Gun in Hand….and He Waved at Me

As I rode my bike home from work one day this week, a young boy was playing in his grandmother’s yard wearing a cape and shooting a toy gun at everything.  “Oh man,” my mind judged, “Straight from TV and games, and his grandma is right there, I wonder what she thinks, I wonder if this will affect what he grows up to be….” Until inevitably I was passing the driveway of his battleground, expecting to be shot at.

But I guess this is what children are for, because this little boy instantly brought me out of my narrow-minded judgments.  I was reminded of the simplicity and impermanence of every moment when he let his hand with the gun fall to the wayside and lifted his other, empty little hand to wave to me.  All intention of shooting things completely forgotten as he entered a new moment of enthusiastically hoping to connect to the biker passing by.  Who knows what the next moment would hold for him – would he go back to shooting or would a new moment catch his attention?  For him it didn’t matter.  All that mattered was to wave to the biker and see if she waves back.  I did.

Talk about a Flexible Platform: From Poulet Chalet to Greenhouse

In the fall we began to build a chicken coop.  I say “we”, but I assume that everyone knows that I mean: Dylan built a chicken coop and I complained that my fingers were numb as I held the measuring tape, took some photos and then ran inside to start a fire.

This is as far as “we” got before we learned that the chickens that someone was hoping to hand off to us had been handed off to another loving home.

So we hummed and hawed about buying some chickens but decided it would not be wise to try our hand at them just as the cold season was approaching.  So the chicken coop stood, just as you see it, through the winter, gathering enough snow to hide it from our sights and thoughts.  When spring arrived, we moved the chicken coop to behind the shed and I wondered how long it would remain an unfinished project.  I began growing seedlings for a new non-profit that I am “executive director” of and when I had run out of light space indoors, our “president” loosely joked that we should use the chicken coop as a temporary greenhouse.

A couple days later I bought some plastic from the hardware store and posed the idea to Dylan.  Thank goodness he’s a carpenter and came up with a much more sophisticated creation than my idea of velcro-ing a corner of the plastic for me to get in and out.  He used re-claimed windows and put them on hinges to open down so I can open the whole side of the coop for ventilation during the day.

It’s an awesome concept, except I got a bit excited about it and let the tomato plants get too much sun all at once and they all got sunburned.  So we put some lattice work up on the other side of the coop to provide some shade relief on really sunny days and every day I check the plants a couple of times praying for those white-ish spots of sunburn to disappear.

Call me Buddha.

This is the gong that rings more times than I can count each day during a 10 Day Vipassana Meditation course.  Note that it is called a “course” as opposed to a “retreat”.  Those 10 days of my life were no holiday.  I cried, I sweat, I suffered, I smiled, and I walked.   I did not speak, sun bathe, play or communicate with any other human being, and I only laughed on the 10th day when the vow of silence is broken.  It was tough.

It is now 7 days since I have returned from my 10 Day course and while I’d love to say I am more peaceful, more loving and more happy…..I can not tell.  I can only assume that some benefit was had and it is showing very subtly in my day to day actions and reactions.   As how real change truly happens, on a deeper level than at the surface, at the root and source of the problem.  As much as I wish that it had been a 10 Day Magic Fix for all of my problems and misery, it was not.  It was simply an introduction to a technique that, if applied to the rest of my life, can help to eradicate the miseries that we all hold so deep within the mind and body.   So I am doing my best to meditate each morning.  We are instructed to meditate one hour each morning AND each night for the full benefit and true practice of the technique.  But shhheeeesshhh…..really??  Maybe when I’m retired, ok. But when my yoga teacher also says to do your asanas (postures) and pranayama (breath work) once a day and I must also contribute to the world, cook and clean, and of course blog…. 2 hours of meditation is a lot.  Yet, for 10 days I managed to meditate for 12 hours each day….and now 2 hours is too much?  hah.  The problem is not that 2 hours is too much, it is that our silly society thinks that we should spend 8 hours out of the house each day doing some sort of monkey task for someone else so that we may own a house and cars and pretty looking things.  Silly society.  Luckily, I lead a rather non-conventional life and should be able to fit in 2 meditations a day.  However, my goal for now is one each morning from 5:30am-6:30am.  Not terrible considering we were up at 4am while on the course.   Yet, some mornings, it is terrible.

The 10 days themselves were certainly the longest 10 days I’ve ever lived…..however they are gone.  Which is one of the primary teachings from the course: That everything will pass.  The teachings are the Buddha’s teachings from 25 centuries ago, that have been slightly lost and mis-interpreted so that while the faith and devotional teachings of Buddha have been emphasized, the actual practice of true knowledge and pure happiness has been muffled.  Luckily, those good Burmese monks were the ones to preserve the pure teachings of Buddha and they’ve helped to spread them all over the world again, all the way to right here in Angus, Ontario.  hah.  It really was cool being able to experience Buddha’s teachings in a very non-sectoral/non-religious place in rural Ontario.

The days themselves were simple – meditate, meditate, stretch, eat, walk, meditate, meditate, meditate, eat, walk, meditate…..etc.  There were 7 hours of sleep in there that I relished, and an evening discourse that I think everyone looked forward to. Not only were we able to watch someone else, we could sit however we fancied and change positions as many times as we wanted. That in itself was a treat!  The discourses a video recording of lectures from Goenke G, a regular Burmese business man who came into Vipassana in his search for a migraine cure and is now spreading the practice due to it’s importance and it’s power.  He is an enlightened man and thus his lectures are full of stories, jokes- even if you are having the ugliest, more painful day of your life, he will make you smile – and repeated reminders:  “Practice diligently, diligently.  Practice patiently, patiently.  Patiently and persistently, patiently and persistently.  You are bound to be successful, bound to be successful.”

On day 1, I survived just fine.  But already in the evening discourse when Goenke G begins by saying, “The first day is over, you have 9 more days to work”…..I was like….oh man, that’s a long time.

By day 2 I was like, ok…..8 days, not too bad.

Day 3 I thought, ok, 7 more days, a week, what’s a week in your every day life Kim?  A week flies by!

Day 4 – “I can’t do it.  I can’t do 6 more days of this.  It’s going to take forever!”

Dav 5 – “It is taking forever, not 5 more days”

Day 6 – “Longest 6 days of my life, I can’t wait for Sunday”

Day 7 -  “Not 3 more days, I can’t wait until Sunday”

Day 8 – “Just make it through today Kim, one day at a time”

Day 9 – “Ok, last day of work, work hard, work diligently”

Day 10 – I experienced such euphoria when we could speak.  Even before I said a word, I felt so light, so happy, the sun came out….it was pure bliss!  I forgot entirely about wanting to go home and just soaked up every second of this day!

Day 11 – I made a b-line for my vehicle the moment they handed me my keys.  7:30am, I was outta there!  hah.

10 Days of Silence and Nothing

 

 

Yet another move is ahead of me, and this one I’m doing solo.  This move is free of trucks, boxes, tape, food, work, books and music.  Thank goodness.  It’s free of all of the stuff that clutters my life and distracts me from living life itself.  It’s free of complex thought and free of the senses.   That’s probably a dramatic enough introduction so I’ll now tell you that I am beginning a 10 day Vipassana Meditation course tomorrow at the Ontario Vipassana Centre.  Me and 49 others will spend 10 days in complete (noble) silence with the following schedule:

4:00 a.m	–	Morning wake-up bell
4:30 a.m. – 6:30 a.m.	–	Meditate in the hall or your own room
6:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.	–	Breakfast break
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.	–	GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL
9:00 a.m – 11:00 a.m.	–	Meditate in the hall or your own room
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon	–	Lunch break
12:00 noon – 1:00 p.m.	–	Rest and interviews with the teacher
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.	–	Meditate in the hall or your own room
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.	–	GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.	–	Meditate in the hall or your own room
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.	–	Tea break
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.	–	GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL
7:00 p.m – 8:15 p.m.	–	Teacher’s Discourse in the hall
8:15 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.	–	GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL
9:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.	–	Question time in the hall
9:30 p.m.	–	Retire to your own room. Lights out

 

I have chosen to complete this course because I have some internal work that needs to be done.  It involves healing, letting go, feeling safe, becoming more mindful and focussed, detachment from things that I attach my identity to, and I’m sure more that I’ll discover over the next 10 days.  However, I am also aware that I may just spend the next 10 days sitting, waiting for the next meal and secretly singing in the shower. hah.  Who knows.

Here’s some more information if you’re curious:

http://www.torana.dhamma.org/index.html

 

My Sustainable Future…

In my sustainable future, No Frills will be a farmer’s market.

Wal Mart will host trade-ins, where you pay with credits that you’ve earned for bringing “stuff” back.  No one will work more than 30 hours away from home a week, and that work will be meaningful, inspiring, fulfilling and will always contribute to the greater good (why on earth most jobs do not seems terribly self-destructive for a species).

Sunday’s will return to a day of rest and family.  The plastics loop on the planet will be a closed system, only using and re-using what we’ve already made, no more new plastics.  Population growth will be an oxymoron.

The standard forms of transportation will be bike, horse (this is “my sustainable future” after all), wind powered boats, sun powered planes (they’re mighty close to the bright light) and food powered feet.  My love will be my life will be my work will be my pastimes will be my partner will be my children will be me.  We will live in a community of small, natural homes, surrounding a massive food forest.  Our compost heap and the sun will heat our greenhouse where we will grow an avacado tree. We will have a shared outdoor kitchen, even with a bbq. We will also have our own, private kitchen with a solar dehydrator, some new eco-kind of refrigerator, root cellars, and renew-ably powered appliances.  I will teach yoga, including handstands and cartwheels, and sustainable living and writing to youth and adults.  Children will be afraid of “strawberry candy” because they learned what a juicy, ripe, organic strawberry was long before the candy imposter.  Thus, “food” that in fact is not food, will not be sold as such.

Our community will have a huge library, with windows, plants and big spaces where we can lay on cushions, read and discuss.  Somehow, computers will have a role, maybe they will take the shape of a calendar on the wall listing everything that needs to be done that day, including baking cookies in the solar oven, meetings and having the youth learn to build a home.  My sister will be my neighbour, well maybe down the street, and my brother will be dreaming up designs for whole systems of communities that include not only building designs, but land-use, retrofits, and cradle to cradle principles.  We will know our neighboring communities, and while we may not always like them, we will compete with them in sport wholeheartedly.

Consumption will have been recognized as a black hole of human potential and a perpetuator of unhappiness. Clothes will be simple, natural, functional, beautiful and biodegradable.  We will have slowed the production of all forms of toxins enough so that nature will have removed those that she could, and enough to be able to exist forever with the ones that nature will never know what to do with.

The idea of going shopping as an activity, without a true need, will not be an idea.  Instead, that time will be spent thinking, creating, repairing, discussing, reflecting, and being still.  The only packaging that food will come in, will be the packaging that nature gave it.  You will carry your own basket or storage container to the store, fill it up from their storage container, weigh it, exchange some form of currency for it, and be on your merry way.  There will be one rainbow a day.  Two on holidays. And sometimes, just sometimes, you’ll actually see a flower open one of it’s buds, witnessing one of the most beautiful events this life brings.

I will feel joy with every breath I take, I will use intellectual intelligence every day and I will listen deeply with compassion and love for even the people I do not understand.  I will still feel pain, loss, sadness and despair.  And because these feelings seem innate to our species – a natural balance to my butterfly and unicorn fantasy – maybe the world will go on as it does.  We are in the Kali Yuga, the age where human civilization degenerates according to Indian scriptures.  There are systems that I can not paint in pretty pinks and sky blues, such as the legal system, the finance markets and the human ego brought to you by the letters “I”, “Me” and “Mine”. I don’t doubt that a sustainable future will indeed occur, but that does not mean it will be in our favour.  We are not the centre of the universe.  We are a mere manifest of it, and the Universe will sustain itself, not us.  But that does not rob me of my imagination and my heart.  So I will go on seeing the world through my rose-coloured glasses, picking flowers and singing on my bicycle.  I’m pretty sure in any future, I will still get to ride a horse and grow an avacado tree.

Unplugged and Alive!

With my infrequency of posts lately, you’d think we must have unplugged, built our sustainable homestead and gone off the grid.  Well, we are pretty much off the grid – no internet, no TV and one bar of signal on the cell phone when you press it up to the window.  But in our sustainable homestead we are not.  We are in our current rental in Heathcote, Ontario…..recently referred to as “pioneer village”.

We knew we weren’t going to have internet when we moved in, but we didn’t know it would be difficult to actually get it if we wanted it.  (Being the hipsies we are, we also secretly hoped that there would be a wireless signal floating about our neighborhood that we could catch through a window).  And then came the conversation of “do we actually want it?”.  Our time in our disconnected home has been sooo restful and meaningful without the easy distractions of television and internet.  We spend our free time lounging around the fire, connecting, cooking, eating and reading.  I find the house is tidier and cleaner because I don’t feel pressed to be doing work when I’m home (because I can’t really do much without the world wide web), thus I’ll take the time to do the dishes, laundry etc.  It’s like we live at the cottage.  The place where people go to relax.  Shouldn’t that be our homes?

Our internet options are either a “turbo hub” that’s plugs into the wall and charges us by the megabyte….or dial-up.  Some of our neighbours are on dial-up.  But it would take me the same amount of time to drive to the library for free high speed as it would to upload one email on dial-up.  Some neighbours tried the satellite route and had to dismantle it because it was so expensive.  Some neighbours are fighting hard to have high speed/cable internet brought to our neighborhood (apparently the lines end just down the road from the entrance to Heathcote).  And some neighbours don’t want it.

We are saving ourselves an upfront cost of $175 and likely $80/mth. I’m not sure I’d make that money back in productivity even.  Lots of my work involves communicating and writing on the computer, but I seem to keep up just fine without internet at home.

When we first moved in, I thought I was going to bend over backwards to get the internet in our place and now I’ve adapted and am enjoying life without it.  This lesson could be extended to many things in our lives such as convenience foods, cars, a certain item of clothing, cell phones etc.  The possibilities of things we could do without is endless! Maybe even….well…no…maybe not.  No, not chocolate.

We are living unplugged and off the e-grid...."It's like you're in Pioneer Village" a friend described.

snowpocalypse.

Yesterday we had a snow day. A 100% snowed-in-and-can’t-go-anywhere day. Major highways, schools, business, and public services were all closed. (I wonder if the soup kitchen managed to open). This isn’t the first snow day of the season. We had 3 “snow days” last week and 2 this week where buses weren’t running and people were advised to stay off the roads. Those were the kind of snow days that even people in the city get, where you can get out if you need to, so you at least go somewhere, or you can walk somewhere, and most people power through it anyways. Monday, the OPP were asking people to stay off the roads unless it was an emergency. I had a meeting not too far from home, so I ventured out and I saw 4, maybe 5, cars on roads that are usually well traveled. I was lucky to have stayed out of the ditches through the white-outs and made it home before dark. I was also lucky that no one else decided to give it a go because I spent a lot of my time on the wrong side of the road and blind.

I was likely experiencing cabin fever that day, because yesterday, around the same time, I proposed to Dylan that we go out somewhere. One listen to the OPP warnings on the radio and we wised up. There was a snow drift on our road that a few people were already stuck in and no one could get by, and the roads we would need were closed anyhow. Speaking to a colleague on the phone while stuck in the cabin, he used the word surrender to describe how one must accept these kinds of days and it rang true to me the whole day.

We spent the first 4 hours of the morning debating if we were going to get out today, various strategies of doing so, whether or not we would make it home and listening to the radio updates. When we finally surrendered to a snow day it was blissful. Weighted in by the snow, yet having space to work in, isolated us from all possible external distractions and allowed us to work with what we had. You dream of having a whole free day to __________ (ie. cook, build, fix, etc.) and when that day comes, you don’t have any of the resources on hand and you can’t get them. So you are forced to be creative and work with what you’ve got. So we did exactly that and even better yet, we did nothing. We relaxed. Laid around, read our books, did some yoga, and made an awesome mid-day veggie soup with potato scones to dip. There was nothing else to do and it was liberating. No TV and no internet is also quite liberating, because otherwise I’m sure we would have fallen back on them for some mindless entertainment that is not true relaxation, and soaks up the hours fast. I could have put in a full “work” day if I had the internet. When 4 o’clock rolled around it was sad to know that our snow day was coming to an end, until we realized we had already cooked for the day, so we still had the evening . The day felt endless and re-energizing. Admittedly throughout the day, there was a gentle tugging notion that occasionally surfaced prompting me to do something, but it would subside when my mind reminded itself to simply surrender. I had to accept that nothing could be done and that everything would be there tomorrow and the day after, waiting to be done, none-the-wiser that it was being done a day later. It’s tough to know that life is carrying on as usual and you are not participating in it, something I’m sure many people experience in many different ways. But there is beauty in that, and the keys are acceptance and surrender.

The Value Village/Dollarama Conundrum

Our new place is not entirely furnished and having led our Gypsy way of life these past few years, we own very little in the household department.  In need of some of the basics, we made a trip to Guelph with our friend Riley to hit the Value Village, Thrift Store, Winners and some antique stores (“Shopping for yourself at this time of year?” you ask?  Yes, keep your eyes peeled for a post on how we’ve managed to completely avoid the gift frenzy of Christmas this year).

When we are shopping, our ethics and values bring us to look for things that are:

1) Previously loved

2) Made in North America

3) Of high quality – long lifespan still

4) Made of renewable resources (ie. wool, untreated wood, glass etc.)

5) Healthy to have in our home

6) Functional for me, design pretty for Dylan

7) Amazing, one-time-in-your-life finds

8 ) Ridiculous

9) Recylcable, repurposable, re-giftable or biodegradable

So, in that order we set out and I remembered that I had offered to find a client 12 sets of office pen holders second hand and under budget (a personal challenge for myself and a way to bring sustainability to even the smallest of purchasing decisions in a small organization).  On the hunt, I came across some small glass jars at Value Village that were good for the job and looked at the price – $1.99.  Not terrible and if I could find 12 for that price I’d be successful.  However, curious to see where they had originally come from, I peeled back the Value Village price sticker to reveal that they were initially a product of Dollarama and thus, brand new, these things had only sold for $1.  I was to pay a 100% markup for a second hand piece of glass from China.

Saying my thoughts out loud, I said to Riley that I may as well go across the street because there’s a Dollarama there.  Thank goodness I have some very mindful friends and she wisely pointed out that then I would be voting for making low-quality, cheap goods in China, whereas buying it here, I am not bringing new material into the world, it already exists.  But paying 100% more.  And, now we get into the fact that Value Village is a for-profit organization owned by U.S. parent company Savers Inc.  Check out the comments in this blog post for a response from Value Village to the myth that they are owned by Wal Mart and a discussion on whether or not they benefit non-profits and charities.

So, I put the jar back down and opted for the copper container stamped by a blacksmith in Canada for $1.99 as well.  Nonetheless, there’s something pretty off about this system.

Awesome Parody!

Watch this video, this version of the song will get stuck in your head for sure!

Our 10th Home of the Year!

One year since The Local Gypsies Spot was born, we are moving into our 10th place of residence for the year.  Similar to this time last year, we are renting a cottage for a longer-term stay which always gets me both excited and apprehensive.  It will feel nice to unpack our bags (that we otherwise just leave open on the floor and live out of)

The cat loves our out-of-the-box way of life

and in this place we even have some space to set up our own paintings, decor etc.  What makes me a little nervous is that we’re committed to live here for a year, maybe more!  The commitment gets even deeper in that we’ve built a chicken coop for a family of chickens that we are expecting on the property!  Luckily, the coop is movable (like us), however we must confess that it will never fit into our gypsy-mobile/Range Rover.

We are expecting!....Chickens and a rooster!

I have also committed to working for an organization that runs out of this house (you may know it – Free Spirit Tours) and the owner/entrepreneur/my friend has got me nicely wrapped up in several projects that will keep me busy for a few years by the sounds of it.  Could this be the end of our nomadic life?  Not likely.  I don’t think Dylan will completely settle until we’ve purchased land or a house, and even then, we will move on.  It just may not be 10 homes in one year, perhaps one home every ten years. wow. that seems just crazy.  Ten years in one place?! Are we getting old?