BAD! Kitty's End of the year Roundtable

" I Am"

by HMBT 2006

Laminated Collage

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Good Morning the day before the Christmas Holiday Day, here in the states and elsewhere.

Whew! what a mouthfull...

OK, Hey how ya'll doing this morning?

That better?

*grins*

So round these parts we don't ever set resolutions or make set in stone goals each year either.

We tend to reflect a bunch on what the last twelve months have been, what we learned from our experiences and like a house of scientist, dissect what the real issues were/are in our progress, path wise.

In fact we take on missions each year as a group and individually. The group ones we all talk about, as the year ends but....the personal ones, each person can share or not as they see fit.

We love to think of these talks as a round table of light warriors. It's really great when the Earth's own light is at it's lowest to charge our inner lanterns up real good, before beginning a new year long mission...well that's a no brainer, of course.

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A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

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We had one of those weekends, where people got used to being close up on each other, (again) with out each person having a given set schedule to follow and perform well at. Saturday was given over to going into the world and getting every. single . thing. done and quick, so that we don't have to go out into the world again until the madness subsides. Which won't be until after the Holiday returns and Super sales are made and had. Ahhhh the joys of stuff, of getting and giving more stuff...sweet capitalism...how it makes my ass twitch.

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If a glimpse of the future is possible, it must come from an intimacy with the present clarified by the great works of the past.
Robert Kaplan

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We Spent Sunday putting up our little tree, it's one of those pre-lit 4 foot tall, pull it out of the box and plug it in types. Really this works best for all of us...we don't celebrate the holiday as most folks do...we love giving gifts to each other! We don't buy anything except on special days. Birthdays, and Christmas. So, it's our time to have an excuse to party, and play at years end. The tree thing...eh, we can take it or leave it. We would never cut one down, anyway...we used to do that many years back...because that's what everyone does...set it up, look at it...take it down again...throw the once work of art tree in the dump. Ummm, after my awakening, I could no longer do this. ever. again.

That new choice happened at an end of the year round table...several moons back.

This year we have been talking about living. I mean the way we live, eat and need every day....money.

We have decided to build a recycled home that joins with the land instead of rests upon it. We have decided to find land and acquire it. Then we will work weekends or whatever and build a home into/with the land, one that takes care of us and takes nothing from the grid (power, water, ect.).

Then we will go live there.

As free Humans. Not slaves to the Grid of suck you dry til you die.

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There are reveries so deep, reveries which help us descend so deeply within ourselves that they rid us of our history. They liberate us from our name. These solitudes of today return us to the original solitudes.
Gaston Bachelard (1884 - 1962)

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We plan to start this project asap. If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, then you know what happens when we make choices in this home. Things begin to happen...quick. That's just how we roll.

Plans as I said before, are being made, and well laid.

Last years round table brought us to the conclusion that we would never be able to buy a home of our own on the west coast. So, we loaded up, (after a years research and work) and moved to Kentucky. Land of rolling hills and cheap land, and so many other great things I can't even tell you.

OK, so now we have been here, we have found employment, we have looked around.

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The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

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Now we know that we do not want to wait for the housing/mortgage crisis, as a matter of fact we don't want a mortgage at all. We want a home. We do not want to be slaves. This years round table has been about that fact and what options are open to people like us, who have bad credit, not a lot of money, and weird ideas about green living not just being about slapping some solar panels on a suburban home. (not that that's not wonderful, every one should do it) We want sustainable housing. I am a farmer, I want to grow my own food.

After growing my own daily food for more than a decade in a city environment, I can't stand to drive to the store for lettuce...and fruit. Are you kidding me?

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There's more to being an environmentalist than occasionally signing an online petition and mailing your check to the Sierra Club. Really the most effective environmental actions you can take have to do with crafting your home and surroundings, your workplace decisions and your investment habits.
Alex Steffen

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So, we are going to build a home, off grid, out of rammed earth used tires.

Plans and research on the property, home systems (electricity, water, heat, ect.) are being learned and researched, and building plans drawn up for feasibility studies. It's our right as humans to use our power of money and choice to shape our destiny. The Trumans are all about questioning authority, and making our own rules.

This years mission to is learn as much as possible, and find land.

That's all.

Anything we get done more than that will be gravy.

Our mission of course means that we need to be in good shape physically for this undertaking. So, part of my personal sub-mission to to re-acquire my old strength as much as possible, for the hard labor ahead.

Groovy baby.

So that's it in a nutshell from here in the blue grass.

I'll see you all again after the Holiday madness...with new art, no doubt.

A special word of thanks to all my art patrons out there, you know who you are, thank you for your support of this living artists...your purchases allowed me to create for yet another year. Thank you for supporting a living artist, may we all enjoy a great return on our investments in the coming years together.

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Hope is a state of mind, not of the world . . . Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons ... Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather and ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Vaclav Havel

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I end this post with the best wishes for everyone around the globe reading my words...and those who don't too. We as a family, hope that your lives are all richer in the ways that matter most in the coming year.

Happy Holidays to all,

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

When I was younger, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here.It's a wonderful life and I love it.
Jim Henson