Stream of Consciousness

Like the invincible teenager Cu Chullin I want to pound up and down the land raising awareness grapple with the armies of indifference, shout at the night sky and rage at the moon, grab Transition by the neck and hurl it in to every city, town, village and community of Ireland. My impatience, anger and impotence seethes like pus and makes me restless. I strong-arm my energy in fruitless attempt as to cover a suppurating sore with sticking plaster, to dam the strength and passion that oozes, pulsates and bursts from my skin, for fear of irreparable damage in careless word or action.

We are David versus Goliath in an extraordinary sea of apathy. From the bunkers of Transition let us use our simple slings, and for those weapons to be possessed by demon words, rousing everyone from temporary indifference, exploding bedrock beliefs, opening minds and igniting souls with audacity and skill to radically change and transform the very essence of humanity. I refuse to believe that we are like the Marie Celeste blithely sailing rudderless, on an on into an unknowable, unworkable, questionable future. Daily I imagine Transition powerfully steering, holding and shaping the course of this social epidemic, implacable in the face of indifference, persevering against all odds, reaffirming our potential for change and safe in the knowledge of our power of positive action.

Thats a window into my subconscious, the right brain part of me, that bit that defies logic, the bit that stands up and says“no you are not beat” (pronounced bate in Northern Ireland speak) That bit of me that doesn’t know when its bate! That part of me that has an unshakeable belief, that there are many solutions, that collectively we have the intellect, the power and the wherewithal to influence, engage, activate and inspire those around us. That we all are transformative leaders, from the smallest to the greatest of us creating something new that answers our concerns, something that wasn’t necessarily going to happen anyways.  

So where now for Transition Omagh?

Applying that stream of consciousness thinking (and considering our recent setback in Omagh around the community cafe that didn’t happen read here). We are back at the drawing board re-inventing, re-igniting, re-inspiring, implacably moving on in the face of adversity. Inhaling deeply, focussing inwardly and drawing on the right side of the brain, we return to basics; as someone said earlier on this week “ we start from where we are, with what we have, to do the best we can.” Below is a (now) snapshot of Transition Omagh and what we have to work with.

Fracking Film Gaslands

 Transition Omagh is hosting a free screening of Gaslands Film about Fracking  

Brogans pub  Omagh 8pm Wed Feb 1st  

For more information about the film click here

Come at 7pm to hear about what else is going on in Transition Omagh   

• The  benefits that some folk have experienced from the Transition energy project from a participants point of view. 
• The experiences of a teachers involvement with the  Transition schools growing  project from a participating  teacher

And about whats coming up in the near future 

•  Information about an exciting  apple grafting day in March .
• What would you like to do that Transition could support you with?  

Thanks to Fracking Free Ireland for the posters

An avalanche of comments

For the past three months I have been writing on the Social Reporting blog here. The first part of this pilot has come to and end and now we are about to start again. For the month of January we are looking back at pieces that stood out for us which were written by others. All I have to do is to select three pieces that have appealed to me from this social reporting adventure, then  make one more choice about what to republish. So here goes. For something that's real on the ground  with a can do attitude and very relevant to the Northern part of the UK and Ireland enjoy Catriona Ross's piece The Joy of 
Eigg.

For my second recommendation. I knew which one it was, but it was quite a job to remember who wrote it, when it was published and where it could be found on the social reporting blog! But I remembered it clearly and the subsequent avalanche of comments that followed it. It resonated so much with me being from Northern Ireland, and if I am honest I truly felt unable and unwilling to get involved in the subsequent semi political discussion. I was interested that it brought up such a reaction in me ….the peace builder and transition person!!! It is of course Ann Owen's "Cenedl heb iaith yw cenedl heb galon"
Finally my last selection was fraught with difficulty. Endeavouring to choose just one of the pieces written by our online community to republish, is truly a difficult thing to do. I started with the idea that I would pick a piece that spoke to me and moved me and yet was fundamental to Transition thinking. Of course Charlotte and probably everyone else had the same idea, and yesterday she duly reposted Tamzin Pinkerton stellar piece of work about food and health. I am not surprised, however now I am forced to move to plan B….which of course I don't have.
Anxiously I start to skim over some of the ninety two posts and quickly realise I don't have a mission. I should have started long before this, become a lot more familiar with the content, inwardly curse myself then stop take a deep breath and start to think like a permaculturalist…What would a permaculturalist do ? ‘Creatively use and respond to change’ jumps back at me as an answer, so I  start to write, thinking I will wait and see what comes out of the ends of my finger tips. As I write, subconsciously my somewhat jumpy agitated mind is backcasting and keeps coming to the same post again and again. That is Charlotte Du Cann’s piece the fire stealers- a love story

Pondering why I should choose this piece I realise that it had stirred up many questions from deep within me about Transition and my reasons for being involved.  Charlotte's writing for me clearly captures, holds and reflects all that we as a community set out to accomplish during the life of this collaborative writing venture. On reading it a quiet yet clear understanding stole over me around my role in Transition: To write about Transition! It stimulated nourished and strengthened the desire in me to continue to hold that fire in the face of adversity. This one sentence "The fact is some of us can see in the dark, and we know what's coming if we don't pass on the fire" provided the electric jolt to remind me about the importance of our conversation, for without that conversation there is nothing. Enjoy!

Thanks to Catriona, Ann and Charlotte for photographs from their pieces.

What will you do this year?

This is a peculiar time of year. Right in the middle of winter not a hint of spring and yet the temperature is too high outside and everything is growing. Right now in our garden, the daffodils have emerged out of the earth and are  two thirds of their final size. Magpies have started to build nests in earnest. New grass has appeared on either side of our lane and in the surrounding fields, next thing is that the farmers will be letting their cattle out! We have a little robin who flies in and out of our house  every time we leave the windows open I am convinced he is also looking for somewhere to nest. Last month we cut back all the varieties of mint in the herb garden and looking closely at them today I noticed that each and everyone of them have put on new growth. So for all life and nature its business as usual.

For us humans its also business as usual . The Christmas celebrations have come and gone and ahead is all the promise and possibility that each new New Year brings. If  the media is to be believed it seems that we await the perfect storm, ranging from imminent collapse of the Euro, to the demise of cheaply available energy, to a future filled with uncertain job prospects for everyone. Climate change conferences , economic conferences and their deadlines come and go, the  Arab spring is a constant  source of conversation and speculation  and through all of this most of us humans blithely choose to ignore these fast approaching changes. We make our  cousins in nature look good, we know these changes are coming and much like the rabbit caught in the headlights are unable to do move , not knowing which way to jump. Or perhaps we are more like the orchestra on the Titanic choosing to play on in the face of impending doom. We play on, worrying about what is going to happen but not able or willing to do anything about it. We live lives of anticipation and/or apprehension unable to savour the Now.

What will you do this year ?
Will you play in the Now?
 Or live in the Now? 

 

Solidarity and Gatekeepers

Armagh cathedral
Attribution: Baronplantagenet at
 the English language Wikipedi

Recently I had the unusual experience (for me) of spending two hours in a one to one discussion with Cardinal Sean Brady Head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, exploring ideas such as resilience, climate change, peak oil and food security. To put this in context, his Eminence’s line manager is probably the pope, and his CEO is better known as God. So on the scale of importance and status here in Ireland he compares favourably with the Archbishop of Canterbury, sitting at the pinnacle of a religious organisation that carries much clout on this small island.

A somewhat eclectic (one might even say catholic !) conversation took place, ranging from holistic management to childhood obesity. During the discussion his Eminence mentioned that he was interested in the idea of solidarity and did I have any thoughts around the subject? Whilst listening to this request, idly in the back of my mind I wondered how could I assist him with his enquiry and use it as a golden opportunity to spread the Transition message.

Inner Transition Omagh Style

Well when we (Transition Omagh that is) heard about this Inner transition thingy there was a general feeling that we should do something about it. Nobody seemed too sure what it entailed, thinking that perhaps there was a course, or a speaker we could bring in that would enlighten us. We resolved to give it a go.

We thought it would be a good plan to  introduce some of the “touch feely stuff”, as it was euphemistically described by one of our not so “touchy feely” male members, at the end of Powerdown  sessions.

It was to be nothing too radical you understand, on second thoughts maybe that sentence should be replaced with, nothing too radical for the small group who were enthusiastic enough to want to introduce, explore and implement the concept of inner transition to a somewhat conservative audience. With hindsight, perhaps it was just a tad beyond some peoples comfort zone.

Omagh Community Cafe “Not”

The Invitation

In August 2011 we thought we had a community cafe. In September 2011 we knew we didn’t. So what changed? Visualise this phone call “ Hello, it’s all over, it’s not going to happen!” Putting down the phone after that conversation, I groaned inwardly, knowing that the community cafe that we had envisioned for Transition Omagh (TO) was most certainly not going to happen at the premises we had in mind. This was the end of that particular transition idea for the time being and a surprising outcome, not what we expected at all! Allow me to take you on a guided trip back through the months of planning and hard work that preceded that particular sad phone call.