Image by Chad Davis

Ever since I first attended a local meeting of the Obama campaign I have been continually struck by what I encounter in this movement: For one, an intense focus - everyone, you can tell, is barely sleeping and overwhelmed by how much there is to do, but determined to use this opportunity for change. I wake up in the mornings with their tired faces in front of my eyes. Seeing the people and the way this grassroots campaign is being run both up and down the hierarchical ladder I really get that Obama indeed does mean this: Change. Not just the word, but the thing itself.

When the man in charge of the campaign for Massachusetts introduced himself at that meeting he spoke respectfully and humbly about wanting to make the effort to infuse what he had observed in Obama on the trail with him—his clarity, openness and ability to listen and think in ways that do not divide—into his work with us, the volunteers.

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Composting in the garden

This is the third of three parts of Victoria’s interview with Sister Jeanne Clark of the Homecoming project and Sophia Garden. Read part one and part two.

VG: When did you decide to become a nun?

SJ: In 1958 at the age of twenty-one, I entered the convent. Before that I worked as a secretary in an advertising agency for three years.

VG: And you grew up on Long Island? Is that why you were saying you wanted to come home?

SJ: When I speak about “Coming Home” I’m really talking about coming home to Earth and the Universe. Actually when I first came into the understanding of myself as coming out of Earth and being so connected with Earth, I wanted to help others see this connection.

I wanted to do the work that I am doing now on the West Coast where I had spent five years. It was so beautiful there right near Seattle and in the midst of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. I thought of the people there as much more progressive. And to me at the time Long Island seemed like a wasteland of consumerism. I didn’t want to stay here.

But my congregation of Dominican Sisters wanted me to stay as did my friends and the people with whom I had been meeting and envisioning living life sustainably on Long Island.

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The universe with sticks

This is the second of three parts of Victoria’s interview with Sister Jeanne Clark of the Homecoming project and Sophia Garden. Read part one.

SJ: It is a challenge. Things are changing. It’s all part of the evolution. We are becoming different people. We offer three children’s programs in the summer. A new group started today. The children learned about the story of the universe and how the universe came to be.

VG: Oh my, it’s so important that you are teaching children about the universe.

SJ: Yes. They find out where Earth came from and that we are part of Earth. The first thing many of the children do when they come to the garden is swat the bees and the ants. I tell them, “Oh wait a minute. We are outdoors now. This is where these creatures live. This is their home. The ants probably do a lot more work for Earth than we do. We leave them here; we don’t kill them.”

Then we teach them the Story of the Universe and how it came to be. They see how the humans enter late in the Story and how they are part of the WEB of life. So we are teaching people about Earth through Sophia Learning Center and providing certified organic food through Sophia Garden. These are the two projects of Homecoming.

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Sister Jeanne with children

Sophia Garden is a 1½ acre certified organic farm in Amityville, Long Island. It lies on land owned by the Dominican Sisters of Amityville. Towards the back of their property is the farm, a colorful, lively area of vegetables, flowers, tool and harvest sheds. In late 1996, the Sophia Garden was started on a section of the Dominican sisters’ land that was an orchard in years gone by. The farm produces organic vegetables within the CSA model of agriculture that joins suburban families with locally grown organic produce. In 2006, the farm was moved to a different area of the sisters’ property where it currently exists.

In our Sunny Way efforts to open up dialogue, and listen to varied perspectives, we thought that reaching out to religious communities could foster relationships to figure out how we’re going to create an inspiring, hopeful future where all of life, in all its variety is cherished and encouraged to thrive.

I interviewed Sr. Jeanne this past August in the garden. She spoke about her life, dreams, and works for social justice. I was so impressed by her courage and vision to start the Sophia Garden that I decided to volunteer there once per week. I am learning how to approach the time I spend there with absolute openness and humility. There’s so much to be curious about when I greet the garden’s plants, insects, and people with a truly open mind. It’s also fun and rewarding to see the vegetables thrive from my careful weeding.

Sr. Jeanne’s story unfolds beautifully in this interview. She has transformed her own search for community and home into a vibrantly accessible garden and learning program that suburban Long Islanders are rejoicing in.

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Last night was the first night of the year when I really felt like knitting, and I’d been meaning to watch the talk Jules Dervaes gave last spring at UCLA for a long time, so I fired up YouTube and watched as I whipped up a couple of washcloths. I really enjoyed Dervaes’s low-key yet passionate style, and it’s great to get a little glimpse into the man behind Path to Freedom, a project and a website which have inspired thousands of people to take up the cause of freedom gardening and the 100 foot diet.

Dervaes touches on many topics in his talk—most striking was the fact that our society offers 1000 choices of shoe companies but only 150 choices of food plant varieties, 4 of which (rice, corn, wheat, and potato) provide 60% of our diet. He also encourages students to start growing at least a little of their own food, even if it’s only basil on a windowsill of their dorm rooms, saying that the first step is the hardest and most important.

“We’re trying to live the inconvenient solution,” he says. “We’re trying to put the roots in the grass roots.”

I hope you enjoy what Jules has to say. Plus if you watch the whole thing you’ll get to see the biggest squash you ever saw! Part 1 is below. Parts 2-5 can be found after the jump.

Part 1

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image by Roberto Garcia-S

The Sunny Way is committed to envisioning and creating a magnificent future for all of us. Right now, this also means facing things head-on, even if they are very scary. History has shown that humans always rise to the challenge of developing, when the old options are running out. And in order to do that, to forge a different path in culture and our own way of looking at life, seeing things how they really are is everything.

So this week we heard that carbon emissions are still on the rise. While scientists are ringing alarm bells even louder, people are beginning or continuing to take things into their own hands.

Al Gore, for one thinks it’s time: “We have reached a point of Civil Disobedience,” he said in a Panel Discussion at Clinton’s Global Initiative in New York. In particular, he encouraged young people to prevent the construction of coal plants that do not have the technology to capture and sequester carbon.

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image by Schizoform

This is the second part of a guest post by playwright, actress, and activist Sarah Moon about how her new play on mountaintop removal coal-mining fits into the larger picture of creating a clean and just future. You can read the first part here. For more information on Sarah’s work, please visit http://www.nylovesmountains.com.

One of the things I’ve noticed most since I began this work is the constant need to renew one’s awareness. Many times I have grasped how my actions connect to environmental degradation and then lost that understanding, forgetting when it’s been convenient to forget. It’s hard work to remember all the time. It takes a force of will that most of us do not naturally possess. We would rather believe there is an easy solution that doesn’t require too much effort. I see so many band-aids, so much wishful thinking demonstrated in the popularity of “green” and “organic” products.

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image by Charlie Brewer

This is guest post by playwright, actress, and activist Sarah Moon, who is developing the play Current Changes in Empire, about mountaintop removal coal mining and the history of electricity, in collaboration with arts and activism organization Headwater Productions. A staged reading of the work-in-progress, directed by Steph Pistello, is being presented at Dixon Place today, September 16th. Visit http://www.dixonplace.org for more information. I saw this play a few months ago and was very much touched by its historical, rational, and personal take on Mountaintop Removal coal-mining. -ed.

My collaborator Steph Pistello and I decided we wanted to do a play on the subject of mountaintop removal coal mining in May of 2007 when our theatre company performed a series of short original pieces at two New York events organized by the Coalfield Delegation to the UN. When we got to the media action event at Daj Hammarskjold Park, just outside the UN, we saw the coalfield delegates gathered in front of large, color banners showing mountain top removal sites.

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Carrotmob is an innovative group creating innovative ways for concerned individuals to come together and create real change in a lighthearted way, and I’m proud to say that I will be working with them and an awesome team of volunteers to create an event in New York City this fall!

What really excites me about Carrotmob is that it is about bringing people together for a shared, do-able goal that has a lot of impact. It’s somewhere between remembering to bring your reusable bags to the store and re-inventing our entire infrastructure and it also looks like a really good time.

This video explains what Carrotmob is about much better than I could so please check it out! I’ve started a Facebook group (search for Carrotmob NYC) which anyone can join to stay current on dates, events, and opportunities to get involved.

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.