Quote of the day...& maybe a little hope.

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
Charles F. Kettering (1876 - 1958)

It's been so long since I last posted a quote of the day, when I found this I had to put it up. It's a pretty simple thing isn't it? If you can imagine it, you can make it so. The only limit is what we can imagine. So what's the big deal about it?

I've found myself thinking a lot lately about the state of things around me and in our world. I mean of course I have right, the economy is tanking, politics has become little more than a dog and pony show and we face things like peak oil, GMO foods etc. etc. Of course I've been thinking about it; I know you have too. So think about what you imagine for the future. Think about the first thoughts that come to your mind. What is it? Do you picture a world of peace and prosperity? Healthy cities with a renewed connection to community and the land? New economies spurred to growth through the joining of necessity, creativity and common sense oversight? Maybe you do, I try to. However, more often than not lately, I find myself imagining a world with more wars over energy or to prop up a staggering economy, unhealthy cities where everyone looks out for themselves and worries about the neighbor cheating them, and a slowly fizzling economy struggling to hold onto it's once top place on the world stage like a too-old prom queen who refuses to grow up.

My point is if we can only imagine the worst, then that is in effect the limit of our hope for the future. How do you get somewhere you can't even imagine exists? But what if we imagine the former? Peace, community, prosperity; couldn't we make them real things? I'm tired of imagining the worst. I want more for my family, I want more for my city and I want more for myself. I want to see these things come to fruition. I will imagine the best for the world and I'll do my part when I can to nudge it on it's way. I hope you'll look at your imaginations of the future and see how you've allowed yourself to dream of the days to come. Picture the change you want to see. Believe that the change will come and expect it any day.

We owe it to ourselves.
Namaste
P~

A Must Watch

I wanted to share something that I found on a blog that I regularly read, Red State Green. The link is to a 5 part series of videos on You Tube. It is on how How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, and I encourage all of you to take a minute, or rather an hour, to view it if possible.

Peak oil isn't something that I talk about a lot, but I don't think any of us would have to stretch our imaginations to accept the premise that one day the wells will dry up or at least slow down dramatically. The only real debate exists around when that time will arrive, or if it already has. Ask yourself this, "What will the world look like when it begins to impact our daily life?" What challenges will we be faced with? If your like me, and you have given this any thought, then you've probably come to a point where you say, "Everything we could ever expect is really just a best guess, there's no way to know what it will really look like." Well, Cuba was essentially thrown into that situation with the fall of the former Soviet Union, and the subsequent drop off of their oil imports from 13-14 million tons of oil to approximately 4. These videos illustrate the changes, challenges and solutions that Cuba had to come up with.

When I see things like this, it reminds me of some of the reasons I do the things that I do. There are so many skills that we've lost; baking bread, using whole raw foods to make meals, preserving food, growing food and repairing things rather than replacing them. Of course a goodly part of that is also because I am cheap, but what can I say?

I hope you'll take a little time out of your day to take a look at these videos, especially any of you that are not familiar with the idea of peak oil, or that don't generally buy into such ideas. I'd love to hear your opinions if you do.

Tomorrow... Bread, Bread, Butter.
P~