Archive for the ‘Sustainable Living/Communities’ Category
19/03/2009
Extended Family's Mosaic & Feet
The Northfield Conference is the longest continuously running spiritual conference in the country. Started at the turn of the last century, it has developed into a strong network of devoted friends and colleagues and extended family. It’s one of the few instances where I saw whole families and people of of all ages being and acting like a true community. Many of the adults there now were children and then teens who grew up attending the annual conference held in Northfield, Mass every June or July. There is a morning meeting, then right after, small groups called families get together to debrief lives and share whatever is on the participants’ minds. At the end of our meeting we all felt like doing a goodbye group hug/”jelly roll” in which I was the lucky receipient of being in the middle. In the afternoon, after lunch there’s a plethora of workshops and activities, from painting and yoga to dance and informational lectures or discussions on everything from global warming to composting and family communication. After dinner, there is usually an non-denominational evening service in the Northfield Chapel. I got the play the 12-foot concert grand piano at one event there. That was fun. Around 7 PM, different activities may happen such as a talent show, or coffeehouse, or games, lots of games, in which children of all ages participate.
Getting stuck in the middle of a group hug
If you’d like to inquire about the Northfield Conference, check out their website. First time participants get a free ride, all expenses paid, if they give some sort of workshop in exchange. It’s a way of getting more people to check out the conference. If I weren’t in New Zealand, I’d be there this spring. If you decide to attend, you won’t be disappointed.
Tags:Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Group Dynamics, Holistic Living, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sustainability, Sustainable Communities, The Northfield Conference, True Community
Posted in Health, Holistic Living, Inner Work, Inspirational People, Leadership, Music, Service, Spiritual, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
07/03/2009
Three cups of Tea
A Mountain Spirit Board member, plus a few others, have been telling me I need to read “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It’s a great story about persevering a dream of building a school for the children of Korphe, Pakistan. One passage, quoted below, reminds me of how gravitating back to sustainable cultures can make our lives saner. If you’ve not read Three Cups of Tea, I suggest you pick up a copy.
An excerpt from the book that caught my eye:
“A book he’d read , Ancient Futures, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, was much on Mortenson’s mind. Norberg-Hodge has spend seventeen years living just south of these mountains in Ladakh, a region much like Baltistan, but cut off from Pakistan by the arbitrary borders colonial powers drew across the Himalaya. After almost two decades studying Ladakhi culture, Norberg Hodge has come to believe that preserving a traditional way of life in Ladakh-extended families living in harmony with the land- would bring about more happiness than “improving” Ladakhis’ standard of living with unchecked development.
Ancient Futures
“I used to assume that the direction of ‘progress was somehow inevitable, not to be questioned,” she writes. “I passively accepted a new road through the middle of the park, a steel-and-glass bank where a 200-year-old church had stood…and the fact that life seemed to get harder and faster with each day. I do not anymore. In Ladakh I have learned that there is more than one path into the future and I have had the privilege to witness another, saner, way of life- a pattern of existence based on the co-evolution between human beings and the earth.”
Norberg-Hodge continues to argue not only that Western development workers should not blindly impose modern “improvements” on ancient cultures, but that industrialized countries had lessons to learn from people like Ladakhis about building sustainable societies. “I have seen,” she writes, “that community and close relationship with the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication. I have learned that another way is possible.”
Norberg-Hodge admiringly quotes the king of another Himalayan country, Bhutan, who say the true measure of a nations success is not gross national product, but ‘gross national happiness.”
Tags:adventure travel, Ancient Futures, Bob Stremba, Brenda Dowst, Cindy Heath, Craig Cimmons, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Greg Mortenson, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Holistic Living, Ladakh, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, Peru, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Three Cups of Tea
Posted in Books, Mountain People, Sustainable Living/Communities, Traveling | 2 Comments »
07/03/2009
The Bagers in their "mountain classroom"
The Danish family of five had headlamps but had decided they didn’t need them. The moonlight illuminated their way. They left the trailhead around dark and rode their mountain bikes on the single, sometimes double track up the valley, being sure to keep the Matuktuki River on their right. Dennis, the father, aside from briefly looking at the map, was going on memory. He had been in this place some 15 or twenty years prior, but that time he was high above this place, and almost slid off Cascade Pass on snow covered wet grass, losing his fingernails while self arresting with hands and nose. This return trip had a different sense of adventure. He was returning with his wife Birgette and his three children Manus 10, Rasmus, and their little sister Frederikke, 7. And this trip was part of a bigger adventure. He and Birgette were about a third of their way through a two year round-the-world educational odyssey with their kids. They pedaled into Aspiring Hut around 11pm, tip toeing into the hut with their gear, careful not to disturb sleeping climbers and hikers. I had heard they had just arrived , and what’s more that they had shipped their 1990 VW oversized camper complete with school books and bikes from Denmark through Asia, Australia, and were headed to South America after a good long stint in New Zealand I had to find out more. The next morning I asked if I could interview them. Dennis jokingly said no but later agreed and even said I could get more info off their website.
MSI: Do you mind if I ask? How are you able to afford to take two years off with your whole family?
Dennis Bager: In Denmark there has been a law that allows either a man or a woman to take a family leave before their child is nine years old. This law has existed for two reasons. (more…)
Tags:adventure travel, Alternative Learning, Bager Family, Bob Stremba, Brenda Dowst, Cindy Heath, Craig Cimmons, Dennis Bager, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Holistic Living, Home Schooling, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Peru, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability
Posted in Health, Holistic Living, Inspirational People, New Zealand, Peru, South America, Sustainable Living/Communities, Traveling | Leave a Comment »
23/02/2009
Glacier Calving, NZ
Largest iceberg ‘calved’ in 25 years from Tasman Glacier Terminal Face, Mt. Cook, New Zealand
A three meter tidal wave surging down Aoraki Mount Cook’s Terminal Lake was the first indicator of the largest single iceberg in 25 years calving directly from the Tasman Glacier terminal face yesterday (10 February). The giant slab of ice or ‘calf’, estimated to be 250m long by 250m wide by 80m high, plunged into the Terminal Lake in the early afternoon, the most significant single calving in the lake’s 25-year existence. A second iceberg about quarter of the size calved from the face shortly afterwards.
Glacier Explorers Operations Manager Bede Ward, whose company takes visitors on boat trips to view the Tasman Glacier face from the water, said the calving happened between trips but made quite a splash.
Terminal face calving
Last week passengers onboard Glacier Explorers boat trips witnessed the calving of “The Bomb”, an eight meter wide and 30 meter chunk of turquoise ice.“We thought that took the cake but this new iceberg, is absolutely massive. It supersedes the last significant one named “Sir Edmund Hillary” which calved on January 11, 2008, the same day Sir Edmund Hillary passed away. “We’re getting more and more icebergs now so we’re naming them in order to track and communicate changes and locations. “Since the Terminal Lake began forming in 1973, the Tasman Glacier’s retreat has noticeably quickened because the lake is expanding all the time and is causing a more rapid melt of the terminal face. I think we may be looking at major calving from the terminal face as an annual event now.”
Tags:25 years, adventure travel, Bob Stremba, Brenda Dowst, Calving, Cindy Heath, Craig Cimmons, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Holistic Living, Iceberg, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, Mt. Cook, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Peru, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Tasman Glacier
Posted in Climate Change, Environment, New Zealand, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
12/02/2009
Becky's 86th Birthday
I just received an email from my good friend Paul Myhre in Leavenworth, Washington. Goodie, I get to write about two mountain people who inspire. Paul, the soft spoken man of the mountains with a sharp wit and humble attitude is the quintessential mountain man. He worked as a climbing ranger for Mt. Rainer and is still fit as a fiddle at the ripe old age of (Edited). Paul is an inspiration, and he proves to still be so by sending me this email of climbing legend Fred Becky who just celebrated his 86th Birthday. For those that don’t know about Fred, he’s probably put up more first ascents than anyone. Climb any classic mid-range crag in the US and chances are you’ll run across his name. My favorite, at least for scenery is the Becky Route on Liberty Bell in the North Cascades. The reason there are so many people at Becky’s birthday party is he seems to be a nice guy.
Becky in Red, Paul: Far Right, 1st Row
I met him through Paul when I lived in Leavenworth. We all had a beer at the brewery. (I do miss Leavenworth at times)(But I’m not complaining about New Zealand at present). The thing about mountain people like Paul and Fred is they are still out there doing it. Well, I’m not sure how much Fred is climbing, but I can bet he’s outside and in the mountains in some way. Last I heard he had his little black book out in Alaska somewhere with some young whippersnappers and was at the base camp enjoying being on the glacier. My generation may be the last child in the woods, but these guys get me going. No computers, or rarely, for them. Ok, Paul did send me this email, but last I heard from Paul he was still doing Outer Space the Wall in Icicle Creek. The photos of Fred Becky’s birthday give me hope, lot’s of it! I’m going to pull myself away from this machine and head to Kerin Forks and Gillespie Pass tomorrow. Goodie, and I’m only fifty!
Tags:adventure travel, Bob Stremba, Brenda Dowst, Cindy Heath, Craig Cimmons, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Fred Becky, Gillespie Pass, Holistic Living, Kerin Forks, Makaroa, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, Mt. Rainer, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Paul Myhre, Peru, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability
Posted in Holistic Living, Leadership, Mountain People, New Zealand, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
31/01/2009
Greetings from New Zealand. You’ll start to see articles on this blog under the column named “Mountain People Who Inspire” whenever I or other authors should come across them.
Londoner Mark Rosen, Wanaka, NZ
I’m starting this column with an entry on a retired man from England named Mark Rosen. Mark hails from Norfolk, Sheringham which is a fishing and vacation village on the east coast. We crossed paths in the Matukituki Valley when Mark was on his way to fulfill his annual volunteer stint at the French Ridge Hut near the base of Mt. Aspiring. He has been volunteering at this hut as well as Mueller hut at Mt Cook for a number of years. He’s an inpsiration because of his great attitude about getting out in the mountains, and his ability to continue hitting the trail. He’s a mountain man in the true sense. Getting to the French Ridge Hut is not easy. Once you’ve hiked four hours along the Matukituki Valley, the trail climbs 3000′ in about a mile and a half, to arrive above treeline and at glacier’s edge at the small hut.
I only met him briefly on the trail, and later caught up with him in Wanaka, New Zealand where we asked him a few questions about his thoughts on hut wardening at Mt. Aspiring and Mt. Cook.
MSI:What do you love most about your volunteering?
MR: I love relating to the people, and hearing about their first impressions. Especially at Mt. Cook when many of the visitors are seeing a large glaciated mountain for the first time. They’re enjoying the beauty of the mountains and for most, this is their first experience of going to a place like that. Their eyes are wide with wonder. More though, I come back because of the place, the mountain environment, this special location. I like the time alone too and can retreat to the hut warden’s quarters when need be.
MSI: What do you do in your spare time at the huts?
MR: I like to get out and hike the surrounding routes, read or plug into my ipod and conduct the London Symphony Orchestra or do my aerobic exercises.
MSI: What are some of the challenges of being a hut warden?
MR: Well, in a humorous vein, people tend to ask the same questions over and over, such as, “How do you get your food and water up here?”, or “How do you get up here?” Depending on my mood sometimes, I like to make my answers more interesting. I’ll tell a fibb by replying that I bring my food up in big boxes and haul water from the valley floor in buckets. Oh, and that “The outhouse poop needs to be hauled out in containers strung over my shoulders.” Sometimes I might say “I arrive by private helicopter.”
One thing that can bother me is when parties don’t clean up after themselves and leave the hut or toilet a mess. I almost feel as if I need to inquire about their toilet habits upon their arrival, hopefully stemming their bad behaviour. Of course, this is the minority of the visitors, but it does have a negative impact.
When I met Mr. Rosen the second time in Wanaka, I observed at how well grounded and at peace the man seemed. I guess part of it stems from all that time in the mountains. Keep going Mark.
Tags:adventure travel, Department of Conservation, Dexter R. Richards, DOC, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, French Ridge, Holistic Living, Mark Rosen, Matukituki Valley, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, Mt. Aspriring National Park, Mt. Cook, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Volunteer Hut Warden
Posted in Environment, Health, Holistic Living, Leadership, Mountain People, New Zealand, Power of Place, Spiritual, Sustainable Living/Communities | 3 Comments »
22/01/2009
Matukituki Valley, Mt. Aspiring Nat'l Park
The Power of Place
By Randy Richards, MSI Founder
I was debating how I was going to write my first entry from New Zealand. I have already written one article but don’t think it will make the grade. So I guess I’ll write about a magical valley. Oh, I can hear you say, “But all places are spiritual.” Yes, but, I think there are places where the spirit of the place is so evident it comes over you like a wave. I think this valley is one of those places. Places like these have a power that is unmistakable, people are drawn to them, as Boyton Canyon, near Sedona Arizona, or Alta, Utah, and of course Machu Pichu. All land has an energy, and some places are humming with energy, whether it’s the beauty of the place or the history or both.
NW Ridge of Mt. Aspiring
The Matukituki Valley is west of Wanaka , New Zealand in the Mt. Aspiring National Park. The hour drive from Wanaka changes by the mile. The long flat valley with cascading waterfalls begs superlatives. Mt. Aspiring is the tallest and proudest peak near the back of the long valley. Climbers come from all over the world to do their best on the mountain. But others come to enjoy the valley and glacier edges high above.
In the US, Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods is gaining traction with his important coinage of the term, Nature
A family group arrives at Aspiring Hut
Deficit Disorder. Here I have observed many families in the valley for their summer vacations. One group at right, consisted of two families with a total of 10 children who hung out at the hut and environs for three days. They did steep day-hikes up to the surrounding ridge lines. The four-year-old didn’t make it all the way up on her daddy’s shoulders though.
The hut ranger at Mt. Aspiring Hut in the valley, and greets both climbers and “trampers” of all ages. It’s clear that the valley has its hold on many. One volunteer hut warden makes the annual pilgrimage from London, while others I met from New Zealand come back year after year, and others, after some 30 years away.
Hut Warden and her sister at Shovel Flat
One who has a special feeling for the place is a hut ranger going on her third season. The coveted position is shared by another Department of Conservation employee as well. The former, divides her time between Aspiring Hut, French Ridge, precariously perched on the valley’s edge just below the glaciers near Mt. Aspiring, and other huts in the region. She beckoned me, “You’ll love the place”. And I did.
The large trees have a way of calling to you. The winds that caress the grasses on the valley floor seem to create a rhythm that makes us forget the traffic in town.
Double Rainbow from the warden's quarters
It’ s a good reminder of why we need to get to these places, and of course preserve them. Whether it’s Mt. Washington, Mt. Shasta, Alta, or the Matukituki, get out while you still can. I will still post that previous article with tons of revisions, but here’s a start on my impressions of New Zealand and the power of the place.
Tags:adventure travel, Bob Stremba, Brenda Dowst, Cindy Heath, Craig Cimmons, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual psychology, Experiential Education, Glaciers, Holistic Living, Matukituki Valley, Mountain Spirit, Mountaineering, Mt. Aspiring, Mt. Aspiring National Park, mtnspirit.org, New Hampshire, New Zealand, Peru, Power of Place, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Wanaka
Posted in Climb/Ski/Mntneering, Environment, New Zealand, Power of Place, Spiritual, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
26/11/2008
It’s amazing how easy it can be to do your part to live just a little more sustainably – individuals, institutions and businesses all have the capacity to reduce environmental impact. It’s about making the choice.
A personal choice. Check out this list at You Sustain of actions that don’t require a huge shift in thinking or beliefs, just a minor change in behavior. It could be as simple as saying, “I don’t need a bag, thanks.” Most of the things you can do are free and you just might inspire the next person – a kind of ‘pay it forward’ effect. For further reading, consider Radical Simplicity, by Jim Merkel, or be informed and calculate your ecological footprint.
A choice that inspires others. Barbara Duncan, founder of the Vermont Earth Institute, has been an energetic champion of living simply, consuming less, and building community. Over VEI’s 10 year history, she and her team have have connected with more than 5,000 people and numerous institutions through discussion courses and workshops.
A business choice to use profit and influence for the good. And what about corporate social responsibility? The Conservation Alliance is a group of outdoor related businesses that provide funds to support national conservation and outdoor recreation organizations working to protect natural resources, special outdoor places, and wildlife habitats. And imagine the impact of ‘doing your part’ if you’re the largest company in the world. Consider this – by no means a ‘green company’ by their own admission, yet Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in a partnership with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, has committed $35 million over 10 years to permanently conserve at least one acre of priority wildlife habitat for every developed acre of Wal-Mart Stores’ current footprint, as well as future development.
So what’s your personal sustainability story?
Tags:buying locally, Cindy Heath, Conservation Alliance, ecological footprint, Mountain Spirit, mtnspirit.org, national wildlife federation, natural resource protection, radical simplicity, simple living, Sustainability, Vermont Earth Institute, Wal-Mart, wildlife habitat
Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
23/11/2008
Living On Earth, Sunday Mornings: NPR
Living on Earth, the brilliant environmental show on Sunday mornings on NPR had some very interesting and relevent pieces today. If you didn’t get a chance to hear the show, check them out at their website where you may listen to their realplayer or mp3 versions. Here are some of the interviews I found important and worth a listen.
Fire Retardants Stoke Controversy
The wildfires in California have been contained, but controversy over the use of fire retardants continues to blaze. (more…)
Tags:adventure travel, Andrew Winston, Andy Stahl, Bruce Gellerman, Dexter R. Richards, ecospiritual phsychology, EcoStrategies, Experiential Education, Fire Retardants, Food and Water Watch, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, Holistic Living, Living on Earth, Mountain Spirit, mtnspirit.org, Peru, Randy Richards, Spiritual, Sunapee, Sustainability, Wal-Mart
Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Leadership, Sustainable Living/Communities | Leave a Comment »
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