Stolen.
After all the kilometers it took me, meeting wondrous people and have amazing adventures, my partner in crime, fondly known as Bluey Q, is all gone. It makes me really sad, and I fear that negative memories will be what is remembered from this time. Over the past two months, my trust and faith in the kindness of human beings, strangers and friends alike, has grown so much. I feel like in one night my trust came crashing down. But, stronger then before, friends, teammates, and strangers are rallying around me to help me finish my adventures well. I will journey to Victoria tomorrow, then Salt Spring Island, still on bicycle wheels, just on borrowed ones. My mind has to power to think what it desires about my bicycle being stolen, so I will continue to try to reflect on the wonderful times that I have had, and be thankful for all that I have been
Given.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Another chapter completed
I am in Vancouver, only two days away from the conclusion of this 'Otesha' chapter. It was a very interesting feeling, cycling from the agriculturally lush Fraser Valley slowly creeping into the suburban sprawl that is Vancouver. As our group cycled nearer and nearer to the city, I began feeling more and more overwhelmed with the traffic, the people, the big box stores that we have been far removed from for the past two months. It's interesting how a little bit of time away from these things can make you so much more aware of their presence.
We stayed for an evening at the Yarrow Ecovillage as well as a co-housing project called Windsong in Langley, and I really enjoyed learning a great deal about both of these places. We got to see, yet another way that people are living their lives together, and not separately. They share gardens and meals and they peacefully co-exist with one another on very positive grassroots levels. It is a lifestyle that I think is so greatly beneficial to the soul and spirit and development of every person who dwells within these communities.
Enter Vancouver. Still lush. Always with a chance of rain. The city impressed me instantly as we cycled in on designated bicycle routes; roads that essentially prohibit car traffic unless you are a resident (and even then can often only physically access it from one direction). The roads were beautifully covered in old trees that shine in the sun with their lush green chlorophyll-rich leaves. When you approach an intersection, there are conveniently located buttons for cyclists to push to change the light so that they can cross. And then we cycled into the University of British Columbia, where we are staying currently on their farm, which is a beautiful organic farm with a number of different projects ongoing on the site. We were in time for the farm's wonderful weekend market where we bought the fresh ingredients to take along to our potluck party. We celebrated the summer solstice on Saturday night with an Otesha O-lumni at his home in Vancouver (which is yet another eco-conscious communal house). People were amazingly friendly as we used their stove to make a dark greens/tofu stir fry, and sauteed onions and Jerusalem artichokes. We shared in laughter, enjoyed their alternative media zine wall, and even learned how to make tempeh (fermented soybean curd - a delicious less processed version of tofu, that I now know how to make!) It was a wonderful introduction into this subset of the culture in Vancouver, and was refreshing to spend some time with people in our own generation, who are all into the same things as we are.
We finished off our last performance yesterday to a very attentive grade 6 and 7 audience in Richmond after doing three hard performances to difficult and sometimes small audiences at Vancouver's Science World on the weekend. It was a sad, but really cool feeling to preform the play one last time, to do our well practiced, adapted and rehearsed lines with one more burst of energy to maybe inspire just one more person to truly take charge of their lives and treat every 24 hours like another opportunity to foster the world that they all wish to see. I am slowly getting reacquainted with a city; the busy life of some, but recognizing the slow life of others. I am easing my way back into the 'real' world, and although it will be challenging to get used to being without my 9 family members, I am excited to add all that I have learned from these beautiful people, and use the skills in my own lifestyle. Vancouver is a beautiful place to be right now.
Otesha has been a wild journey for me. One where I have learned a lot about myself through interacting with others. One where I have tried every day to be positive about society's situation and realize that we all have choices that we make every day. It has been a journey where I learned to live in an intense group situation, and where I learned about spirituality, new cooking methods, gardening methods, sustainability practices, educational tactics, and Alberta and British Columbia. It has been an adventure, upon the seat of my bicycle, living this wonderful life, playing, and sharing with others. I have planted many seeds across these two provinces, within our audiences, our hosts, the communities, my team mates, myself, and you, my readers. You have the tools to grow into whatever you so chose to; use those tools however you chose to create the beautiful world that you wish to live in.
Hope you enjoyed this Otesha chapter, the next chapter is a coming up right away! (My adventures on the coast, Southeast Asia, and beyond!)
We stayed for an evening at the Yarrow Ecovillage as well as a co-housing project called Windsong in Langley, and I really enjoyed learning a great deal about both of these places. We got to see, yet another way that people are living their lives together, and not separately. They share gardens and meals and they peacefully co-exist with one another on very positive grassroots levels. It is a lifestyle that I think is so greatly beneficial to the soul and spirit and development of every person who dwells within these communities.
Enter Vancouver. Still lush. Always with a chance of rain. The city impressed me instantly as we cycled in on designated bicycle routes; roads that essentially prohibit car traffic unless you are a resident (and even then can often only physically access it from one direction). The roads were beautifully covered in old trees that shine in the sun with their lush green chlorophyll-rich leaves. When you approach an intersection, there are conveniently located buttons for cyclists to push to change the light so that they can cross. And then we cycled into the University of British Columbia, where we are staying currently on their farm, which is a beautiful organic farm with a number of different projects ongoing on the site. We were in time for the farm's wonderful weekend market where we bought the fresh ingredients to take along to our potluck party. We celebrated the summer solstice on Saturday night with an Otesha O-lumni at his home in Vancouver (which is yet another eco-conscious communal house). People were amazingly friendly as we used their stove to make a dark greens/tofu stir fry, and sauteed onions and Jerusalem artichokes. We shared in laughter, enjoyed their alternative media zine wall, and even learned how to make tempeh (fermented soybean curd - a delicious less processed version of tofu, that I now know how to make!) It was a wonderful introduction into this subset of the culture in Vancouver, and was refreshing to spend some time with people in our own generation, who are all into the same things as we are.
We finished off our last performance yesterday to a very attentive grade 6 and 7 audience in Richmond after doing three hard performances to difficult and sometimes small audiences at Vancouver's Science World on the weekend. It was a sad, but really cool feeling to preform the play one last time, to do our well practiced, adapted and rehearsed lines with one more burst of energy to maybe inspire just one more person to truly take charge of their lives and treat every 24 hours like another opportunity to foster the world that they all wish to see. I am slowly getting reacquainted with a city; the busy life of some, but recognizing the slow life of others. I am easing my way back into the 'real' world, and although it will be challenging to get used to being without my 9 family members, I am excited to add all that I have learned from these beautiful people, and use the skills in my own lifestyle. Vancouver is a beautiful place to be right now.
Otesha has been a wild journey for me. One where I have learned a lot about myself through interacting with others. One where I have tried every day to be positive about society's situation and realize that we all have choices that we make every day. It has been a journey where I learned to live in an intense group situation, and where I learned about spirituality, new cooking methods, gardening methods, sustainability practices, educational tactics, and Alberta and British Columbia. It has been an adventure, upon the seat of my bicycle, living this wonderful life, playing, and sharing with others. I have planted many seeds across these two provinces, within our audiences, our hosts, the communities, my team mates, myself, and you, my readers. You have the tools to grow into whatever you so chose to; use those tools however you chose to create the beautiful world that you wish to live in.
Hope you enjoyed this Otesha chapter, the next chapter is a coming up right away! (My adventures on the coast, Southeast Asia, and beyond!)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Excitingly overwhelmed
Again the landscape has changed, and again thoughts of the end of this magical bicycle journey are coming into my mind. We will be arriving in Vancouver in 5 days, and spending our last five days there together as a group preforming in the city and staying at UBC farms.
We have continued to cycle out of the hot Okanagon Valley, and have now ended up in the lush Fraser Valley. On my Convocation day, I cycled 65km from Summerland to Keremeos, and had a hot beautiful ride, thinking all day of my classmates back home, walking accross that stage. I cycled across my own stage as I rode into another hot fruit valley of BC. We did a preformance in Keremeos the next morning, and then it was my turn for a day in the hybrid support vehicle. Catherine and I took our time, got some vegetables donated that were about to be thrown away, and we visited a quirky old mining community called Hedley along our way into Princeton. The next day proved to be a toughy. After preforming in Princeton, we journeyed up and over our last mountain pass of our journey, and down into the moist, lush, beautifully stunning Manning Provincial Park. Here we stayed for two nights and preformed to the camper crowd in between isolated thunder storms - it was funny to have so much rain, as we had not seen any in a looong while! It was also quite great to see mule deer at dusk, and a black bear at the side of the road as we were cycling! It was so close to the side of the road, we were lucky to have been warned by drivers going in the opposite direction of it's presence. After looking on for a few moments, we continued our journey to our present location in Hope, British Columbia. What a name for a town indeed. One of the slogans for Otesha is "Riding on Hope" so it is fun to be in this quaint town for two nights.
And so our group began to speak today about our post - Otesha plans, blues, hopes and fears, and it is strange to think about the conclusion of this journey, but certainly exciting as well, as I plan out my weeks on the coast, and solidify plans for travel with Krista in SE Asia (WOOOT). I am fully enjoying the experience of living sustainably in this wonderful community of people, and I hope to find a similar lifestyle back in Ontario. For now though, it's time to eat some sweet potato fries, and climb to the top of Mount Hope (Can anybody tell me the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? A few of us discuss it alllllll the time in the group, so much so that it spontaneously turned into a full length guitar accompanied song, which I am sure to enlighten you all with my voice some day).
Tomorrow I will keep on ridin' on hope all the way to Yarrow to stay in an Eco-village. Thinking of you all.
We have continued to cycle out of the hot Okanagon Valley, and have now ended up in the lush Fraser Valley. On my Convocation day, I cycled 65km from Summerland to Keremeos, and had a hot beautiful ride, thinking all day of my classmates back home, walking accross that stage. I cycled across my own stage as I rode into another hot fruit valley of BC. We did a preformance in Keremeos the next morning, and then it was my turn for a day in the hybrid support vehicle. Catherine and I took our time, got some vegetables donated that were about to be thrown away, and we visited a quirky old mining community called Hedley along our way into Princeton. The next day proved to be a toughy. After preforming in Princeton, we journeyed up and over our last mountain pass of our journey, and down into the moist, lush, beautifully stunning Manning Provincial Park. Here we stayed for two nights and preformed to the camper crowd in between isolated thunder storms - it was funny to have so much rain, as we had not seen any in a looong while! It was also quite great to see mule deer at dusk, and a black bear at the side of the road as we were cycling! It was so close to the side of the road, we were lucky to have been warned by drivers going in the opposite direction of it's presence. After looking on for a few moments, we continued our journey to our present location in Hope, British Columbia. What a name for a town indeed. One of the slogans for Otesha is "Riding on Hope" so it is fun to be in this quaint town for two nights.
And so our group began to speak today about our post - Otesha plans, blues, hopes and fears, and it is strange to think about the conclusion of this journey, but certainly exciting as well, as I plan out my weeks on the coast, and solidify plans for travel with Krista in SE Asia (WOOOT). I am fully enjoying the experience of living sustainably in this wonderful community of people, and I hope to find a similar lifestyle back in Ontario. For now though, it's time to eat some sweet potato fries, and climb to the top of Mount Hope (Can anybody tell me the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? A few of us discuss it alllllll the time in the group, so much so that it spontaneously turned into a full length guitar accompanied song, which I am sure to enlighten you all with my voice some day).
Tomorrow I will keep on ridin' on hope all the way to Yarrow to stay in an Eco-village. Thinking of you all.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Okanagon valley
Hello dear readers. I hope you are having a wonderful day. I am. I awoke this morning in a 'low-spray' cherry orchard in Summerland, British Columbia. After enjoying a huge breakfast (oats and stewed rhubarb from our hostesses garden) Seth, Natalie and I went for a hike down into a gorge. From above it looked like the Grand Canyon, surrounded on every side by vineyards and orchards. From below, it was another river that flows into the beautifully large Okanagon lake.
This area of British Columbia is very special. I am in the Canadian desert. As we rode down into Osoyoos down Anarchist's summing (which was so steep and full of intense switchbacks!) I knew I was entering a very different ecotone of our ever diverse country. The raid shadow effect makes this area very arid, lending to the unique flora and fauna which occupy the area. Because it is a dessert with such huge lakes in the middle, orchards and vineyards flourish from intense irrigation. We visited the desert centre on our way out of the very HOT Osoyoos, and saw the preserved desert ecology: the Sage Brush, Prickly pear cactus, Antelope Brush, Yellow bellied racer snakes, and black widow spiders. It was interesting to feel like I was in a different country, but within Canada.
We cycled along the Okanagon lakes up to a provincial park, completing another 97km day, and this one was sure a toughy. We left late, had a huge headwind in our faces, and had to battle it out with a ton of hills. I may have given up had it not been for my teammates. We were so relieved to arrive at the BEAUTIFUL park, with high arid cliffs, and a beautiful body of water. We preformed to the campers at the park the next morning, only to be very inspired by their sincerest support! The audience was fun, and wonderfully responsive to our questions. One couple was so excited to tell us of their endeavours to live responsibly. Their RV was made by a company that uses 100% post consumer products to build the vehicles! It was nice to have some positive reinforcement from adults. Our regular high school venues can often be trying. But not this afternoon's performance.
Coming downhill, my bike buddie and I whizzed back into Penticton for a 2 o'clock performance at the high school. Here our audience really seemed to enjoy our punny jokes and goofy human made toasters, sinks, fans and computers. We got some more of that precious positive feedback from the youth of Canada. It was another successful performance to 300+ grade 9's.
Have I told you of the blissful feeling of riding 100km in a day, into the wind, and uphill? Well, it's phenomenal. What makes it most special though I think, is to cycle down into a beautiful campground, welcomed by hugs from your teammates, and warm beet-veg-quinoa stir fry, made with care; to pitch my beautiful tent, and walk down to the doc, sharing with my friends the joys and emotions of the difficult day in my saddle. It is so blissful to sit on the doc, and sing quiet songs with your friends, watching the moon rise over the mountains, and just consider for a moment, how lucky I am. How my body feels totally spent, but my soul just wants to keep on rising like that moon.
I hope you will rise to your limits too.
This area of British Columbia is very special. I am in the Canadian desert. As we rode down into Osoyoos down Anarchist's summing (which was so steep and full of intense switchbacks!) I knew I was entering a very different ecotone of our ever diverse country. The raid shadow effect makes this area very arid, lending to the unique flora and fauna which occupy the area. Because it is a dessert with such huge lakes in the middle, orchards and vineyards flourish from intense irrigation. We visited the desert centre on our way out of the very HOT Osoyoos, and saw the preserved desert ecology: the Sage Brush, Prickly pear cactus, Antelope Brush, Yellow bellied racer snakes, and black widow spiders. It was interesting to feel like I was in a different country, but within Canada.
We cycled along the Okanagon lakes up to a provincial park, completing another 97km day, and this one was sure a toughy. We left late, had a huge headwind in our faces, and had to battle it out with a ton of hills. I may have given up had it not been for my teammates. We were so relieved to arrive at the BEAUTIFUL park, with high arid cliffs, and a beautiful body of water. We preformed to the campers at the park the next morning, only to be very inspired by their sincerest support! The audience was fun, and wonderfully responsive to our questions. One couple was so excited to tell us of their endeavours to live responsibly. Their RV was made by a company that uses 100% post consumer products to build the vehicles! It was nice to have some positive reinforcement from adults. Our regular high school venues can often be trying. But not this afternoon's performance.
Coming downhill, my bike buddie and I whizzed back into Penticton for a 2 o'clock performance at the high school. Here our audience really seemed to enjoy our punny jokes and goofy human made toasters, sinks, fans and computers. We got some more of that precious positive feedback from the youth of Canada. It was another successful performance to 300+ grade 9's.
Have I told you of the blissful feeling of riding 100km in a day, into the wind, and uphill? Well, it's phenomenal. What makes it most special though I think, is to cycle down into a beautiful campground, welcomed by hugs from your teammates, and warm beet-veg-quinoa stir fry, made with care; to pitch my beautiful tent, and walk down to the doc, sharing with my friends the joys and emotions of the difficult day in my saddle. It is so blissful to sit on the doc, and sing quiet songs with your friends, watching the moon rise over the mountains, and just consider for a moment, how lucky I am. How my body feels totally spent, but my soul just wants to keep on rising like that moon.
I hope you will rise to your limits too.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
an epic ride, and a calming experience
My time in Nelson was all too short, as I knew it would be. I spent my day off in Nelson, playing, climbing a mountain, going to a free meditation class, sitting by a waterfall, sharing a meal with my friends, and attending a street party complete with dancing and xylophone band. The aura of Nelson was superb. As my teammates and I were expressing how sad we would be to go, we realized that it was the community appeal that Nelson had, and that similar activities and community aura could be created anywhere, regardless of geographical location (though I do think the mountains and lake had some effect...)
As we left Nelson on a scorcher of a day, we cycled into Castlegar, and were feeling hot hot hot, and low low low...until we found a public sprinkler park to refresh ourselves in. It's funny though, how I felt guilty. I felt guilty for using an obscene amount of water to 'refresh' myself. Though, it did constitute as my once every 5 day shower, so I felt okay about it then...We stayed one short evening in this town, at a neat middle - school - turned community church and centre. The next morning, we mentally prepared ourselves for what we knew would be one heck of a ride. We cycled from Castlegar to Grand Forks: 96.79km in 6.5 hours (not including rests!!) according to my trusty bike computer gadget. And what en epic ride it was. The weather was upwards of 30 degrees, and we started our day with a 40 km climb. and I mean constant climb. We got up so high, to Paulson's summit, that the trees got shorter, and there was heaps of snow on the earth! We cycled so slowly up the Monashee mountain range, stopping midway up for a homemade granolie bar snack, and for a (very cool) skinny dip at a beautiful subalpine lake. As we boarded our two wheels once again we wondered how far it would be before we were 'up'. As we passed the stark and startling clear cut swaths, and as trucks crept up beside us, being restricted to almost our speed because of the gradient, we thought this climb might never end. As we turned a corner, it suddenly felt as though we were going to fall off the edge of the earth if we kept going, for we saw only white on the horizon, and not more mountain or trees beyond that. Rozzy and I continued up and up on our bikes, to see the rest of our team cheering and jumping and pointing at the sign "Paulson's summit, 5093 feet" we had reached it, and it was time to celebrate!
And then...we went down. And down. And down. The sights were fantastic, free of development and low in traffic, the speed was almost dangerous, and the feeling was euphoric. As we cycled onward, we stopped for another swim in a beautiful lake, entering what is known as Boundary Country, which is the area between the Kootenays from which we have come, and the Okanagan Valley which we are venturing onwards into. As we cycled our last 20km very lethargically, we noticed the markedly different landscape. What used to be mountains covered in conifers had changed into scrubby grasslands, reminiscent of dessert like areas, with wild mountain goats and white tailed deer being spotted, and rock outcrops seen everywhere. It was phenomenal to see such a landscape change in just one day of cycling. As we ate a warm meal that night outside, we considered our weary and sun burned bodies, gazed out at our view across the rushing river to the hill on the other side and once again gave thanks for our privilege to be on such an amazing adventure, with such an amazing group of people, and such an amazing world to explore.
The next day, we departed for the short 15km ride out of this 5000 person town to the location of our mid-tour retreat. (Please Time, slow down). We stayed with a 55 year old women on her organic sustainable homestead. It was one of the most fantastic places, I have ever been in my life.
This wonderful women welcomed us onto her land, into her home, and shared her asparagus and rhubarb with us, her passion for Sacred Dance, her wisdom and education in living in sustainable housing, living in community, and living off the land. She had such a welcoming, calm, beautiful spirit, and I was so invigorated and extremely inspired by our stay. The days were hot as we work-shopped our theater performance, explored our successes and failures and discussed some group dynamic issues. We cooked our meals in our new friends 'outdoor kitchen' and used her crisp well water, and clean outhouses. We used her fruit cellar, because she does not have a fridge, and we camped in our tents on her beautiful land, never hearing a car, and gazing up at the stars through the tent roof (no fly required...it was that warm). I can't begin to express all the emotion I felt on these past two days, as I learned it was possible to live an alternative lifestyle, to live off the land, in community. We finished our retreat last night with an affirmation walk. Each member of the group takes a turn walking down a channel of your peers, with eyes closed, and they whisper positive qualities about you into your ear. An amazing experience, that lifted the spirits and love in all of our hearts. This morning, it was back to the reality of a town, and a chance to put our hard work into action - we tried out a number of new things at our performance this morning, hoping that our impact on the young people we preform to would be even greater because of our improvements.
The more I live out this amazing journey, the more I am learning. About myself, about alternatives, about my spirit, about communities, about communicating my passions, and about environmental sustainability. I can't believe what an amazing month it has been, and I can't wait for the next moment in time.
Peace and love.
As we left Nelson on a scorcher of a day, we cycled into Castlegar, and were feeling hot hot hot, and low low low...until we found a public sprinkler park to refresh ourselves in. It's funny though, how I felt guilty. I felt guilty for using an obscene amount of water to 'refresh' myself. Though, it did constitute as my once every 5 day shower, so I felt okay about it then...We stayed one short evening in this town, at a neat middle - school - turned community church and centre. The next morning, we mentally prepared ourselves for what we knew would be one heck of a ride. We cycled from Castlegar to Grand Forks: 96.79km in 6.5 hours (not including rests!!) according to my trusty bike computer gadget. And what en epic ride it was. The weather was upwards of 30 degrees, and we started our day with a 40 km climb. and I mean constant climb. We got up so high, to Paulson's summit, that the trees got shorter, and there was heaps of snow on the earth! We cycled so slowly up the Monashee mountain range, stopping midway up for a homemade granolie bar snack, and for a (very cool) skinny dip at a beautiful subalpine lake. As we boarded our two wheels once again we wondered how far it would be before we were 'up'. As we passed the stark and startling clear cut swaths, and as trucks crept up beside us, being restricted to almost our speed because of the gradient, we thought this climb might never end. As we turned a corner, it suddenly felt as though we were going to fall off the edge of the earth if we kept going, for we saw only white on the horizon, and not more mountain or trees beyond that. Rozzy and I continued up and up on our bikes, to see the rest of our team cheering and jumping and pointing at the sign "Paulson's summit, 5093 feet" we had reached it, and it was time to celebrate!
And then...we went down. And down. And down. The sights were fantastic, free of development and low in traffic, the speed was almost dangerous, and the feeling was euphoric. As we cycled onward, we stopped for another swim in a beautiful lake, entering what is known as Boundary Country, which is the area between the Kootenays from which we have come, and the Okanagan Valley which we are venturing onwards into. As we cycled our last 20km very lethargically, we noticed the markedly different landscape. What used to be mountains covered in conifers had changed into scrubby grasslands, reminiscent of dessert like areas, with wild mountain goats and white tailed deer being spotted, and rock outcrops seen everywhere. It was phenomenal to see such a landscape change in just one day of cycling. As we ate a warm meal that night outside, we considered our weary and sun burned bodies, gazed out at our view across the rushing river to the hill on the other side and once again gave thanks for our privilege to be on such an amazing adventure, with such an amazing group of people, and such an amazing world to explore.
The next day, we departed for the short 15km ride out of this 5000 person town to the location of our mid-tour retreat. (Please Time, slow down). We stayed with a 55 year old women on her organic sustainable homestead. It was one of the most fantastic places, I have ever been in my life.
This wonderful women welcomed us onto her land, into her home, and shared her asparagus and rhubarb with us, her passion for Sacred Dance, her wisdom and education in living in sustainable housing, living in community, and living off the land. She had such a welcoming, calm, beautiful spirit, and I was so invigorated and extremely inspired by our stay. The days were hot as we work-shopped our theater performance, explored our successes and failures and discussed some group dynamic issues. We cooked our meals in our new friends 'outdoor kitchen' and used her crisp well water, and clean outhouses. We used her fruit cellar, because she does not have a fridge, and we camped in our tents on her beautiful land, never hearing a car, and gazing up at the stars through the tent roof (no fly required...it was that warm). I can't begin to express all the emotion I felt on these past two days, as I learned it was possible to live an alternative lifestyle, to live off the land, in community. We finished our retreat last night with an affirmation walk. Each member of the group takes a turn walking down a channel of your peers, with eyes closed, and they whisper positive qualities about you into your ear. An amazing experience, that lifted the spirits and love in all of our hearts. This morning, it was back to the reality of a town, and a chance to put our hard work into action - we tried out a number of new things at our performance this morning, hoping that our impact on the young people we preform to would be even greater because of our improvements.
The more I live out this amazing journey, the more I am learning. About myself, about alternatives, about my spirit, about communities, about communicating my passions, and about environmental sustainability. I can't believe what an amazing month it has been, and I can't wait for the next moment in time.
Peace and love.
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