A battle as old as time is being waged in our house.

Good vs. Evil, light vs. dark, honesty vs. trickery . .

 . . all I worry about is that they'll break the toys!

Our Star Wars collection generally stays safe up on a shelf, and comes down once in awhile to settle the score, to re-balance the universe. I love it when they all play together.

Can I just take a minute this morning to share?

I LOVE daylight savings in the fall!!!!! Love it! Life seems to swing back to what is right. When the kids finally wake up, it will still be early. When they go to bed tonight it will still be early. When my alarm goes off in the morning it is not pitch black outside, and it becomes so much easier to drag my butt out of bed. (The prospect of tasty mugs of tea and the fire I set last night help too).

On the activity list today is going to a meeting at a local park about food security. I won't get into it here, too depressing, but I have had a growing anxiety these past few months about the future. Every sci-fi movie ever made about the future is of an awful future, and things back here in present-day aren't making it look too good either. I know that in my lifetime I will see things take a very bad turn for the worse. Environmental damage, poor health, cheap oil, corrupt North American gov't, higher costs, contaminated food. All of this will get worse. This is something I struggle with as a parent. Do I see things through positive, hopeful glasses because I have kids? I don't, actually, but I mean rather that I must, because I have kids. Were I childless I think I'd be far more outwardly negative and politically active about this. But I have my precious children, who will be living in this future, and I need to be hopeful about how we can exist in it, how we can change it where we can. I see this as a good thing, that they force me to be pro-active and hopeful, but I also find it very challenging to be this way. Again, this is a good thing, to be challenged, but I struggle with it. It is hard to be the naysayer in a culture of don't-analyse-don't-ask-just-keep-shopping-and-hope-your-gov't-eventually-gives-a-crap-about-the-real-issues society. Nobody wants to think about it, nobody wants to admit that changes must be made. Thankfully I have found a community that sees what is coming and is working to face that reality. Transitional Communities are coming together to train each other, to share skills and to ask the hard questions about how we can survive in this new world.

What does that mean today? That means we are off to meet with the local edible nuts group to learn how to collect and make-edible the local nuts that grow in the island. Acorns are not edible when you first collect them, but through a process we'll learn about today you can make them fit for consumption. And in a pinch, that's a skill I'd like to have.

To end on a happy note, here's an oldie but a goodie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J06BU6Fj6Qs

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

xoxo
C