Thanks, Harrison & others, for the welcome when I posted a few weeks ago. It's lovely to be remembered after a couple of years off-list, & delightful to see the online community thriving away in its inimitable way.
A couple current highlights & interests: I continue to work with youth, particularly teenagers. I'm working with some wonderful folks to develop a new form of "community-based indigenous education." I promote a return to the ancient idea that the initiation from childhood to young-adulthood is a key moment for the vast living intelligence of nature to re-enter the consciousness of the human village. Our youth can do this and are doing this for those who notice. Open space is a really good tool for intergenerational, inclusive "culture creation," so that the youth can be widely and deeply honored and supported in their role, and welcomed back properly by the Elders and the village. (Our project weblog will soon be up ~ I'll let y'all know.) Last week (thanks to Patricia Haines & the list) I attended the open space convocation of the US Partnership for the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development at the EPA campus near Raleigh, North Carolina. All I can say is that Steve Cochran has done something extraordinary, the unfolding of which will make itself known on this list and far beyond in the weeks & months to come. Harrison's post about the new climate change research brings the opportunities around open space and the Partnership into an even sharper focus. I am championing one initiative that came out of the convocation, which I am excited to mention, although it's in early development. Inspired by my sketchy recollection of Michael Herman's "Giving Conference" in Chicago a couple years back, I'm working with Maureen and Zelle, Patricia, & others on a new way to bring potential donors together with grassroots sustainability project leaders, using open space, and resulting in State of Grace Documents as relationship-based alternatives to grants & other traditional funding mechanisms. If all goes well we'll pilot this in North Carolina (probably here in Asheville) by summer. That's my news from the Northamerican southeast highlands, as the birds call in the dawn from the Atlantic. Enjoy your day, everyone. Chris Weaver * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist