Dharmahouse

My home away from home from June 10- July 7.
Dharmahouse in the south of France.

One paragraph says it all

This is the Coles Notes version of what my next two years of research look like:

My area of concentration centers in the domain of restorative green economies. A guiding question is: “How can re-envisioning the way humanity creates wealth and earns a living radically restore the well-being of the biosphere?” It is my goal to engage with methodologies that seek to transform our current economic systems by integrating ecological economics, transformative ecology, and indigenous knowledge as tools in this process . The study of of these possibilities requires bridging the fields of economics, ecology, aboriginal knowledge, and psychology. This study also bridges the theoretical, philosophical and practical. A path of exploration is the synergy between these areas in the face of their apparent surface disparity. How can the coming together of these realms culminate in a new reality? Out of these research questions, an area of interest that I plan to examine is the emerging field of “Green Collar” work. Green Collar work operates from the demands for green and sustainable development while restoring the biosphere. I see this as an emergent field that contains potentialities to address several concerns at once: a hunger in society for meaningful employment, society’s psychological need to reconnect with the natural order, and an ever-pressing need for ecological restoration and sustainability.

Back on the beat

I wouldn't hazard to figure how many heartbeats since my last post- well into the tens of millions at least. Why come back now?

• to put out ideas to an unknown audience and wait for a response.
  
• to put out ideas and wait for a response and cohesion within myself.

The me who wrote the last post probably wouldn't have envisioned the current me more than a year later with swirling and disparate ideas on the brain, begging for connections.
The current me is in a Masters of Environmental Studies program at York University. I'm writing out my Plan of Study (yes, we determine what our own degree is going to look like). So I'm creating my own path here. Here's what I'm interested in:

• Deep Ecology
• Ecological Reconciliation of Humans to Nature
• Green Economics through Biomimicry
• Indigenous Ways of Knowing
• Green Employment out of Poverty
• Ecopsychology
• Genuine Wealth and Genuine Progress
  

....basically transforming everything and endeavouring to be happy.

So it starts here and now.

hello, honeybee?

Ever call a loved one honey, honeybee, or honey bear? Perhaps it's some tacit understanding that honey is pretty darn awesome, and well, bees are just amazing. A few years ago, I became fascinated with bees' complex social structures and the ways they produce beeswax. They make their homes out of their own abdominal secretions!!! Think about it, humans save up and pay off mortgages for decades just to have a house- bees just up and make their own :)
As humans, we also depend on bees, not just for the obvious honey and beeswax, but also to pollinate the following crops:
almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers and strawberries.
As well all know, bees are in serious trouble at the moment. Researches have numerous theories, but no one knows for sure why entire colonies are dying off. It's called "Colony Collapse Disorder."
Some of the culprits being considered are: environmental stress, disease, mites, pesticides, GM crops and emissions from cellphones and cellphone towers (or some combination of these factors).
Here's one fact that is seems to be highly telling. Checkout Wikipedia as well, as they corroborate. Wild and organically-raised bees do not seemed to be affected by the mystery die-off. The non-organically, commercially raised bees are dying.


Here's a quote from the wikipedia article:

A chilling prediction about the importance of bees to mankind popular in the press recently is "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." This quote has been attributed to Albert Einstein, however the original source for this quote has not been reported and the earliest known use of the quote is from 1994.<sup>[76]

I don't know what we as individuals can do to help the bees (and help ourselves). Once again, it appears that supporting organic practices is the way to go. The magnitude of the problem makes me hope it's not too late.</sup>

Time 4 a Fash Bash!

These are some friends from Ottawa; they're a pretty diverse group who's interests include play therapy, cuban music, graphic design, aboriginal rights, date squares, and prancing (!) They also happen to be some the participants in the FashBash I put on when I was still living in Ottawa! A Fash Bash is a party, in which we bring together a collection of stuff from our closets that we don't want anymore, and share it. Consumption of snacks and drinks are also a main feature.
It's a nice way to connect with friends, clear out the closet, and to keep clothes out of landfills.... all the leftover clothes are donated to charity when the party's over.
We all scored a few items that were really unique that night (a vintage dress/ shirt, a brand-new item that didn't fit the 1st owner, etc...) In the end, we ended up donating about 70-80% of the clothes we dug out from our closets.
Spring cleaning that's fun, and eco :)


(miss you guys!!!)