I had a wonderful morning with [personal profile] prk and [personal profile] transcendancing. [personal profile] prk drove us out to John St Cafe in Cottesloe, which had been recommended by [personal profile] samvara and does an excellent breakfast in a pretty set-up. We then went and lay on the grass overlooking Cottesloe beach and dozed and chatted in the pine trees.

We covered a whole range of topics from ideal cultures and economies to the ways work is valued or devalued to [personal profile] transcendancing's theme for the year. I have Thoughts bubbling all over the place, but little coherency for the first two. I am developing a theme of my own, though, which is forming based on a bunch of things I've read recently, and how I want to live, and the sort of world I want to live in.

To that end, my theme for 2011 is Sustainability.

How I envision this looking (and what I'm already doing, in several cases):

Lots of these overlap, but I'll have a stab at categories, anyway.

Categories include environmental, relationships, money, health and creativity )

Also, while I remember it: I brought up in the morning's discussion my ideal culture whereby food and shelter were basic rights, rather than something a member of the culture ever had to seriously worry about, and what our culture would look like if that were true. [personal profile] prk suggested at one point that it'd be best suited to a culture like The Culture by Iain M. Banks, where there's no resource issues, at all (possibly this was more related to [personal profile] transcendancing's idea of creating money equality? It's all blurring together in my head).

I was thinking further on that, and remembered much later that the fourth largest city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, declared access to food a right of citizenship in 1993, and has been providing food for its citizens accordingly for the last fifteen years (the above article makes my heart sing every time I read it). The city earned the Future Policy Award in 2009 (link is a 20 page pdf, and well worth the read).
[livejournal.com profile] lilysea posted this video, and I wanted to share. This is so simple, and so intense, and such an excellent way to live. Being vulnerable? Whoo, boy. I'm so her X many years ago, numbing myself to stuff that isn't working, that I'm avoiding, and pretending that being grateful and joyous about the other parts covers it...



ETA: The YouTube comments are amazingly articulate, especially this one which says in part: 'The concluding thought should be, "I am part and parcel of something greater than myself, something that is enough. And because of that I can be in relationship with it, and that is the mystery of love."'
maharetr: Comic and movie images of Aisha's eyebrow ring (The Losers) (Default)
( Nov. 11th, 2009 04:47 pm)
Okay, as the mirror to my Johari Window, I offer my Nohari Window. Again, be as anon or as known as you wish, it's all about learning what messages I'm actually putting out into the world.
How it works: I've chosen six terms from a grid to describe myself. You can go here to choose six terms you'd use to describe me, identifying yourself or not, as you wish. Then we see how much my self-perception matches what I'm putting out there in the world. *grins*
There is a major difference between the calm I feel because I have decided to be engaged and focused during a stressful situation, and the calm I feel because I have decided I no longer care about the situation.

I can be calm while people around me are stressed, and still be as completely invested as them.

I can totally be proactive, decisive and focused.

I am proactive, decisive and focused.
(The opening of an email to [livejournal.com profile] black_samvara):

"Current state of hotel room:

laptops 2
network switch (working!) 1
ethernet cables stretched precariously across the room 3
ethernet cables we asked the hotel for because we didn't have enough 1
number of power boards not available but needed 1
number of things that we have no idea what they connect to, but were unplugged in the name of keeping batteries charged 1

Also, number of landmark days survived, and enjoyed even 1

It's been pretty good, actually. It like a more indepth version of a school-organised course I did in year 10 called 'Pathways to Excellence', which was all about how our language shapes our world, and about affirmations and positive thinking. This is all about our language shaping our world, fancier affirmations and positive thinking."

Specifically happy-making things: [livejournal.com profile] e_dan turning up to say hi during dinner, and eventually I noticed that he, [livejournal.com profile] mynxii and I were having a conversation while a woman I had been awkwardly talking to earlier was sitting on the other side of the table, quiet and excluded through not being part of our group. I plucked up my courage, smiled at her and said: "Hey, did you want to come over this side of the table?" drawing her into the conversation. I feel proud of myself for a) doing it, and b) it felt natural, and good.

Moment of amusement: [livejournal.com profile] mynxii and I sitting side by side in bed, both on our laptops. [livejournal.com profile] mynxii "I want you to see this, but I don't want to [have to spell out each letter of this url]... oh!" and then sends me a link via gmail chat. <3!
.

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maharetr: Comic and movie images of Aisha's eyebrow ring (The Losers) (Default)
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