that. And there was snow! I haven’t seen snow in three years! So. Awesome.

Unfortunately, I have to go back to work now and I’m completely exhausted. Oh well…time to break out the caffeine and force myself awake.

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The day that the old Sun dies, and the new Sun is reborn. The day the young, shining Oak King battles and defeats the Holly King at the height of his power. The day the wheel turns once more, from darkness to light.

We had our big Yule celebration on Saturday, and it was great fun. I was full of joy, positively giddy! Which isn’t really like me.

Photo courtesy of Brenda, who is blogless.

Today is the kind of day that makes me want to hibernate, stay in and spend my time puttering around, but I can’t. Instead, I woke up early, lit candles in the early darkness and am singing up the sun as it rises. Later, when I get home, I’ll late my Yule candles and and plug in the lights on my tree and enjoy the lessening darkness.

Yeah, I realize I’m talking about this idea of a dream community a lot, but it feels really important to me right now. As many of you know, I spend most of my day online because of my job, which means I see a lot of commentary. It’s amazing what people will say when they think they are anonymous. Some dismiss it as being just posturing but I wonder if it isn’t people feeling free to give in to the darker parts of themself.

There’s a lot of talk about freedom online, freedom to say whatever people want, freedom from the perceived restriction of polite society. But as far as I can tall, most of the time that means freedom to be the biggest asshole and bully they can be. The argument is that everyone is a grownup, and can take–but that’s not entirely true. I can rationally take the mudslinging and personal attacks that go around forums, but that isn’t how I chose to spend my time. Who signs up for emotional abuse? So the rational, sane, moderate folks eventually wander away from an unmoderated forum, to go do better things, leaving the bullies to their playground.

I’m afraid the same thing is happening in this country. Look at the reactions to the Ft. Hood shooting, or the health care bill. I’ve seen calls to set up internment camps for all Muslims, to deport them, to kick American Muslims or Arab-Americans (frequently with very little understanding that the two are not the same thing in many cases) out of the military. I’ve seen people outraged, apoplectic over the idea that someone who can’t afford health care might be able to purchase it because of a public plan, people disgusted that they might have to contribute some of their good fortune–and that’s what it is, fortune, because while hard work plays a role in this economy especially stability and security are half luck–to take care of the less fortunate. A complete lack of understanding that there are plenty of hard-working, employed Americans with no health care due to the greed of corporations who care more about giving CEOs multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses than providing health insurance for their employees who make minimum wage. I’ve seen things like “get a job” and “get over it” thrown around more than I can count.

It makes me sad. It makes me worried. It makes me afraid. Is this where our country is going? Are the bullies going to shout down logic and compassion, until we end up a nation where it’s every man for himself and screw everyone else? Rather than stew in this fear, wondering how much worse it’s going to get before we start realizing that compassion, tolerance, and caring are not signs of weakness but of strength, I started to think again about my dream community.

In an intentional community, there would need to be some statement of values. Things that people would all come together and agree on, as  a part of living there.  What would those be?

Compassion Compassion is not weak. In fact, it’s far more difficult than being callous. This is not the type of place where you shrug your shoulders when someone is having a tough time and say suck it up. It’s not the kind of place where you walk past an accident or ignore problems because they don’t affect you.

Respect Everyone has opinions and worldviews. They may not align. That’s okay. Debate is okay. It’s welcome. But there are lines. Resepct the opinions of others, and respect their choices so long as they aren’t harming others. By the same token, ask yourself if what you’re doing is going to harmor cause distress for those around you.

Community If you’re part of an intentional community, you’re there because you want to be. A group of people who happen to live in one area doesn’t make a community any more than a pile of beans and an onion sitting next to each other in a pot make soup.  Of course, everyone needs time alone, and some may need more than others. That’s cool. But there’s still an element of taking part in and contributing to the community that’s essential.

Sustainability The Earth is something we should care for, not rape and pillage. Even if everyone practices sustainability in their own way there should be an effort to live lightly, and to create something that can last.

Tolerance Even if this starts with a relatively small group, it will grow. Growth means diversity, and that should be not just tolerated but welcomed. Religion, race, gender, sexuality, age, history–it doesn’t matter what someone looks like, what they believe, or even what they may have believed in the past. They should be accepted and welcomed, as long as they’re interested in being a part of something like this, and these values. We’re all people.

That seems like a pretty good start, but I’m sure I’m leaving some things out. Now I can just dream of living somewhere with values like this…or what it would look like if the whole country started living like this. Hey, I can dream big, okay?

Since my previous post about intentional community, I’ve been thinking a lot about what my dream community would look like. This blog seems like as good a place as any to get these thoughts out there. Who knows, maybe there are more of you who share my dream! I figured I’d start with a broad framework of what I would see as ideal, and then I could dig deeper into some of these in future posts.

So, here’s an overview of what my Dream Town  of Sustainable Awesomeness would look like. Obviously, some of these would be longer term goals to work towards, but I think laying the path out would help. Also, even with crazy ass dreams, I’m just a planner.

Location There are a lot of largely subjective factors here. For me, the key would be somewhere with seasons (and snow! I miss snow!), somewhere with mountains (because I don’t trust places that are entirely flat) and somewhere not too far from a city. There are some conveniences that come from urban areas, and having something within a reasonable drive would be great. Plus, it would make it more easily accessible for visitors, which will become important later in this list. I’m leaning towards Colorado right now, but that’s just me.

An actual town In my ideal, this would take the form of an actual, incorporated municipality. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, it allows for growth. Ideally, this sort of model would be the sort that can expand and grow as more people become interested in this type of living rather than something that only works on a micro level. Second, it allows for more control. Unincorporated areas can’t make their own laws, which runs the risk of, say, a county deciding that the lot next to your sustainable farm is the perfect place for a sewage treatment plant or a new condo development. As a municipality, you get to set your own zoning laws, amongst other things. You also avoid being absorbed by a larger city as it grows, and being subject to their laws, taxes and other things. There are some downsides–you have to meet certain requirements to incorporate, and you have to pay municipal taxes to receive county services, while an unicorporated area does not–but I think they’re outweighed by the plus-es.

Self-sufficient This kind of goes along with the above. Being a town and all, the idea would be to form a self-sufficient community that included the essentials for life–like a fire/EMS department, police department, town government, schools, a doctor, and other services. Now, I’m sure some people are having a very visceral reaction to some of those, but it all goes back to scalability. You don’t need all of those things in a very small community, but if you want something that can grow, you do. Fire/EMS and doctors, well, that’s pretty self-explanatory. Things burn, people get hurt, it’s bad.  As for police, I’m sure many of you are saying but we won’t need them. Well, you might. As hard as you might try, you can’t guarantee everyone who wants to be part of the community in is going to be honest and upfront. Not to mention visitors.  Plus, this provides an interesting opportunity to explore the idea of what a different type of police force might look like. Maybe police officers also function as mediators in conflicts. How would that look? I think it’s worth exploring. Also–government. Decision by consensus is, again, one of those things that can reach a stopping point with large groups. But there are forms of government that rely heavily on consensus–a town meeting style government with elected selectmen, perhaps, or a town council style one with term limits or other restrictions that ensure people are rotated through on a regular basis.

Non-judgmentally sustainable Sutainability is one of those concepts that is rather nebulous, and may mean different things to different people. Ideally, this would be a place where all people are working towards a more sustainable life–on their own terms. Not everyone is cut out to live in cobb houses with composting toilets. I’m not. I like my indoor plumbing and running (hot!) water, and love the idea of restoring and updating an old house. Other people need steady electricity for medical reasons, and would at least need backup connection to a power source, even if the main portion of power was sourced from solar or wind. Some people are vegans, others might want to run a ranch and raise their own ethically produced meat. Compromise is not failure.

Open Yes, I’d love very much to drag all or most of my friends to said Dream Town of Sustainable Awesomeness. But the idea of a diverse community means accepting new people. Seniors, young people, families, couples, singles. Every individual or group is going to have their own baggage and own approach to similar ideals. Being a part of such a community shouldn’t require lock-step adherence to any ideology or method.

Connected Technology is here, and it’s not likely to go anywhere. And while there are a lot of drawbacks, there’s also a lot of good to come of it. A connected community would enable a lot more people to be a part of it, via telecommuting, and to serve the community by connecting to the rest of the world.

Honors Individuals Community is great, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of individuality. Want a communal house? Awesome, start one! But if you want your own space, that should be cool too. People should be free to build their own homes, start their own businesses or other ventures.

Prosperous Money is not, as some would suggest, the root of all evil. It’s essential. A community that can’t draw income can’t sustain itself. As much food as you can grow, as much livestock as you can raise, as many DIY skills as you may have, there are always going to be things you need to import. And being part of a community like this shouldn’t require taking actions that will negatively affect your financial future should you decide you want to move (like not being able to save, or have a decent income). Tourism would seem to be a logical choice here; I could imagine a community like this being somewhat of an oasis for people to come visit.

Scalability Here’s a fact. What we’re doing right now in this country, the life style we live? It’s not working. If you think it is, you’re probably in a very small group of people who have the luxury of not having the same concerns as the rest of us. And as much as small intentional communites are awesome, small groups of 5-50, even 100 like-minded people aren’t really a scalable model for the future. If I were able to form my dream community, it would be on a structure that’s scalable. Not only for it’s own sake–at some point, of course, growth reaches a point where you become the city you built it to get away from, though perhaps it would be an entirely different sort of city–but to serve as a model for others.

Atmosphere Okay, I’ve spent this entire blog post boring you with really practical, serious stuff. But that’s not all this is about! It should be fun! Maybe I’ve just watched too many episodes of Gilmore Girls and Everwood, but who doesn’t want to live somewhere with lots of quirky festivals? Being pagan, and envisioning a community centered around earth-centric values, I could imagine a town where each turn of the wheel is celebrated with a festvial. Maypoles at Beltane! Bonfires at Midsummer! Games and competition at Lughnasad! We live in a world where it is generally considered Very Bad Form for adults to act silly, and that’s ridiculous. Everyone needs to be silly sometimes!

So–that’s my take on this. So blog readers, what do you think? If you’ve ever dreamed of your ideal community, how does this compare? Think I’m totally nuts, or onto something? Leave a comment and let me know.

I’ve been having one of those weeks where I’m feeling very frustrated about modern, urban life. Don’t get me wrong–most of the time, I love living in a city. I love that I can get just about anything I want or need. I like that I have convenient and relatively reliable public transit. I like the number of museums, theaters, and other events available. I like that the sheer number of people increases the odds of finding those with similar interests. I also like technolgy. I like that I can talk to people across the country or even the world just as easily as someone across the street.

But sometimes I wonder if we aren’t really screwing it all up.

On the one hand, I have a great community in CAYA. On the other, I feel disconnected from most of the people around me. I barely know my neighbors in my building, much less the ones in the next building over, or down the street. On Saturday, I was baking cupcakes for our Samhain ritual, and realized I was out of cocoa powder. I didn’t need much, just a 1/2 cup, but could I do the neighborly thing and knock on people’s doors to see if I could borrow some? No. It’s not done. Instead, I had to get in my car and drive to the nearest grocery store and pick some up, while my batter sat forlornly un-chocolated on the counter. On the one hand, we can reach out and find others with similar interests, no matter how obscure, on the internet. On the other, it’s awfully lonely to sit in front of a computer all the time.

Then, I began thinking about this article from Cracked. (Warning: Cracked is minorly NSFW and also not for the easily offended.) It talks about 7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable. A couple of things jumped out at me. First, the idea that technology allows us to shield ourselves from people we don’t like–and I don’t mean the guy who bites the heads of chickens and terrorizes children and small animals, because you totally should avoid that guy, I mean the dude that annoys you because he has this weird nasal voice or the girl whose difficult to get along with because she always ha to be right even when she’s painfully wrong, those kind of people–so that we build up absolutely no tolerance to that. Think about it–we’re able to surround ourselves with people exactly. like. us. I don’ t mean similar life philosophies, I mean exactly the same. Same age group. Same exact ideology. Same education. And I can’t help but thinking–aren’t we missing out on something?

It’s about that time I start dreaming about living in a small town. But not with some of the negative aspects of small towns. There’s a risk, in a small community, of judgment, particularly for those of us who are somewhat left-of-center. (Hint: that’s why so many of us move to cities as soon as we can.)

But what if there was a different way? What if there were a way to create intentional communities that were based on some broadly similar goals–in my ideal, I’d say sustainability, respect for the Earth, religious and social tolerance–that still embodied some of the things that technology has allowed us to strip away? The kind of place where you know your neighbors and you have everyone from older folks to families to single people. Where you might have that annoying guy that everyone puts up with because he really does mean well, or that one person who knows everyones business. Where you care because that’s where you live. That’s your community. Not some strangers on a screen, but the people where you live.

I know it’s crazy. I know there are lots of realistic, practical reasons why this wouldn’t work. To begin with–finding a town, the little issue of money and jobs, the fact that most people aren’t exactly up to picking up their lives and doing something crazy on a whim. But..isn’t it a nice dream?

A while back, I went to CAYA‘s Harvest Home celebration, out at the Stone City Pagan Sanctuary.

Way out in the middle of nowhere, we were. It was hot. It was dusty. On the upside, there were more stars than I think I’ve ever seen, and standing stones, and an amazing Aphrodite shrine.

See? Middle of nowhere. But yet, in the midst of this I managed to find…yarn.

After all, what’s a festival without vendors? Silly me, I didn’t even think to wonder if Purlescence would be there, but of course I couldn’t resist the lure of the wonderful yarn. The majority of work I was doing that weekend involved two very opposite Goddesses, and I wanted to work on some socks dedicated to them. And of course, I couldn’t buy yarn for one of them without buying yarn for the other…

This is what I’m calling the Morrigan yarn. The Morrigan ritual at Harvest Home was amazingly powerful, and I’m so glad I got to go.  It was very inspiring. (And perhaps the Celtic pantheon is finally speaking to me? Hooray!)

Of course, I’ve also been working with Aphrodite. Dragging my feet about it much of the way, but I’m getting there. The Aphrodite ritual was another amazingly powerful one, and really amazing. Given some of what’s going on since I’ve gotten back, I think it kicked off quite a bit of energy in my life!

Of course, the this always comes back to how I balance the two…the Morrigan and Aphrodite aren’t exactly the best of friends, and but both types of energy are important to me. I’m clearly not getting rid of Aphrodite (she has proven quite resistant to such attempts) but I’m not going to become all fuzzy sweetness and light, either.

Then, of course, there’s the matter of finding time to knit the socks….

Today is the Autumn Equinox, also known as Mabon or Harvest Home. Although this is technically considered to be the beginning of fall, I’ve always had a hard time with that; if today is the equinox, with equal night and day, shouldn’t that really be the middle of fall? I always tend to think of Lammas being the Sabbat that divides fall and winter, with Mabon as the central harvest and autumn celebration, and Samhain as the division between fall and winter.

I did the majority of my Mabon celebration at CAYA’s Harvest Home celebration. I even survived camping! (In a tent and everything!) It was amazing and wonderful and moving as always, and it’s tough to think of what I could add of my own celebration. But I did get some leek and potato in my last CSA box and some apples, so maybe I’ll make up some potato soup and bake a pie. Both seem appropriately harvest-y and tasty.

I enjoy this turn of the wheel more than most. I love the times heading towards the dark; the crisp air, the fall treats of apple cider and fresh bread. I love to hibernate, and this is the time of year when it feels perfectly natural to spend time curled up on my couch, knitting in hand, soup simmering on the stove, a cup of tea by my side. If only I had a fireplace and the leaves here actually turned color properly, it would be perfect…

Happy Equinox, everyone! How will you be celebrating?