At the same time, I try to challenge my biases and beliefs on a regular basis and the opportunity to actively participate in the upcoming election seemed like the opportune way to do just that. So here I am, Green Party of Ontario Candidate for the upcoming provincial election on October 6th. This is new ground for me and I welcome any constructive feedback on how I can best be and act in this capacity.

Before I engage in anything I try to clarify my intentions upfront. To date, they are:

• Promote the Green Party of Ontario as a viable and capable political party
• Promote the Green Party values as guiding principles for a healthy and abundant future
• Promote community owned and managed businesses and cooperatives to be the stewards of local resources and the generators of economic resilience
• Promote ways to decouple human activities from the fossil-fuel economy
• Connect with communities and individuals throughout the riding to learn what issues are important and poorly addressed
• Do my best to expand the quality of the dialogue on difficult, divisive and contentious issues
• Contribute feasible and sustainable solutions that the other parties may not be considering
• Challenge the status quo belief that a perpetually growing economy is the only way to a prosperous future

So there we are. Let’s see where it all goes. I feel blessed for this opportunity to grow in new and unexpected ways and I welcome your participation along the way.

A message from Kryon channeled by David Brown

The Ojai Foundation adopted the practice and shares it with all those who visit. Having the chance to live it for a week had a tacit yet significant influence on me, helping to shift my priorities to include the “how” as well as the “what”. Another way to say it might be a greater emphasis on being in addition to doing. I have since been endeavoring to bring The Beauty Way more fully into my life. Here it is:

From the Ojai Foundation

In natural systems there is generally an incredible amount of biological diversity where two systems meet. This can be used to your advantage (as a permaculture designer) by placing elements in your overall design so they benefit each other. In the built environment, you want to use edge skillfully, optimizing it depending on the nature of what you are designing. For example, in building a home in a northern climate, ideally you would want little to no Northern edge and maximal southern edge to create a passively heated home. This could be accomplished by building your home into a south facing hillside or berm with plenty of windows in the south. That is edges in a (very small) nutshell in the context of traditional permaculture.

I’ve found it interesting to take the principles of permaculture and apply them more broadly to my life. Taking the idea of edge and applying it to my inner landscape, edges make themselves known when events trigger me to react, get emotional, impatient, frustrated, angry, etc. I have come to know that any such reactions are simply unconscious/subconscious aspects of self that are being triggered, giving me the opportunity to heal/integrate/etc. Such a reaction has NOTHING to do with the apparent cause and EVERYTHING to do with my own state of being. Any blame placed outside of self energizes a victim mentality and is completely dis-empowering.

Since it is often challenging to observe such experiences objectively in the moment due to the influencing power of emotions, I’ve been quietly striving to learn ways of handling such moments with more grace. The following sankalpa (thought, intention, or will directed toward a specific outcome) came to me and I’ve been experimenting with it’s usefulness:

“I see you edge and I welcome the opportunity to bring you into the full light of my conscious awareness“.

To me, this brief thought sets a tone of openness and energizes a willingness to experience whatever is necessary to resolve the edge, be it forgiveness, understanding or some other dimension of healing.

Justin

Five solutions have risen to the top so far, each of which hold the promise to benefit the immediate village, all stakeholders in the broader community and any communities in the world looking for cooperative models of sustainable land stewardship. The current form of these solutions are:

1. A conservation & education covenant with The Land Conservancy of BC
2. Gift certificates for space in future courses & workshops
3. Green burial
4. Transferring stock and RRSPs into the newly created Community Trust for Ethical Development
5. Extending ownership opportunities to the larger community by purchasing shares in the co-op

All this innovation is happening out of necessity and is creating precedents that will (un) pave the way for others who wish to follow a similar path to sustainable/regenerative living.

My hope and dream is that the people connected with this place and beyond will rise up to enable this village to leap over the immediate hurdle so that the village will continue to do what it does best: inspire passers-through to live in a principled manner that respects and protects life.

If you have similar aspirations for the future of the world, please consider sharing directly with a financial contribution or with your talent and ideas.

in service
Justin

wp-includes/formatting.php

It’s function

function sanitize_title_with_dashes($title) { ... }

I couldn’t find this posted on the net anywhere so I posted it here in case others were looking for it.

tb_show('Thickbox title here', '#TB_inline?height=300&width=305&inlineId=CHANGE-ME-INPUT-ID-OF-BUTTON&modal=false', null);

Thanks to http://www.juxtaflo.com/chad/thickbox-rollover-activation for the tip off.

I’m starting to feel the energy to turn my attention inward, seeking to integrate remaining, troublesome aspects of my shadow that have remained elusive. This itch led me to Banyen Books last time I was in Vancouver. Of the myriad of books on the subject of relationships, male/female dynamics and personal growth, The Way of the Superior Man by David Dieda stepped forward for some reason. I’ve learned to trust my intuition in these situations as it has usually let me to interesting places. I’d never heard of David Dieda but liked the boldness of the title and upon flipping through it, was attracted to the direct, clear transmission on living as a conscious, loving, intentional and powerful male. I’ve had some exposure to similar teachings in Yoga and through other teachers and this book seemed like a worthwhile next step. As a way of getting my writing brain back in gear, I plan to write on the chapters that speak to or challenge me in some way. Stay tuned.

If any of you out there have read it and want to comment along the way, please do.

peace
Justin

in gratitude
Justin

I have a whole pile of books to get through this semester, most of which seem like they will be rather interesting and informative. At the top of my pile right now is Guy Kawasaki’s: The Art of the Start. It’s language is very male (not sexist), more specifically: direct. It is a no nonsense, handbook for anyone with some entrepreneurial blood in their veins.

Guy spent considerable time with Apple and also as a venture capitalist so his opinion is well qualified from what I can gather. Some gems from the first few chapters:

Ch. 1: Forget a mission statement, figure out what your mantra is (in a few words).
Ch. 2: Start with a niche focus. Clearly differentiate from your competition. Pick a “verbable” name like Google.
Ch. 3: When pitching observe the 10/20/30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30pt font).

So far I’m impressed. It is definitely a book I’ll hold on to and refer back to after I graduate and I find myself back in an entrepreneurial mode.

peace
Justin