News — community of the cosmic person

Year of Living the Community: Week 22

YOU CAN'T ARREST A MOVEMENT

 
“Standing Rock Sioux member Chase Iron Eyes said closing the camp would not lessen the protesters’ determination. “You can’t arrest a movement. You can’t arrest a spiritual revolution,” he told reporters.”
— http://www.dw.com/en/standing-rock-nodapl-protest-camp-cleared-in-north-dakota/a-37688396

To be in solidarity with the Earth. To live as if Earth matters. This is Ecozoic Living. 

In the CCP experiment this week, things weren't so dramatic as in North Dakota but the Earth solidarity was equally undeterred. Solidarity with the Earth and learning to be present to the planet in a mutually enhancing way is required at every level and layer of human expression. In the story of 14.7 billion years of evolution, it's as if every second counts. In the story of billions of galaxies, each comprised of billions of stars and planets, it's as if every bit counts. 

Here's how we aimed to make our bit count this week: 

  • Jana was encouraged by a brief email exchange with Mary Evelyn Tucker about this project, which resulted in a New and Improved "People" page of this website. It's pretty great to be able to reach out to one of the thought leaders of the Great Work of our time and get a quick and encouraging reply. We are trying to create an access point to thinking that transforms our relationship with the planet and our participation in the flourishing of the whole community of life on Earth. 
     

  • The vertical garden at CCP HQ continues to develop, with this week seeing the addition of planters underneath the system to catch water run-off and increase food production. A neighbour saw us at the Adelaide Central Market, where she was buying tomatoes to go with basil picked from our community offered garden. It isn't world-changing or ground-breaking; it's just good. Another bruschetta made with low food miles...
     

  • The team watched part 2 of Planet Earth II; this episode was on mountains. It's possible that Sir David Attenborough has done more than any other person alive today to evoke wonder and awe at the diversity of life on this planet. Watching snow leopards in the Himalayasnever filmed before, filming themselves basically with remote motion-triggered cameras, has made us all look at the musk lorikeets taking a bath in the gutter of a city street with that much more wonder. We are only one part of this world...

 

 

 

Year of Living the Community: Week 21

Place as Storyteller

this place is a CCP storyteller: where the experiment team shares life and work (as often as we can) with others in a property collective 

Dr. Romaine Moreton: professor, filmmaker, poet, artist

Last night in Adelaide, Romaine Moreton was talking at a conference about her transmedia production "One Billion Beats." The name is a reference to the number of heartbeats the 100,000 year history of human community on the Australian continent represents. The project tells the story of the portrayal of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in film, and how the artist and her collaborative team understand these portrayals to have shaped not only non-aboriginal culture's perception of aboriginal people in Australia, but also the self-perception of aboriginal people. It's a stunning work that presents challenging metaphors about the effects of colonisation, like the butcher shop. Here's an article from the SMH about the inaugural run of the show; Moreton said last night that she hopes it will tour in 2018.   

At one point in the Q&A, Moreton said, "The place becomes the storyteller." And later, "You belong to the story." 

What places tell your story? 

To which stories do you belong? 

Romaine Moreton in a scene from "One Billion Beats" photograph by Heidrun Lohr

Year of Living the Community: Week 20

Putting in Hard Yards for Mutual Benefit

Three of the Core Team for CCP are in rural mid-north coastal New South Wales this week working on a shared property owned with friends. The approximately 50 acres used to be an organic banana farm. It slopes up a not-too-narrow, not-too-wide valley about 5 kms from the little town of Bowraville. The old packing shed was converted to a rough-and-ready house a couple of decades ago, which acts as home base for the CCP crew and friends. 

Paul clearing lantana in the gully 

There are always lots of land-based jobs to be done on a working bee visit like this. This trip's focus has been around the old corrugated iron shed up in the nook end of the valley, above the dam. Three years ago, CCP convener Jana took a real shine to this old shed and spent a couple of weeks on the original working bee cleaning it out. Back then it was filled to the rafters with rotten junk of every description, all on top of a floor covered in 6-12 inches of hard-packed dirt from a mudslide some time before. Shoveling that earth pack out was hard yakker as is said in these parts. Overall, it was back-breaking work and there was no time to clear out the area behind the shed, also full of old furniture, food wrappers, children's toys, and bottles...tons of bottles...

In the intervening time since the original working bee, one of the collective fulfilled his life's dream of purchasing a Bobcat. On this trip we were able to clear out all the trash, load it onto his other amazing toy, a tipper truck, and dispose of it responsibly at the local tip. Although there is no actual "away" when it comes to trash, it is away from here and that is enabling us to work on regeneration of this land.

the Bobcat and tipper truck combo - works a treat! 

Except for what the Bobcat can clear in great fell swoops, the sheer scale and scope of the lantana work is overwhelming. It is everywhere and it clings to earth and trees with an unrivalled fierceness.

The team soon realised that it is best approached as a project of Rain Forest Tree Liberation. One tree at a time. Bush cutters, whipper snippers, and secateurs are the tools of the Tree Liberation trade.

In the middle of a heat wave, it's slow going but satisfying work. Once the pile of choking vines is transferred by a mighty tug of war out of the tree and onto the ground (to be mulched with the slashing attachment of the Bobcat), and the base of the vine painted with very localised herbicide, it's possible to feel a real sense of accomplishment and a sense of learning to be present to the planet - this little patch of it at least - in a mutually beneficial manner. Is this the hard-won heart of Ecozoic Living?

Cosmic member of the Tree Liberation Front, Jana discovers a sapling under the lantana

So now the land stands bare again, but only for as long as it takes to develop and implement a variety of regeneration plans. Trees, native grasses, permaculture food gardens, and an Ecozoic dwelling are all more possible now that the area is ready to be engaged with an eye towards mutual enhancement of land and the people who belong to it. 

Mandy and Gai removing old fence droppers

clearing the way for Ecozoic Living 

Year of Living the Community: Week 19

Anyway and Despite

As the CCP Experiment crew put finishing touches on the green wall this week, neighbours stopped by to say nice things about it. Instant community! When we said that the herbs were for everyone, feel free to pick as/when you need something, the woman from across the street said, "You've got to try my tomatoes!" and went and picked a bag for us. 

There was another woman from down the street a little ways who could only say, "You know some of those plants will die." 

Well, yes. We do know that. But we've planted them anyway and despite that very real possibility. Hopefully one day she'll pop round for a wee bit of basil...

What LTBP (learning to be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner) undertaking did you do anyway and despite this week? It's all we've got, all we've ever had, and it is probably just enough. 

BTW - some very engaging conversations are springing up on the new Facebook Group page. Have a look and join in. 

thanks, Adelaide City Council, for the green grant that's helped make this possible at CCP HQ

the community of the cosmic person
nourishing the flourishing of people, place, and planet ... together