I’m a book collector. But I like reading my books too, albeit slowly and steadily. I finished three great non-fiction books this fall and if I did New Years Resolutions, I would determine to spend more time reading. These are the books I plan to read in the coming months. VIOLENCE by Slavoj Žižek Popular … [Read more…]
Co-housing requires consensus, patience and coloured cards BY SHEILA PRATT, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM NOVEMBER 27, 2011 EDMONTON —When it comes to making group decisions, Zaak Robichaud faced the ultimate challenge — how to get more than a dozen families together to come up with house plans they all liked for a new co-housing project in Calgary. It … [Read more…]
Our cohousing design is aimed at building relationships so that I will know my neighbours so that I cannot ignore their needs so that I build my capacity for empathy and compassion so that my life will not be lived selfishly so that I can look myself and my maker in the eye. From an exercise we did during … [Read more…]
When I first moved to Calgary just over 3 years ago, I was pessimistic and quite negative about the city’s maddening sprawl, crazy city parking rates (second highest in North America), lack of urban vibe, unprogressive transit system, and high prices. Since this time, even though I am still irked by all of these negative … [Read more…]
The cohousing group I’ve been a part of since November, 2009 is now moving at cruising speed. We celebrated 1 year as Dragonfly Cohousing last weekend. We hired a project manager, Chris ScottHanson in May of this year and ever since we have been passing milestones: incorporation and shareholders agreement, preliminary budgets, financial feasibility, … [Read more…]
I have enjoyed dragonflies my whole life. They are gentle. They control the mosquito population. They are beautiful. Dragonflies move in mysterious ways. We named our cohousing group after the dragonfly for anyone of its qualities, perhaps because its wings look like stained glass windows (without the stain). I spent some time this week photographing … [Read more…]
Dragonfly Cohousing, our intentional community that is planning a building project in Calgary, is in the process of incorporating. I volunteered to be one of the four directors just so I could blog about being a director of a corporation. I don’t think I have any special duties (this is what I was led to … [Read more…]
Some cohousing friends invited us to go geocaching with them a couple weeks ago on Nose Hill. I had never been, so I was keen to see if we could even find any of the caches. Dan has a GPS and he brought the coordinates of 10 caches on the hill (there are many more … [Read more…]
It’s Tuesday. I’ve been off work for 11 days now. I still have 5 left. I was kind of envious of some of my colleagues and students who left for California, Arizona, China, Guatemala, Vancouver, Germany, London, Québec, etc. while I stayed at home in cold Calgary. But I’m really glad I’m home! I hit … [Read more…]
2001: Shave my head for the first time, work as a youth pastor at Red Willow Community Church in St Albert AB (Events: Just Shoot Me, Gerta’s Eclipse, and fall retreat in Nordegg), canoe the Mackenzie River in NT, camp at Elk Island National Park, attend plays at the Citadel Theatre, travel to Halifax NS … [Read more…]