Month: February 2016

An Other Kingdom is an Invitation to Imagine an Alternative Story for our Communities

CommunityThinker

“If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it ’cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he’s poor in hisself, there ain’t no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an’ maybe he’s disappointed that nothin’ he can do ‘ll make him feel rich.” ― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath What is nature of living in abundance? In John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is making their way across the country toward California to escape the…

Collaborative Giving

CommunityThinker

What is Collaborative Giving? Collaborative Giving is a community building practice  where friends, colleagues or community members  who have a common desire to assist in meeting needs of people in their community give to a common fund and make collective decisions on how to help their neighbors. When a member sees a need in their community, they can share the request with the group. By being part of a group and financial fund larger than themselves, Collaborative Giving gives each member the power to know they can make a difference and a sense that…

Eat Local – Farm- Centric Food Systems

CommunityThinker

My Brother-in-law Tim talking about Farm- Centric Food Systems and creating efficient communities. Tim’s vision reminds me a lot of the essayist Wendell Berry: “There can be no such thing as a “global village.” No matter how much one may love the world as a whole, one can live fully in it only by living responsibly in some small part of it. Where we live and who we live there with define the terms of our relationship to the world and to humanity. We thus come again to the paradox…