From "Inversnaid" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

What would the world be
once bereft
of wet and of wildness?

Let them be left
wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds
and the wildness yet.

NOW is the time.....don't wait

Now is the time we must all pull together to re-learn what our parents and grandparents know, or knew, about living in community. Communities are where people live among each other in a helpful way, knowing support is there from friends and neighbors. Community is also when friends and neighbors have the knowledge and skills to provide for the WHOLE COMMUNITY'S essential needs.

Who reading this can say truthfully they can provide their own food, water, shelter, clothing etc. without recourse to shops, internet, cars, etc? Probably none of us, really. And, I want to say that we do not each of us have to be able to do all of that on our own. What we do need, is to build resilient communities and neighborhoods where those things can be provided by the whole.

To become more resilient and self-reliant, communities move away from dependency on all our needs coming from far away, moved by petroleum, to our homes wired to a grid and surrounded by landscaping designed to be neat and conforming, but sterile with nothing in it to eat or build with and which requires expensive and damaging chemicals and machines to maintain.

That is why I'm sponsoring and leading a Transition Town Initiating Committee in my town of Bethlehem, CT. tonight. A wonderful movie, "In Transition" can be viewed on the Transition Town Network website www.transitiontown.org. Look under Resources and then Publications to find the 45 minute movie that explains what Transition is all about and why we need to do it.