Reduce, Reuse Recycle. We definitely try to live this in my family, although we’re not as hardcore as I’d like to be. In an attempt to make reusing and recycling more appealing to my kids, I’ve been trying to work on projects and point out items in our house that have been “upcycled” in some way.

The kids see us putting the recycling out at the curb on recycling day, but that’s a very abstract concept to them. I wanted to give them some concrete examples of what recycling and reusing looks like in our everyday life. 

I made this cute little shrug for Cheyenne from a boxy old t-shirt that was somewhat worn. It was a hand-me-down that she wasn’t particularly fond of in its original form. Now, as a sweater, she wears it all the time.

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image by Roberto Garcia-S

Alright—so the biggest good news, affirmed again in an awesome talk I went to last night—is that evolution is real and happening. It is always good to think about this again.

The speaker was Michael Dowd, a self proclaimed “Evolutionary Evangelist.” He transformed from a fundamental Christian into a preacher of the awe-inspiring truth of evolution and the practical as well as spiritual significance of the knowledge of it. For example: We now know how our brains developed over millions of years, from the amphibian/limbic part, to the mammalian/emotional bonding section, to mind and interpretative capacities in the neo-cortex and finally to the anterior cortex, whose neurons light up when we make the effort to hold ourselves to a commitment—say, a marriage vow.

As we all find out on a daily basis, our center of gravity unfortunately is not yet located in this more evolved part of our brains, so even if we make decisions or commitments in one moment, we are thrown by uncertainty and desires, left, right and center in the next. But knowing about the differences in these parts of our brains we can interpret our own experience, of lust, say, or of our willingness to sacrifice our principles to get what we want in a very different context.

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image by smellyknee>

11 Questions is an ongoing feature where you, the reader, tell us all about a project you are working on to create a more functional, just, and beautiful future. Then we share your project on The Sunny Way. To tell us about your project, either fill out the survey, or copy the questions below and email your answers to us. We look forward to featuring your good work soon!

Your location
SF Bay Area, CA

Your project’s name
Read to Your Baby

What are you creating with this project? What are your goals?
I am a children’s librarian who works in a city with one of the highest rates of violent crime in America. In learning about the connection between parents engaging in literacy activities with infants and the reduced odds of those children becoming involved in violent crime later in life, I came to see what a vital service infant literacy could perform in our communities. Since I work for the public library, my goal is to create infant literacy programming for the branches I serve and generate interest in those programs. I hope to inspire my colleagues to do the same.

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image by Shaire Productions

Uli’s pieces last week on the Economy of Consciousness and the potential for unlimited growth in that realm inspired me to write on the same topic. Let us know what you think!

Human beings grow. That is what we do—we experiment, learn from our mistakes and successes, and integrate those learnings into how we go about the rest of our lives.

This growth is reflected in both our external world—the material life we create—and our internal world—the culture and values we share. From communal tribal awareness and authoritarian traditional religious awareness through the Age of Reason and the Age of Aquarius, we have grown in morality, in care, and in the depth and breadth with which we are able to engage in the world.

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It was an exciting week on The Sunny Way!

• On Monday, I shared my thoughts and a link to one of my favorite articles on Bright Green thinking, to kick off Earth Week.
• On Tuesday, Sarah updated us on all the exciting developments in the fight against Mountaintop Removal coal mining.
• On Wednesday and Thursday, Uli wrote about how human beings can continue developing without limitation and without destroying the planet more quickly—in the realm of consciousness.

Today I wanted to share with you an amazing video I encountered in my surfing this week. Playing for Change brings together musicians from around the world to collaborate on musical and service projects. This is one of the first videos they produced, and it gave me shivers!

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image by logan.fulcher

This is the second half of Uli’s piece on the Economy of Consciousness. Read Part 1.

Throughout the centuries, our self-awareness has grown increasingly subtle—when we weren’t sipping lattes made by robots but drinking from streams, we most likely experienced ourselves simply as bodies. We were living in hordes, communicating with each other in grunts and gestures without the slightest inclination that one day we would be talking about our feelings, much less discussing psychedelic drugs, philosophy, economic theory, or spiritual experiences. As we have conquered our inner reality, down to the processes in our brains, as well as the planet and space around us, we have also discovered our growing ability to choose— a partner, a profession, a country and our own identity—who we want to be.

There will always be more, not less. Further out and deeper in. The more we keep that more in mind as we look towards the future, the likelier our chance to discover and direct our most desirable destiny. A future, an economy, an environment built on a philosophy of less will never be able to satisfy us. This is where consciousness enters into the equation.

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image by logan.fulcher

This is Part 1 of Uli’s piece on the Economy of Consciousness. Read Part 2.

What would you do? TNK, or as you might call her, Tinka, X9, your housekeeper robot just cooked the eggs and made the coffee for you. Until you have to start work—at home, at 5pm, for three hours, maybe four today—this day is yours.

Not just this day. Every day. It has been like this since the big crisis of 2009 rattled the world and humanity had no option but to rethink its ways: a financial system in ruin, a planet on the verge of becoming uninhabitable, and wars sparked by the grotesque disparities between the have-it-alls and the have-nothings. On its way to material prosperity for all, the world had grown out of unlimited growth. So what would your day look like?

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image by rjones0856

The end of March brought amazing news in the fight to stop mountain top removal that has continued to blossom right in step with spring.

On March 24th, Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, announced a decision to halt and review two mountain top removal mining permits, which by extension suspends 100 valley fill permits that would bury hundreds of miles of streams in Appalachia. Explaining this action, President Obama said, “…I want science to help lead us. I know that the Bush administration made some decisions pretty late in the day, at the end of their administration, on this issue. We want to reexamine it.” The exciting news spread fast and furious throughout the media outlets and by the end of the day everybody seemed to be saying hosannahs.

The next day brought more good news when Senator Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Cardin (D-MD) introduced the Appalachian Restoration Act, a companion bill to the House’s Clean Water Protection Act. This act would amend the Clean Water Act to prevent the dumping of toxic mining waste from mountain top removal into streams and rivers. “It is not necessary to destroy our mountaintops in order to have coal,” announced Alexander.

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image by Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

We at The Sunny Way believe that the future can be fairer, cleaner, and more beautiful than anything we can imagine right now. We also believe that it is up to us to create this magnificent future, and therefore we need to grow so that we can think and create in new ways. Of course, nothing changes us on the inside like trying new things on the outside, so we think of this process as a lovely, virtuous, experimental circle, where internal awakenings lead to external efforts lead to more internal awakenings and on and on and on.

In honor of Earth Week, today I’d like to point you to one of the most compelling articles on this way of thinking that I have ever read, “A Brighter Shade of Green: Rebooting Environmentalism for the 21st Century,” by Ross Robertson, a senior editor at EnlightenNext magazine. When I first read this article, I could barely sit still for days—it so perfectly expresses and addresses the dissatisfaction with old models of environmental thinking that I and so many others are experiencing. Laying out his own life as an example, Robertson points to where environmentalism next needs to grow if it truly intends to throw its arms around the entire world and change it for the better.

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Happy Friday! It’s spectacular in Pittsburgh today—blue sky and fresh breezes and tweeting birds as far as the eye can see. What a fun week—last night was my grandma’s 86th birthday celebration and later today I’m off to the woods to celebrate one whole year with my sweet and brilliant boyfriend, who my brother says is now officially my “old man.” Spring is in full gear and all the possibilities I envision and dream of seem perfectly reasonable and doable. Hope you are enjoying yourself wherever you are, too.

Here’s what happened this week on The Sunny Way ...

• Monday I shared some thoughts on a few TV shows I’ve been watching lately—Dollhouse and Six Feet Under—all about conditioning, particularly for women, and why it’s so important for us to get over these old patterns of behavior so we can create something new.
• Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Victoria wrote about Ahalani, a gorgeous, solar-powered, energy-efficient home in Long Island, designed and built by its owners Campbell Dalglish and Catherine Oberg. I loved reading all about this! Do listen to the mp3s if you get a chance, too—there’s so much great inspiration and information in the interview.

Today I’d like to share with you a very sweet blast from the past: the Muppet-ladies of Sesame Street reminding us of everything we women can be. This is a topic I intend to revisit in the next few weeks, because it’s desperately important to our being able to fully participate in creating a better future. The world needs us to take a bigger view of life!

Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

Catherine, Campbell, and baby Milo

This is the last segment of Victoria’s exploration of Ahalani through an interview with the homeowners. Click here and here to listen to both parts of the interview in their entirety. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

After I had spoken to Campbell and Catherine about the 7 principles that guided them through building Ahalani, I asked them about their daily experience of living in it.  I wanted to find out what their lives are now like since its completion.  I wanted to know about the sense of accomplishment and breakthrough that they experienced.  So toward the end of the interview, I asked them.

Since you’ve finished building and have lived here for six years, how has this house changed your life?

Here are their responses, separately because Catherine was caring for their son Milo when I asked:

Campbell: Every day I wake up and live in this house. We were living in a one bedroom apartment in NYC…it was tight quarters and tight living and that was fine. But there’s something that opens up your whole life when you have a belief, or you have a complaint that’s been going in your head for so many years—I can’t stand it, why do they build this way? Why do people live this way? The energy scare, and on and on and on. And finally…we were just going to buy something, anything to just get out of the city…[then] we found a vacant lot and this whole idea of building came in, and we thought oh, we’re going to build a house.

I can take all these complaints I’ve had in my fifty years of life and I can build the dream home that I want.  I even wrote poems and songs about living in someone else’s dream.  You know, that’s what it is, wherever you’re living, you’re living in somebody else’s dream….So, what if you were to build your own dream, would you copy what somebody else did? Would you go back those three generations and borrow from what you thought was wise and good, home and comfy, so you’re just perpetuating the past? What are you going to do?

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Storage under stairs to loft

Today is Part 2 of Victoria’s exploration of Ahalani, an owner-designed and built eco-friendly home in Long Island. Read Part 1 and Part 3.

Campbell and Catherine served as general contractors for the building of their home, Ahalani, with Catherine directing the building for the last several months when Campbell returned to his teaching position. In the process of researching, designing, and building, they found 7 primary challenges in constructing their home. These principles highlight the interconnectedness of the whole house into an integrated whole.

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Alahani in Long Island

This article is part 1 of an interview with Campbell Dalglish and Catherine Oberg, homeowners and builders of Ahalani, an energy efficient house in Long Island.  Below are my reflections about meeting them and taking a tour of their house. Read Part 2 and Part 3.

Late last year, I became interested in wind and solar power and I read that the New York City area is a good candidate for embracing clean energy technology, especially solar. I learned that the biggest deterrents to adopting renewable energy technologies are culturally conditioned ideas about land usage and what’s possible. Then I heard about a couple on Long Island who built their own energy efficient solar home and who enthusiastically educate others and thought Oh, I have to meet them and see this house!

Campbell Dalglish and Catherine Oberg finished building Ahalani, their Suffolk County, Long Island home, in March 2003. Ahalani is a Navajo word meaning “House made of dawn.” A few months ago I spent a Sunday afternoon visiting and interviewing them, learning about the process they undertook to build their sunny home: two years of research and design, choosing an architect to draw up plans, deciding to take on being the General Contractors themselves, and all the unknowns and surprises they encountered as they built.

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image by one2c900d

Lately I’ve been watching a couple of TV shows that explore identity and humanness. What are we? How do our lives and memories shape us? And what does it all mean in terms of changing the world by changing ourselves?

Dollhouse (the new show by my man Joss Whedon) looks into the idea that human consciousness as a computer that can be wiped and programmed at will. In this show, “actives” (the dolls) are wiped clean of personality and memory, then imprinted with new personalities and memories that make them into new people who can fulfill the precise requirements of big-spending clients.

When the actives are on assignment, they seem like whole people with capabilities and life stories and ways of speaking and being that are uniquely their own. But when they are in between jobs, they wander around the Dollhouse like blank slates, not remembering anything about what they’ve done or where they’ve come from, saying nothing more meaningful than “I like pancakes.”

Of course, memory is a tricky thing that no one fully understands yet, not even the puppetmasters who run the Dollhouse, so as the series progresses, I’m sure we’ll see bits of the actives’ old selves in the blank slates which their minds and bodies have become. I’m fascinated by the questions this show raises—are our minds simply computers that have been programmed by the life experiences we’ve had? If so, when you strip away our memories and our conditioning, what’s left?

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Happy spring and happy holidays, for those of you who celebrate them. I’m in Pittsburgh now to spend Easter with my family. I’m excited for bunny cake on Sunday and for my grandma’s 86th birthday next Thursday! Here’s your recap of what went on here at The Sunny Way this week:

• Monday, I wrote about orienting ourselves with the messy but ultimately positive nature of evolution, and the responsibility that’s laid on our shoulders once we realize how this all works.
• Tuesday, we learned about Esther’s project to build bridges between Israeli and Palestinian women in our latest installment of 11 Questions. Esther says she has some exciting updates for us, which we’ll get to you very soon.
• Wednesday, Sarah wrote about understanding and changing our appetites as a means to change the world. We’re really hungry for progress, she says, not fossil fuels, and it’s important to decouple the two.
• Thursday, Stella wrote from the inside of the messy evolutionary process we discussed on Monday, sharing what she’s learned from making positive changes in her life and showing us how to sidestep perfectionism in our efforts to achieve progress.

Today’s video comes courtesy of TED and tells us how to use readily available household plants to radically improve our indoor air quality. Kamal Meattle’s experiments in his office park in New Dehli have resulted in dramatic reductions in sickness and huge improvements in productivity, all from adding about 1,200 plants to support the oxygen needs of 300 workers. Meattle says that with the right plants, you could live in a corked bottle with no harmful effects!

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