Transition Bedford

Recently, I noticed a somewhat dejected sounding comment from our member Shane Hughes in another post where he said “Transition Bedford has all but stalled and in need of new blood.” It’s true we’ve been bumping along a rocky road over the past year. For several of us, “life” frequently got in the way. One of our members is dealing with a recently diagnosed case of breast cancer. Another just had a baby and has her hands full with two very small children. Others of us (like me) just got very busy. Life happens.

Our “initiating group” is collection of about a dozen of us from diverse fields who got together because we had a common insight: that the world needs to pay attention to our oil dependency and make some significant changes soon, or things are going to get out of control in the very near future. For some of us, the driving force was on the knowledge that oil is running out (hence the term “peak oil”), and that there are some pretty hefty economic and social imbalances that will occur when it does. For others, the passion was more about the negative environmental impact our petroleum dependency has been creating (climate change). For others (like myself), while the other two areas are certainly a part of my personal concern, it is more of a spiritual issue. And by spiritual, I simply mean that has to do with our own humanity.

Our dependency upon oil has made us disconnected from the Earth and the ultimate Source of Creation in just so many ways. Most of us in “developed” nations (an irony) don’t grow our own food and have become dependent upon big businesses and mass transport (i.e., supermarkets, trucking, air freight) for the very basics that keep us alive. In the past, all we were dependent upon was the weather for our “daily bread”. But nowadays, we are dependent not only upon the ever-changing weather patterns, but also upon oil, but global economies, foreign policy and corporations. What a vulnerable place in which to be! And to me, as someone who works with people and their emotions on a daily basis in my work as a life coach and teacher, I know the emotional and physical impact of long-term vulnerability. People begin to feel helpless. Helplessness leads to fear. Fear leads to depression and even disease. It can also lead to violence and crime.

Furthermore, being dependent upon food from distant places means that we rarely, if ever benefit from the full nutritional value it has to offer, as it loses both its richness (what to speak of its flavour!) every day it is away from the farm. We have also lost the tendency to “eat with the seasons” and hence we are “out of synch” with our planet, and quite possibily hampering our immune system as a result. And this is not even taking into account the amount of pesticides, genetic modification, hormones, etc., regularly being used within the agriculture industry. Is there any wonder why there are just so many immunity related diseases, including cancer, rampaging our western society in recent decades? The truth is, every single one of my blood relatives in my parents’ generation (roughly 1920s-1990s) died from cancer, and not ONE of my blood relatives in my grandparents generation died from cancer (roughly 1880s – 1980s… yes, they lived longer lives overall).

But lastly, and I feel most importantly, we have lost our emotional and spiritual connection to the Planet on which we live. How do I know this? Because, frankly, if we had a deep love for Mother Earth, we would never even dream of littering, consuming non-degradable products, pumping oil out of the earth, messing with the food supply, dumping waste into our beautiful water supplied, strip the land and forests…. Well, you get the idea. If you love someone, you would not abuse them in this fashion.

So how in the world did we as a society allow ourselves to become so helpless? It’s not the “fault” of big business. We have surrendered our power to this system we, as a society, have created. If we keep pointing fingers at big business and government, we are only deepening our dependency and helplessness.

To me, the core need is for us to fall in love again with our World, and cultivate a loving relationship and harmony with her, the way cultures did in the past, before we brought petroleum-based economy into our lives. It’s not that we should toss out all our technology; it’s that we should find a way for it to work with our planet and not against it. It cannot come simply from making laws and resolutions. It can only come when we FEEL that connection as a society.

And for me, the one thing I have been doing is a “Garden Share”, where I have opened up my back garden to a local musician and Alexander Technique teacher, Rosamund Hoskins, who had no land, and she is growing fabulous vegetables on it. These past few months I have been delighting over the incredible courgettes, potatoes, carrots, corn, spinach, rocket (and more) and now am looking forward to the leeks, peppers and other delights (you can see one of our courgettes here).

What is even more amazing is that this little project has stirred the hearts of several other people. Many of Rosamund’s friends and relatives have donated seeds and starter plants (and tips!). My downstairs neighbour, who has the garden in front of mine, has given us HIS plot to grow more food. He regularly helps with weeding, and comes out to speak with Rosamund when she’s working. Here’s a man whose wife died a couple of years ago and he has been very isolated ever since. When he comes to work on the garden, he’s full of life and personal stories, and you can see it is a really healing activity for him.

I cannot tell you what a delight it was when I took my 4-year-old grandson out to our garden and “picked dinner” with him. It was magic sticking my hand into the earth and pulling up a lovely potato. I feel it is an essential part of his education, and something I never had when growing up (in the US) in the 50s and 60s.

I am so inspired by this simple project of sharing a garden. It “ticks” all the boxes for me: spiritual, economical, environmental, nutritional AND societal. It not only re-establishes our connection with the Earth, but it also helps to build community as well, which is something we humans desperately need.

I believe our Transition Bedford (or any Transition Town project) can only take place if each of us as individuals connects to a particular project or idea that makes their own heart sing. For me, I am organising to go speak at some of the Bedford Schools later this autumn, about the idea of the Transition Bedford Garden Share project. My idea is to “match make” children and their parents with seniors in the community, who might have a garden and the “wisdom” for growing food, but not necessarily the physical strength or money to do it on their own. Think of how much such a simple idea could change our town, at so many levels.

If you know of anyone (either families with young kids or seniors with wisdom and a garden), please drop me a line via the contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact

I am also meeting with the media students at Bedford College in early October, about making a documentary film about our fledgling organisation, in hopes that it will inspire other Bedfordians, as well as other towns, to take ownership of the future of our planet.

Of course, Shane is right. We are in need of “new blood.” This project called Transition Bedford CANNOT happen with a handful of people who meet at the local pub every few weeks. It has to be something owned and embraced by the entire town of Bedford. If you want to get involved in any way shape or form, please do contact me using the form above.

There is a growing wealth of great long and short films which cover a range of peak oil and climate change issues. Two recent cinema released films which maybe worth viewing by Transition Bedford members are “There will be Blood” an oil evolution film by Paul Thomas Anderson which has recently been described as the film of the noughties by the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw and “a tragic parable of man’s dysfunctional dependence upon oil: the once glorious lubricant of commercial triumph and technological innovation, and now the dwindling lifeblood of our material prosperity, the unacknowledged driving force of our military conflicts, and even the cause of a coming ecological catastrophe” The second more hopeful film is “Fuel” . The Wikipedia page comments that “Most Americans know we’ve got a problem: an addiction to oil that taxes the environment, entangles us in costly foreign policies, and threatens the nation’s long-term stability. But few are informed or empowered enough to do much about it. Enter Josh Tickell, an expert young activist who, driven by his own emotionally charged motives, shuttles us on a revelatory, whirlwind journey to unravel this addiction—from its historical origins to political constructs that support it, to alternatives available now and the steps we can take to change things.”

This leads me to suggest that we should think about recording/filming Bedford’s transition journey. Anyone?

Bishop of Bedford

This article appeared in this weeks Bedfordshire on Sunday and i thought i’d reproduce it here with full credits of course. The reason being that it’s an article of significance but also because i often see articles in the local papers that i think we should re-post on the TB site so that we can collate information. These articles generally indicate a project or organisation that i’m amazed to find exist in our region that i know little of and that i feel we’d do well to connect with. In my mind, largely Transition Bedford as a Transition hub is a mechanism from supporting and bringing together existing activities. So here’s the article. You can see the original here

Bishop faces up to ‘greenhouse’ issue

BY CHRIS GILL

This is the Bishop of Bedford as you probably haven’t seen him before – or are possibly likely to see him again. News – Bishop of BedfordThe Rt Richard Inwood agreed to be photographed with the word Copenhagen written across his forehead to show his backing for climate justice. Other Bishops in the St Albans diocese followed suit ahead of climate talks in the Danish city.

The images will be projected onto landmark buildings across the UK, along with hundreds of other messages from people who are calling on the international community – and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in particular, to seal a fair and effective climate change deal at the key summit.

The Rt Rev Inwood, said: “Climate change poses a very real threat to humanity and to our planet. “We must be in no doubt that the Copenhagen climate summit requires strong leadership that will deal fairly and effectively with the consequences of climate change.

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I’ve always believed that the transition would be a mix of incremental and step change and that the step changes are largely psychological changes in the way we see ourselves. My belief follows that these psychological changes would come about through global events, festivals, celebrations and protests (not the traditional anti protests but protest in the modern more creative sense displayed in the video below), where people join together from across the globe for 1 day or 1 hour to do the same thing, whatever that thing might be. This global union or connection makes us conscious of each other in a new way. Well in my understanding a global shift is one step closer. Watch and enjoy!!

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Whether we are aware of it or not, the members of the Initiating Group (IG) at Transition Bedford are now evolving from the “forming” stage into the “storming” stage. Can you feel it? Entering the storm means we are making real progress, even if it seems unclear right now. So, at this important juncture, in hopes of taking us even further into the eye of the storm, I’d like to share some ideas which have been swirling about in my mind ever since my Transition Training in London. It has to do with media, our responsiveness to it, both conscious and unconscious, and our role as leaders in the community. (more…)

There is no denying that we live at a time in history when much of the world around us is changing. The currently fluctuating economy is proving to be challenging for many, causing us to change our spending and saving patterns. Climate change and the need to move away from fossil fuel dependency are becoming more and more apparent, making it necessary to make rapid decisions about how to address the issues, and to reflect upon how we need to change as a society. Technology is also rapidly changing the way we interact, and we frequently find ourselves on the one hand more able to communicate at a virtual level, but also feeling more and more isolated from one another in the flesh. Over the past few decades, we have become increasingly disconnected from the sources of our own sustenance (such as food production) and more and more dependent upon our own technological creations for survival. To see how dependent we actually are, imagine how vulnerable you would feel if tomorrow morning you woke up to find you had no internet or other telecommunications systems, had no access to electricity, oil or petrol, or you were unable to obtain food, clothes, medicine and other necessities from outside sources. (more…)

Green alkanet grows everywhere and its flowers are edible

In the last few years I’ve become rather attracted to the idea of foraging for food. Having had an allotment in the past, and knowing the time and work that goes into growing veg, the idea of going out into the wider environment to find sources of food which have cost me nothing in monetary and effort terms is very, very attractive.

On a recent trip to Conwy in Wales, the bushes alongside farm lanes were dripping with sloes, rosehips and blackberries. But what about here in (sub)urban Bedford, what’s to be found for foraging?

I’ve lived in the town for a year now and found a few places to find wild food: sea buckthorn, damsons, blackberries and rosehips at Priory Marina; crab apples in the streets around Castle Road, elderberries on the footpath off Caves Lane and green alkanet (pictured above – you can eat the lovely blue flowers) and hairy bittercress all over the place. if you’re a forager, please share your haunts below in the comments…

So, let’s say everyone gets into the idea of foraging – what then? Will there be enough to go around or will we be fighting over those damsons, rowans and bittercress? I suspect we’ve got a while before this is a problem, but it’s worth thinking about.

Right now, though, the difficulty is getting people to pick even the obvious fruit outside their front doors. There’s a street off Castle Road (I can’t remember which one: maybe Pembroke?) with a apple tree that was full of little red-skinned, red-fleshed apples in late summer: I think I’ve identified them as a variety called Red Devil: great to eat and produces beautiful pink juice.

I nearly cried when nobody touched them: the sweet little red apples dropped and were mashed under feet and car tyres, probably driven by people driving to a shop to buy – you guessed it – apples grown half way across the world (and not half as tasty). I’d have brought a ladder and picked them all, but I was a bit worried about how people in the street would react: maybe next year.

If you want to read more of my stuff on organic gardening and ethical consumerism, visit my personal blog, Horticultural, and follow me on Twitter.

We come out of decades of needed campaigning and protests against the world we don’t want and we move with exponential momentum towards the systematic and uncontrolable creation of the world we want.  Transition involves being aware of the negatives of former but embedding ourselves in the positives of the latter. This video below, with dynamic speaker and author Paul Hawken, exemplifies exactly that.

It’d be interesting to find other video clips that hold a story of unyeilding positivity that’s not told through dreams or fantasies but through real life inspirations.

The tables have flipped, can you feel it? Probably not, it’s not portrayed in the media, nor in our political circles, it’s difficult to see at all in or every day lives but now, today and for the first time the status quo is on the back foot. Those supporting it’s continuation now make up the resistance movement. No longer is the great challenge to change the world, a far greater challenge is resisting the tide of change.

Every hole dug with a shovel, every seemingly boring community meeting, every humble local project started, every personal  commitment made……..we have to gain a sense of it’s place in a sea of diversity of small changes across the globe that are building a new and nourished world, one dig of the shovel at a time.