Earlier in April I wrote that I was dedicating the remainder of the month to relaxation+reflection+future planning. I'm both pleased and disappointed to report the results. Similar to the passing of 2012, or of university flying by, I'm wondering: Where did April go?

Relaxation: I think I was quite successful here. With my partner in crime, Alexandra, we spent 4 days truly revelling on my farm in the absence of work and school, enjoying the animals, the woods, the sunshine, and the…

Although I don’t usually really agree with  Thomas Friedman, His column, “Need a Job? Invent It” (March 30, 2013) wasn’t bad. http://nyti.ms/YRjMKQ



He quotes a Harvard education specialist saying that our schools aren’t giving people the skills they need.



. What you need, he says,  is critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.



This is exactly what we learn in our Community Conversation Circles  that

I outline in my…

Hello

I am just sharing with you my efforts to develop a pilot website called the Community Learning Bank. Basically it is a knowledge bank of searchable bite sized learning resources, stories and toolkits which anyone can take from and contribute to.

http://communitylearningbank.org/

I don't know where this will go but consider it one more idea  to mix in with a whole range of ideas and initiatives on this and other…

People%20Powered%20Health%20HHJ%202012.pdf

The December issue of the Holistic Health Journal published by the British Holistic Medical Association published my article on People Powered Health following the October Seminar in London.

People%20Powered%20Health%20HHJ%202012.pdf

Have you ever found your life way too complex, more things to handle than what can possibly done in a 24-hr day? Well, if you have, you are certainly not alone.

Close to falling asleep, I told Anna, “I’m curious what is your question for the night.” That was in reference to a story that I shared with her yesterday, in which a Ray Kurzweill was interviewed and he spoke of how the dreams of the night led to many of his inventions, by bringing solutions to questions he focused on before…

To be able to explain the commons to those who are not familiar with the language and concept is absolutely essential if we want to touch the hearts and minds of people.

I am delighted at having just discovered David Bollier's attempt at doing just that:…

• Describe the messy Chaos, as what the new world is experiencing just before leaving the birth canal.
• Paint pictures of the more beautiful world I strive for, in vivid, heartfelt language. (taking care of oneself)
• Draw a map of all my relations that I want to enter the Commons era with. Compare and combine maps with others. Commit to compassion with all I meet. (taking care of each other)
• Pay attention to the patterns that connect. Listen to and support the…

This is a draft concept developed by Jan Inglis as an offering at the Great Lakes Commons Gathering in October 2012 for helping a group of people to work through the complexities of organizing around a threatened commons resource towards protecting it through co-governance.

Jan Inglis is commons advocate from the Integrative Learning Institute.  Her…

Eight Points of Reference for Commoning (by German Commons Summer School 2012)

How Commons can flourish.

Elinor Ostrom and others have formulated eight design principles for the shared use of resources, based on a huge number of case studies from around the world. They continue to be of great significance for the commons movement.

Our perspective is the…

Last weekend I attended the 'Transform our Food System' gathering in London dedicated to UK Food Sovereignty in collaboration with the European arm of Via Campesina, a global peasant movement which represents about 200 million farmers worldwide.  A wide range of food interests were represented, organic farmers, anti GM activists, permaculturists, land squatters, transition towners, War on Want, etc mostly young people wanting to take back control of our food system. I…

http://youtu.be/PQjb-wXnw

When Dr.Robin Youngson promised to 'mess' with our minds at the introduction to his seminar in London I became curious how that fitted with who he was: A deeply compassionate and caring physician.

What happened during the 3 hours of sharing his experiences as a medical practitioner was  that the…

I am a fan of the narrative approach which starts with the understanding that our lives are shaped by the stories that we create about them.

On this platform, the commons is our preferred and  new story co-authored by all of us us at a time when the world is stuck in multiple crises.

Creating stories is a collaborative process and sense making and meaning making happens in communication with others. We find out who we are and what makes sense to us in conversations and…

As I have been reflecting on what world I would like to live in and what I would like to pass on to future generations, I was wondering how commons are build and what I really mean when I talk about building commons. I tend to talk about resources, boundaries, governance, stewardship, dividends, ....  but is that really what replenishes my creativity and the creativity and life of those with whom I share community and with whom I learn and grow? 

At the conceptual level, agreeing on…

George suggested I introduce my forthcoming book here.

Dispatches from the Occupation is in some senses two books in one. It is a collection of essays written during and in response to the global Occupy movement, from my perspective as an activist participating in Occupy Vancouver. It is also a broad philosophical investigation of the ideas about change, drawn from a variety of disciplines, that might help us understand social movements. Change, I argue, is not something that…

The conversation about what will bring the commons into being, at the Convergence Working Group meeting of 8^th June, was not all “business”. In fact, we also explored such deeply personal questions as “what do I need at this stage of my life that brings me to Life, that connects all the dots/nodes within myself?”

We noted that we’re living systems in which and through which all the nodes are…

[A post that received hints of inappropriateness at What is our work?]

A general comment in the name of “self-organization” and “emergence”.

There is a certain type of vitally important…

The Earth’s climate is changing and the changes are creating problems at a scale that humanity has never had to face before. The jury is still out on the extent, to which they are man-made vs. naturally occurring. However, it is certain that they are much larger than what could be be met by the efforts of any one scientific discipline, government, branch of technology, or civil society organization, alone.

Commoners caring for the Whole, who want to demonstrate their response-ability…