The Secret Sauce

Now, the voices that dominate in Allen County are the voices of action. Voices of progress. Voices that say “HOW should we do this?” instead of “WHY should we do this?” The negativity does not go unchallenged.

Is there a means by which we can construct a society in which the human being is central, not peripheral, with an economy that serves us? One in which it is understood that Nature has tolerance limits and that by crossing them too often we will destroy the foundations of our existence? Can we construct a society in which work is meaningful? One in which our voices are heard?

Thoreau College creates a context where students can nurture their sacred curiosity, connect with their deepest selves, and cultivate the capacities they will need to manifest their highest aspirations for the world.”

A look inside a Food Enterprise Center that is cultivating community beyond its walls

Island Housing Trust’s mission is to preserve the viability of the year-round community on Mount Desert Island (MDI) by encouraging and providing housing opportunities affordable to the island’s workforce. To ensure that the island communities remain viable year-round villages and towns, IHT seeks to create a stock of permanently affordable year-round housing that is available to those who work on MDI.

Civic courage means striking first with love, and asking questions later. It’s building a bridge by trusting someone who doesn’t already trust you. It’s choosing to listen to someone who is across the trenches from you.

Can art remind us there is a place for everyone, for all voices? Can art be a tool that helps demonstrate the ways in which we are intrinsically connected to each other and the natural world? Can art bring us together so that we might jointly create our sense of place? This summer in Paonia, we will take steps to find out.

How do we begin to dismantle the illusion of independence and to shine the light on all that we have to offer to each other, all that we need from each other, all the things that we can only do if we are together?

Approaching land, animals and humans with creativity and a collaborative spirit, the Finnriver team continues to use their tiny corner in western Washington to generate a new paradigm of social, economic, and environmental resilience for the future.

[I]t begins by finding practical ways to create healthy synergies between cities and the countryside, and by pursuing economic and ecological policies that don’t perpetuate unhealthy mutual dependency.

With this care and attention to detail, PHPA is a gesture of love: love of artistic excellence, love of natural rural beauty, love of food, and the desire to share these wonderful things with the community.

Now when I hear someone say “flyover country,” I grimace at the term. How do I begin to tell my friends of all the interesting aspects of my community, even though I want to? How can I convince them that my town and all rural communities deserve more than a quick glance out of their plane as they fly from city to city?

The resilient Ouray Ice Park tribe refuses to be daunted, and continues looking for innovative solutions to attack this latest challenge. Perhaps developing new water sources to augment the municipal water supply will allow them to build a thicker, more resilient base of ice, that will hold up better against warming temps. Perhaps more tweaks to the Ice Park’s plumbing system will allow them to farm that ice in even more effective and efficient and smarter and safer ways. There is hope. Even on thin ice.

What if you could change the trajectory of someone’s life by giving them a huge financial gift, and it would cost you nothing?

What if you could plant a seed of economic justice and generosity right where you live, not waiting for national policy to make it happen?

What if you had the power to enrich your entire community just by sharing what you have, one person at a time?

If nothing else, I realized that as a left-leaning, white, northerner, it has been easy for me to make assumptions about the deep south, all the while giving it little thoughtful attention. The time spent with Euneika and her friends in Montgomery, Selma, Gees Bend, and Camden Alabama was a welcome wake up call to the steady work that continues to be done, quietly, resolutely, often in the margins and often without great fanfare.

For those of you who have asked about subscriptions:
I am happy to mail anyone who is interested a copy of the magazine for the cost of shipping and handling. Please email me at: shesherwin@mac.com

People around here make things happen, possibly because there’s an understanding that if I don’t, no one else will. But also because there’s an opening, a freedom, a magnetic current running beneath the surface of everything.

The first issue of RST Magazine will be available in mid-April! Anyone who would like to have one sent directly to their home can subscribe here!

“The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

I recently read that trees communicate with one another —scientists call it the “world wood web”— When trees know that there is a danger, disease, or threat, they will shed their stored sugars and share them with each other to spread their energy and love so that perhaps the other trees can benefit.