Monday, May 20, 2013

Upcoming Journey

All my life, I have had an abiding connection to the land, and I have made a commitment in many arenas of my life to discovering and demonstrating more cooperative, sustainable and small-footprint ways of living.  Now I am leaving my paid work as an engineer in sustainable building and energy work to broaden how I am contributing my time and heart to the world.  

I have been voicing the commitment I am now making as leveraging all my skills and my heart as a gift towards co-creating a sweeter future for all the children within a multi-generational and multi-cultural framework.  And to teaching and listening-- supporting a shift in the balance of human impact on climate change to protect and safeguard the amazingly beautiful array of life on our planet home.
 
Towards the end of June, I will begin a 4+ month "sojourn" across the country, starting from this part of central North Carolina that has been wonderful roots to me these last 11 years.  I will return to part-time home here in early November.

I expect much of my time will be out West, where my heart also has strong connections, including the Pacific Northwest and California.  Conversation and community that support the future I yearn to be part of bequeathing -- these are integral to this cross-country journey of mine. 



Conversation-- sharing, inspiring and co-creating stories and ideas that stretch beyond the beginning point



Community-- in the sense of being heart-connected and caring about each other's well-being
 
I will be looking for part-time home in the West, too, and work tied to community building, to cross-generational connections, to raising food & living simply and compactly with small energy & resource use, to nature-based rites of passage.... to interweaving all this training & experience of mine.
 
My current highest priorities are completing shop-time on my tiny house timber frame, so that it is ready to store as a ready-to-assemble kit, and down-sizing everything else so that I can move into a 10' x 10' storage unit in early to mid-June.  

This is the 6th timber frame I've designed and cut, and the tiniest.  It will be an 8' x 12' tiny home.  More on this in future blogs!  Here are a few recent pictures of test-fitting and tuning the joints.



 
My precise departure date will be when I complete all my other preparations, including roughing out my immediate travel method and initial itinerary.  After that, I will be writing more!  Including what "ripe communities" mean to me.