Hey y'all,
I'm excited to report that I plan to have a bit more free time for a few days! The Local Leaders on Climate Change event went well last night! We had anticipated 30 folks would attend, but we had over 50! It was crowded, and we ran out of chairs, and brochures. That's a really good problem to have (running out of brochures isn't ideal, but we gave out contact information so folks could e-mail us for an electronic copy).... Another good problem to have is the problem that creating an update for Madison County about Energy and Empowerment work is a huge job. Always, I feel fortunate to be in this position. I hope that other people are benefiting from my work at least half as much as I am. Admittedly, I do also feel pretty exhausted. After a 17 day stretch of working overtime and weekends, I'm finally slowing down with a nice big four day weekend. If I sound scattered, I am. I must extend thanks to the understanding of the loved ones in my life who have been accepting of the overtime and patient with the fact that I've put off much in order to prepare for last night's event.
So what was the event all about? League of Women voters in Madison County <
http://lwvbmc.org> won an Oxfam grant about climate change, which was used to bring in Amy Malick from the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives <
http://www.iclei-usa.org/> to speak to Bereans about what we could do locally to address climate change. We framed her presentation and conversation with information about the work happening in Madison County already... that's where I come in. In an attempt to connect the efforts of various groups in the county and to let folks know that this is, at this point, quite a movement already, I made a presentation about what action is already going on. It was not only an effort to inform the general public, but also city council folks (who had a greater turnout than we anticipated) to make a case that our local goverment should have the same committement that our citizens are already making to energy justice. We also heard from Sustainable Berea about their work on Transition Town Berea <
http://www.sustainableberea.org/transition/index.html> . Amy was impressed by the work happening here, and surprised to see such momentum in a small town. If you're interested in joining our e-mail list-serve for the Energy and Empowerment in Madison County group leave a comment and I'll happily add you!
Aside from that event, my work has also led me to the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) <
www.kftc.org> annual meeting/conference. It was amazing. Talk about grassroots organizing. Upon arrival we registered and I hadn't been there a few minutes before someone saw my banjo and invited me to the porch jam. We sat in a group happily singing at the top of our lungs and half dancing too, surrounded by a circle of folks listening in rocking chairs. I've never experienced a better ice-breaker. Then I saw Bev, who I've mentioned often as the person who's work solidified my personal interest for MTR work. I recalled that on the botany trip we took to her place to help with their unsuitable for mining petition work her favorite song that we jammed to in the evening was "Wagon Wheel". So the jamming group of KFTCers played Wagon Wheel for Bev. It was a powerful moment for me. It felt that my heart had been there before. It was a feeling of finding a home in the seasons of life. Now I'm back to this place and working with Bev in a way that might be more effective than when I was just hiking with a group of folks lookin' for some plant that someone official would deem important enough to save the holler over. Now we're working really hard to get more folks involved in the May Town Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition Hearing. The good news is that we've connected with a few classes/profs at Berea who are joining, and there are still promising connections to make. The moment of loudly singing wagon wheel to a smiling Bev filled me with such certainty that I'm where I ought to be right now. And at this very moment I'm listening to a cd I won at the KFTC silent auction by Daniel Martin Moore, titled Stray Age. The line "to go where you have been, to be where you are again, come be close and be rested" feels a lot like words my heart would have said right this instant. Other exciting news from the KFTC meeting Phil Thompson from MIT gave a great speech offering alternative ways of organizing as well as an explination about the causes of our current financial crisis. You can read notes at: <
http://bluegrassroots.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=2322> And on the blog (for the next few days at least) <
www.kftc.org/blog> are youtube clips from the talent show. The song I wrote about Shelby County is there, but even cooler there's a rap by Tanya, a poem by Patricia Bragg, and a song by Daniel Martin Moore.
Anyone around here want to go camping for some of this weekend? Hmmm... what else has been going on around here?... Well this weekend is the Berea College Appalachian Center's Celebration of Traditional Music, which promises to be great. I'm pretty slow moving. Today is the one year anniversary of Tom's death (Tom from L'Arche). I still am in such awe when I think about the beauty of his passage.
Grateful list:
-The Energy and Empowerment Mad. Co. group
-Daniel Martin Moore's music
-this rain, that we need
-the calmness of a slow day after being busy
-tomatoes
-priviledge of clean drinking water
-subtle, occasional confirmations from my heart that I'm where I ought to be
-love, even when it isn't easy
-fall in Appalachia
