Transition Towns

Transition Town Initiative - start one in your own town! It starts when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: How can our community respond to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis?

There is a movement emerging worldwide by necessity based on our inevitable relocalization. It started in Europe and is now moving across the States. It is about re-membering (putting ourselves back together) with ways of the past and the technology of the future.

Check out this video with Rob Hopkins, author of The Transition Handbook



...it is a model which is about ordinary people catalyzing together with their friends, neighbors, community to look at the PRACTICAL responses to peak oil and climate change...growing nuts and bolts of relocalization...based on that where we get to at the end of this can be better than where we start from...

Its origins are inspired by permaculture with a focus on food security because it is the most sensible place to begin. Local food movements are rapidly growing side by side with Transition Initiatives. Communities are establishing their own food systems, creating their own currencies and growing their local economies. It is a movement of optimism and solutions AND it is creating history. Take part!

To find out if there is a movement in your town or to start one, go to: www.transitionus.org

If you are here in CT where I am - mark your calendar for the next TRANSITION TOWN TRAINING right here at in Hartford @ The Growing Green Wellness Center April 10 & 11th. Email me about our ongoing meetings!
Also check out: http://www.shiftthemovie.com/ and http://www.communityplanet.org/

Books to Read:

Transition Town Handbook by Rob Hopkins


Toward 2010: Perspectives on the New Age


The Next Evolution: a Blueprint for Transforming the Planet by Jack Reed

One Mothers Plea

Time is running out. Mother Earth is calling. Can you hear her prayers? I hear her cries rippling in the cracking glaciers, rising waters to wash away her wounds, purging the poison we have inflicted upon her.

I wonder why so few of us, mothers ourselves, are deaf to her plea. Is it because we have been trained to ignore our own feminine wisdom? We birth our babies in hospitals while numbing ourselves, and them, to the experience of birth itself. Then we wonder why we have a detached self absorbed culture. Those of us who have things, and lots of them, are leading contributors to the changing climate.

We enjoy the benefits of modern conveniences to an excess - feeding our kids fast food because we have no time - rationalizing and justifying our behaviors to avoid feeling guilty. We know deep down that genetically modified foods and artificial flavorings aren’t healthy. We feel it in our bones and see the toxic residue in the bones of Mother Earth. If only we would listen to those inner voices -if only we could hear her pleas. Instead, we numb ourselves with caffeine, sugar, medications.

The overall numbing of our nation has created global devastation in a mere 100 years. What has the women rights movement gained during this past century if the resulting society is consumed with consuming, distracted by calculated marketing tactics and manipulated by distorted realities?

Have we simply chosen to minimize the power of the Feminine for the “idea” of something other than what it actually is? Not to say all women buy into this picture - some of us are rebels - birthing and schooling our babies at home, breastfeeding them to the age of four, refusing vaccinations, buying clean energy options and carbon offsets, running our vehicles on bio-fuels or driving a hybrid and eating organic food.

We know we have the ability to manifest our reality with just our thoughts. Yet, what reality are we buying into exactly? The emerging ”green” movement lacks a feminine voice. Many of the solutions being presented are reminiscent of the hidden agendas of days past. Nuclear energy and “clean” coal are being positioned as actual alternatives right next to wind power, solar and bio-fuels. Billions of dollars are being spent to develop these markets to support the false economy.

We are caught in a vicious cycle where corporations are dependent on consumers to keep buying. Thus they keep dreaming up new ways to convince us to buy on a quarterly basis. Green or not, we, as consumers need to use less! We can buy carbon offsets, switch to renewable energy, buy sustainable products and shop locally but it is no longer enough. We have to do all of these things and more.

We have to actually change the rate at which we consume. We have to use less stuff. We have to begin to think about where all of the stuff we consume comes from and the impact it has on the planet and the people all along the way. Harder yet, we have to teach our children to use less stuff.

If we don’t gain control over our spending habits then we are equally to blame for the mess we are headed for. There is no other choice but to look at what we are doing today if there is going to be a tomorrow. What happens when it all collapses and we aren’t prepared. How do we look into the eyes of our children and explain to them that we are sorry?

What will it take for each one of individually to realize the vastness of the crisis we are holding in our hands?