Monthly Archives: October 2010
HOUSE NEWS: Family and Friends Roundtable and Blanket Thank You
For more details on what’s happening this week, click here.
Thank you so much for the outpouring of blankets! While it’s hard to imagine ever actually needing them again while it’s in the 90s, more cold weather is around the corner. It will be so good to answer, “yes!” when folks start asking again.
The Wednesday Cafe was a big success; we were about back up to our regular numbers again. It’s so rewarding to have a full house – especially for those cooking. Our October chefs are preparing Baked Bean Soup and Beans and Greens this week. Please drop by between noon and 2 if you have the chance. It will be good.
Last Thursday’s Roundtable was so interesting thanks to Scott Robertson and all the participants. A few more meetings like that and we’ll be able to start the Revolution. If you weren’t there, here’s some of what you missed. We plan on inviting Scott back soon to continue the discussion. This week though, the last Thursday of the month, we’ll host a Family Roundtable, no planned discussion – just good food and table conversation for friends and family. If you’ve never been to the house, this is also a great way to become acquainted!
Hope to see you this week!
Resources for Radical Solutions to Feed the World
Scott Robertson’s roundtable discussion on “Radical Solutions to Feed the World” was a wonderful gathering of folks looking at very practical issues regarding sustainability in the context of “values.” ”How do we do the right thing as individuals? How do we help each other get to where we need to be for the good of those who come after us and for creation itself? These two questions are intertwined when we talk about issues that affect us globally. And so they become “spiritual” questions themselves, concerned with value, meaning, responsibility, and hope. It was a good conversation that we hope to continue soon.
In the meantime, Scott sent those present a handy resource list of inspirational and practical websites and books. Take a look and keep in touch. We’re looking forward to our next roundtable on this subject.
Thanks Scott!
HOUSE NEWS: Radical Solutions to Feed a Hungry World
Scott's Hawaiian yurt - Home on a lava bed
For more details on this week’s schedule, please click here. NOTE: We’ve moved the cafe back to Wednesdays (see below)!
Changes are coming this week: Cafe changes back to Wednesday, and knitting will happen every Monday night – both by popular demand. We were puzzled why so few were coming to the Cafe on Monday, and we think we may have figured it out. A guest asked us last week if we could change the timing so he could come more often. It seems the downtown library is showing a movie and serving snacks at the exact same time. So it’s back to Wednesday with the Cafe! We’ve got our Cafe Chefs for October, but we could use your help serving and cleaning up between 11:45 and 3. Let us know if you’re willing.
In addition, we’re changing the once/month Monday knitting to EVERY Monday night this semester – between 7 and 9. So much to knit so little time . . . plus the cool weather is both inspiring the knitters and bringing folks to our door looking for warm things to wear. We invite you to come and learn to knit, teach someone, make a hat or scarf from our yarn stash, or work on something of your own. Crocheter welcome too!
We are looking forward to an exciting Roundtable this week led by Scott Robertson, who just returned from a “Wwoofing” stint in Hawaii. Come discuss and learn about the divergence between traditional and commercial agriculture. Explore Gainesville’s potential for food sovereignty. Learn about fertilizer trees, super-efficient rocket stoves, and why our culture is incompatible with renewable energy. Scott will discuss his experience with agroforestry as a WWOOFer on the Big Island in Hawaii. Find out about the exciting opportunity as a Willing Worker On Organic Farms across the globe. We’ll have taste tests between local and imported produce and discuss USDA labeling standards. Help us fathom why Monsanto (the world’s largest chemical corporation that brought us DDT, Agent Orange, and the Manhattan Project) has teamed up with billionaire Bill Gates and Xe (formerly Blackwater), the largest mercenary army in the world. Bring some food to share if you can, if not just come.
REFLECTIONS: Matins
This week, we were visited by two immigrant families and their small children. The children were hungry, and one of the mothers confided that their household was struggling to put food on the table. We offered the children a snack and, as we were slicing bagels and cheese at the tall kitchen table, three little sets of huge, brown eyes – barely high enough to see over the table – watched the food preparation seriously and with longing.
Today, during the meditation portion of morning prayer, I opened my eyes for a moment and saw a friend’s face lifted up, rather than bowed, as she prayed. I thought of those hungry children – their upturned, serious and hopeful faces – and my own deep pleasure in preparing something they needed and were asking for.
I am not sure how prayer works honestly, or if it “works” at all in the way we might think, but this seems like a good posture to take regardless – watching and hopeful, honest in your longing and need.
The prayer this morning was lovely, too – from John O’Donohue:
I.
Somewhere, out at the edges, the night
Is turning and the waves of darkness
Begin to brighten the shore of dawn.
The heavy dark falls back to earth
And the freed air goes wild with light,
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
And thoughts stir to give birth to colour.
II.
I arise today
In the name of Silence
Womb of the Word,
In the name of Stillness
Home of Belonging,
In the name of the Solitude
Of the Soul and the Earth.
I arise today
Blessed by all things,
Wings of breath,
Delight of eyes,
Wonder of whisper,
Intimacy of touch,
Eternity of soul,
Urgency of thought,
Miracle of health,
Embrace of God.
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Gentle in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
ACTION: Parking Lot Garden Joins Global Work Party
This weekend we were happy to join our gardening efforts to Sunday’s “Global Work Party” organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org. Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity – but we’re currently at 388. 350.org encouraged folks worldwide to band together to start projects that will help curb climate change. Our humble effort to lower food miles by sourcing our food closer to home at our next door parking lot was in solidarity with nearly 8000 projects worldwide – some big, some small. Climate change is one thing we’re going to have to figure out a way to work together on. It was heartwarming to see our little garden in this context. Thanks so much to Santa Fe Colleges “Saints for Sustainability” for their support and hard work!
HOUSE NEWS: So many things…
Handmade crosses - Art for All project
- bottle caps
- pop-tops from soda (beer) cans
- magazines with great photos like National Geographic and gardening catalogs
- glass or ceramic beads and other beading supplies
- yarn
HOUSE NEWS: Art, food, and lots of prayer
For more about what’s happening this week, please click here.
This week we begin gathering for morning prayer on Wednesdays between 9 and 9:30 am. We hope some of you can join us. We’ll also reinstate our tradition of community prayer on the first Thursday of the month. Fr. John Phillips will regularly celebrate mass on those evenings, with others putting together a prayer service when he is not available. This Thursday Dave Chynoweth will lead the prayer. A potluck dinner will follow.
A group called “Be the Change” joined us on Saturday and made beautiful Christmas cards under Joan Prado’s direction. We are grateful for their help and excited to have more “inventory” for our upcoming Handmade Sale planned or December 4! This Week “Art for All” will continue with creating beautiful wooden crosses embellished with beads, paint, and interesting found material.
We’re also forming a new team of chefs for October! We’re getting a late start because Kelli is out of town this Monday and we needed the September chefs to take over (there is a method to this madness..). If you would like to learn to cook delicious food from local ingredients during the remaining weeks of October, please email Kelli at gvillecw[at]yahoo[dot]com.
Please check out the other activities keeping the house abuzz this semester. We’d love to have you join us!
