The January Newsletter is up!
Hello everyone,
As another warm front passes over, melting and washing away memories of the record cold, we wish you a happy new year rich in community and resilience!
This newsletter is a little different: not only does it list our upcoming events, it also gives you a peek at what we’re working on and would love some help with. If you see anything there that catches your attention, simply reply with comments or questions. You can also visit our websitefor more information. If you are interested in the Wayland Walks Newsletter, sign up here.
The Transition Wayland Team
Coming Up
TOMORROW, Thursday 1/16, 7-9 PM: 350MA MetroWest Node Meeting
Where: First Parish of Sudbury Unitarian Universalist
If you are worried about climate change and are looking for an energetic group of people who are determined to address it right here in the MetroWest, you should consider joining the Metrowest node of 350Massachusetts and come to the meeting on Thursday, 1/16, at 7 pm. There will be light snacks, donated by the Wayland Whole Foods, and tea.
Identified especially with the work of author and activist Bill McKibben and 350.org, the group focuses on two campaigns—the “Climate Legacy Campaign” that urges Governor Patrick to solidify his legacy by 1. Banning the Worst (coal, fracking, tar sands), 2. Building Only the Best (renewables, efficiency, conservation), and by 3. Making Polluters Pay (i.e. putting a price on carbon). The second campaign is the “Divestment Campaign” in support of bill S.1225 that aims to divest the Massachusetts pension plan from fossil fuels.
The Metrowest node meets on the first and third Thursday of every month.
If you have any questions, contact Sabine von Mering at sabine.vonmering@gmail.com. More info at 350MA.org, and on Facebook.
Sunday 1/26, 4-6 PM: An evening with Charles Eisenstein in JP (carpool leaves at 3 PM)
Where: First Church JP, 6 Eliot St, JP
As our social and ecological crisis deepens, what is our next step as agents of healing and change? Charles Eisenstein’s work is an empowering antidote to the cynicism, frustration, and paralysis so many of us feel, replacing it with a grounding reminder of what’s true: we are all connected, and our personal choices bear unsuspected transformational power. Using real-life stories, Charles unites systems-level change with small, individual acts of courage, kindness, and self-trust. These, he says, can change our culture’s guiding narrative of separation that has generated the present planetary crisis. Charles is the author of several books, including Sacred Economics and Ascent of Humanity. His new book is The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.
Our CARPOOL will leave from the Town Building parking lot (in back) at 3 pm. Email us to join the carpool.
Please RSVP on Facebook
Sunday 2/2, 2-4 PM: Meet your Local Beekeepers
Where: Wayland Public Library
Meet Kaat Vander Straeten, a backyard beekeeper for four years, to learn about bees, beekeepers and Wayland BEElieve. If you are thinking of keeping bees yourself, this would be a good time to come and ask your questions, because orders for bees for this season need to go in soon.
By the way, make sure to check the Wayland Public Schools Backpack Auction Packet (in backpacks this week) for the special BEElieve auction item!
Wednesday 2/12, 7:30-9 PM: What is Transition again?
Where: Wayland Public Library
You’be been getting all these emails from us and coming to events, but those only illuminate aspects of what we (want to) do. Want to get a fuller picture? Come to this presentation about the concept and practice of “Transition” by the practitioners of it. Also, bring your own creativity and ideas!
In the Making
The Transition LAUNCH Training: You choose when
Where: either Greater Boston or Amherst, Massachusetts. There will be a carpool from Wayland.
The Transition Launch Training is being scheduled and you are invited to cast your vote for when in this Doodle poll. Check the boxes for all weekends that you are available.
Transition U.S. (www.TransitionUS.org) offers Transition LAUNCH, developed by the Transition Network (www.TransitionNetwork.org). It is a popular fundamentals course packed with imaginative ways to delve into the practice of resilience and community-building, showing you how to set up, run and grow a Transition Initiative. It has been delivered hundreds of times in over 35 countries world-wide, gathering and spreading the collective wisdom of us all. This participatory, 15-hour course is an in-depth experiential introduction to the ideas, process and practices that have inspired tens of thousands of people and catalyzed a rapidly-growing global network.
Instructors: Certified Transition Trainers Tina Clarke (Transition Amherst, MA) & Susal Stebbins (Transition Dummerston, VT)
Cost: $175 (Western MA residents may deduct $35, Under 35 years old? Contact Tina about special young leaders rate of $40). A $40 deposit holds your place. Lunch, refreshments and materials included.
Questions? Contact Tina at: (TinaClarke@TransitionNetwork.
Earth Day 2014 Organizing Group
It might not look or feel like Spring yet, but some of us are already planning our yearly big Spring event: Earth Day. If you were one of the 400 visitors at the Community Fair in 2012 and attended one of the forty Open Houses in 2103, you’ll know that we like to shake it up. The rule is: last year was a great success, so this year let’s do something completely different! So what do we have cooked up for his year? A Reskilling Festival.
On Sunday May 4th, the Wayland Town Building Gym and Courtyard will host many teach-ins, workshops, presentations, demonstrations of all kinds of skills (beekeeping, canning, seed saving, nutrient-dense growing, bike and car repair, mushroom logs, weaving, spinning, pottery, fire-starting, basic furniture making,…).
If you have a skill you can share, or if you want to help us organize the event, or help out on the day of, reply to this email!
Inner Work/Arts Group
We are calling all artists, storytellers, philosophers and caregivers of the heart – and those in need of them – to a convention on how we can express, share and celebrate our joy and grief, our sense of place, our love of community, through communal art and conversation. If you would like to be part of this group, let us know right away.
Coming up (Much) Later On
Wednesday, 4/2, 7 – 9:30 PM: SVT presents More than Honey with talk after by Kaat Vander Straeten, local beekeeper
Where: Wolbach Farm, Sudbury (map)
The movie More than Honey brings into sharp focus man’s many relationships to honeybees: as economic cash crop, as savior of humanity, as the canary in the coalmine. It does this in the context of the alarming decimation of the bees. In the US, the latest estimates suggest that 1.5 million out of 2.4 million total beehives have disappeared across 27 states.This epidemic, called colony collapse disorder (CCD), is spreading from beehive to beehive – all over the planet. The cause is reasonable well known by now: a complex combination of pesticides, medications, pollution, varroa mites and the viruses they carry, and travelling stress. There is good reason to be worried: the mainstays of our diets, most vegetables and almost all fruit and grain crops, require pollination by the honeybee. The honeybee is as indispensable to the economy as it is to man’s very survival.
After the movie, Kaat Vander Straeten will talk briefly and guide a conversation about the economic, biological and, most importantly, the moral implications of CCD. She will also suggest many actions each of us can take to save the bees, and ourselves. Kaat has been a backyard beekeeper for five years and founded the Wayland BEElieve group, which unites and advocates for local beekeepers, and bees.