The Good News of 2011

By Claudia | Published: December 21, 2011

 

There was plenty of bad news in 2011 – the hard, the ugly, the disappointing, the horrific.  We’ve noticed that year-in-reviews tend to cover news items like earthquakes, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the death of Steve Jobs and a little royal wedding thrown in for relief.

But there was some really good news this year, too.  In 2011, like every year, people all across the nation stood up for justice and dignity in 2011.  Here then is our inaugural “Good News” round up for 2011.  What did we forget?  Send an email to Claudia@stonecircles.org

1.  All of Us NC<http://allofusnc.tumblr.com/, a queer-women-of-color-led grassroots campaign and Protect NC Families  were launched to defeat NC’s anti-family amendment through relationship-based organizing.

2.  Arab Spring, inspiring the world and reminding us that freedom and democracy are human (not just American/western) rights and ideals.  The rest of this list consists of good news in the U.S. but we couldn’t resist adding this one.

3.   “The Battle for Brooklyn” film about fight against Bruce Ratner”s development debacle, on list of possible Oscar nominations for best doc.

4  Black Farmer class action lawsuit (Pigford v. Glickman) was finally approved this year.  President Obama signed a bill authorizing $1.25 billion for the suit in 2010, but in October of this year Judge Paul L. Friedman granted final approval, almost 13 years after the lawsuit was brought against USDA for documented discrimination against Black farmers.

5.  Bull City Urban Market launched a new effort in Durham aimed at bringing local food and justice to the people.  This is emblematic of hundreds of locally-based, grassroots initiatives to make our food systems more just and accessible.

6.  California and Nevada formed an alliance to fight foreclosures. Saying their states are hardest hit by the nation’s foreclosure and mortgage crises, the attorneys general Kamala Harris of California and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada formalized Tuesday a joint investigation alliance to help homeowners victimized by fraud.

7.  Caring Across Generations, a national campaign inspired by the New York Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and similar advocacy and organizing across the country.  Key policy points include job quality and the right to organize, a path to citizenship and more.

8.  Chaz Bono on Dancing with the Stars. Because pop culture matters.

9.  Coalition of Immokalee Workers continue their campaign for fair food by putting pressure on Trader Joe’s and Publix supermarkets to take the rights of farm workers seriously. Workers are demanding a penny more per pound of tomatoes that farmworkers pick.

10.  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal went into effect.  After 17 years of hiding, gay and lesbian service men and women can come out of the closet.

11.  Drop the I-word campaign was launched to challenge press and communities across the nation to stop calling any human being “illegal.”

12.  Elizabeth Warren got into the race for US Senate.  Someone standing up for sanity.

13.  Freedom University was started in October to provide college-level instruction to undocumented students in Athens, GA.  Like many states in the U.S., Georgia has banned undocumented students from attending public universities.

14.  Human mic.  Who knew such simple technology could change the tenor of a protest movement?  http://www.thenation.com/blog/163767/we-are-all-human-microphones-now

15.  Hummingbird Collective is an emerging funding collaborative designed to raise money for communities in Arizona that are at the forefront of the ‘civil rights movement of migrant justice.

16. Iraq troop withdrawal.  The United States officially claims its forces have left Iraq and we can count this as another promise made and kept by President Obama.  This also means the military will need to keep their in-country numbers low enough to conceal or to plausibly describe as something else.

17. Keystone XL pipeline delayed.  The Obama administration decided to postpone a decision on the Keyston XL tar sands oil pipeline, which is as close as the environmental justice movement could get to killing it.

18. LGBT civil rights history became an official part of the public school curriculum in California, thanks to the passing of SB 48.  Opponents failed to get enough signatures to place a referendum to overturn the law on the Nov 2012 ballot.   http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/10/californias-anti-gay-stop-sb-48-groups-referendum-efforts-fail/

19. Manu Chao re-recorded the video for his song “Clandestino” following a free concert in Phoenix and a stop outside the detention center run by the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio. http://altoarizona.com/

20. Mississippi voters rejected a November ballot initiative that would have declared life begins at the time of egg fertilization.

21.  Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has originally sentenced to death in the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, has had his sentence reduced to life.  Mumia has served almost thirty years in prison and his case has exemplified many of the failings of our criminal (in)justice system.

22. New York State passes marriage equality, becoming the 6th and largest state to approve such a law, doubling the numbers of self-reported queer couples allowed to marry in the U.S. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/06/marriage_equality_act_state_se.html

23. Occupy Our Homes.  One particularly specific outgrowth of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Our Homes helps people stand up to banks and fight foreclosure.

24. Occupy Wall Street.  Because it captured – and continues to capture – the heart and attention of skeptical nation.  Because the events have drawn a wide range of folks and provided entry points for many who haven’t been involved in movement work before.  Because it’s a living experiment of the change we want to see.  Because when Miley Cyrus is doing a video about it, you know it’s got reach.

25. Ohio overturned anti-collective bargaining law, SB 5 by a margin of 61% to 39%.  The bill greatly restricted union activity that affected over 350,000 public employees.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/08/ohio-issue-2-_n_1083100.html

26.  Proposed merger between AT&T and TMobile failed at the hands of  community concern over the consolidation and its impact on consumers.  The fight was led by the Center for Media Justice.

27. Recalling Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is going like gangbusters; 507,000 of the 720,000 signatures needed were collected in the first 30 days.

28.  Seattle joined San Francisco and Portland in passing legislation to ban single-use plastic shopping bags at grocery stores.  The ordinance passed unanimously and will take effect in July 2012.

29.  Time Magazine named “The Protester” as person of the year.  While something about this feels a bit unsettling (where does championing end and objectification begin?) it’s real nice to see protesting back in vogue, so to speak.  And the article is really quite thoughtful.

30. Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC. We love us some Rachel Maddow but Chris Hayes understands organizing, loves movement building, has an exhausting grasp of policy on a wide range issues and now he gets his own show.

31.  Vermont passed a universal/single-payer health care bill, the first state in the nation to do so.

32. Voter suppression law vetoed by Governor Perdue in North Carolina under great grassroots pressure; Republicans in the House fail to overturn the veto.  The NAACP and others continue the fight to protect voter rights in 30 other states.

33. Wake County North Carolina voters chose the Democratic incumbent for the County school board over the Republican challenger, giving the Democrats a majority and defeating school segregation efforts.

34.  Warren Buffet published an op ed in the New York Times, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” in which he stated his 2010 income tax payment ($6.9 million), noted it was only 17% of his overall income and that he was paying less taxes than his own secretary.  It helps to have one of the mega-rich articulate the damages of capitalism every now and then.

35.  Wisconsinites of every stripe stood up for Wisconsin workers, flooding the capitol building and holding rally after rally to protect working families.  Law suits to restore the rights of public workers continue.  And all this in the first state to provide collective bargaining rights to public employees, in 1959.  For ongoing coverage, see the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

 

Contributors include: Erin Dale, Gita Gulati-Partee, Russell Herman, Claudia Horwitz, Margot Horwitz, Jennifer Jackson, Chad Jones, Sean Kosfosky, Becca Krantz, Danyelle O’Hara, Tema Okun, and Marian Urquilla.

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A Soul Sanctuary artist soars! Support Marj’s book project!

By Claudia | Published: November 16, 2011

Piece by Marjorie Scheer

Photo of Marjorie by Jim Lee

How does a human being manifest the gift that is hers to give others? One way is through having the time and space to sink deeply into a place of rest and renewal. I was given this gift by stone circles this past summer as a participant in the first Soul Sanctuary specifically for artist-activists. This incredible experience helped me clarify my vision for how to use my “post-cancer” self in the world. In late August on the land and home that is stone circles and The Stone House, I found myself amidst the most incredible group of women (it so happened we were all women) whose singing and laughing voices, first-time-swimming-out-in-nature shrieks, and wisdom still resound in my body and being. All this, free of charge.

So here is the straight out reason I am writing this: to ask for your help to grow a vision through a Kickstarter project. Since I prepared my project to go live on Kickstarter.com that vision for the “ultimate” outcome of the project has grown. Things are always changing, aren’t they?  This shift has a lot to do with stone circles and the gift of the Soul Sanctuary.  

My project is a book of paintings that chronicles my journey through cancer: One Day I’ll Wear a White Hat:
A Dancer’s Journey through Cancer. I hope that, in time, this book and I can inspire and help others move with courage through cancer and beyond.

Gail Burton, one participant in our group helped me to see how I might use my own journey and performing artist background and move it out into the world. She spoke to me about her mentor, Robbie McCauley and McCauley’s theatre work “Sugar” a one-woman performance piece in which she speaks out and grapples with her own journey with Diabetes; Gail spoke as well about interactive theatre and storytelling, about taking one’s own illness /life experience and using it as a healing vehicle for others. When Gail shared her notion, I responded with some version of, “No, no, I’m not ready for … I can’t do that.” Gail’s voice is speaking to me and I know some new form(s) of group-work/art-making-storytelling for cancer survivors…or other kinds of survivors is going to emerge in my work as a clinical social worker/artist. But first I need to birth this book.

Please take a look at a very homespun 2 ½ minute video, a project description etc. and  get involved with a pledge and/or emails to friends and spread the link below -now!- as far and wide as you are able.  The campaign ends on Dec. 7th at 11:59 pm. THANKS!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/891623653/one-day-ill-wear-a-white-hat

 

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SIT4Change and Open Letter to Occupy

By Claudia | Published: November 9, 2011

Dear Constituents,

We know that many of you may be wondering how to connect to what has become known as the Occupy/Decolonize/99% Movements. We recognize this as an important moment in our history and the  beginning of a potentially dramatic shift, so have also raised this question for ourselves.

This Saturday, November 12th, communities of spirit, faith and transformation are being called upon to demonstrate the transformative power of practice at Occupy sites wherever they may be. One of our partners, Transformative Change, designed SIT4Change to explicitly lift up the importance of spiritual, heart-centered presence within movements. It is just one way to connect that could be of interest.

Watch the powerful 2-minute video here: http://www.sit4change.org
Read the Open Letter to Occupy: http://bit.ly/occupyltr
RSVP and invite others: http://on.fb.me/s4c-nov12

We hope you’ll join us.

=========================================================

http://bit.ly/occupyltr

Open Letter to Occupy

From: Organizers of SITChange
Week of November 6, 2011

We, the organizers of SIT4Change, stand in solidarity with and deep support of the Occupy/Decolonize/We Are The 99% Movement sweeping the country and the world. We support the essence of the call for change that Occupy sites the world over are expressing.

We are aware that while any diversified movement will face unresolved challenges, we believe the following that are facing Occupy can be readily addressed:

Inclusion: A perceived lack of people of color involved in the US national Occupy Movement. Occupy is being construed as a space of mainly white people. While we know that is not true in all instances, the perception dissipates the movement’s strongest message: that the masses belong to this movement. This is a movement of The People.

Compassion: Some have begun to use the language of the 99% to be against the 1%. While the 99% language is powerfully illustrative, an “us vs. them” frame makes the conversation about people vs. people when it is clearly the underlying system that is at fault for enabling and condoning massive economic imbalance. We don’t need another angry movement, we need inspiration.

Nonviolence: Local police have been overtly willing to use unnecessary force against Occupy sites with only the most egregious acts being challenged. While many in Occupy have made efforts to disavow random acts of violence and destruction, especially in light of confusing incidents at Oakland’s General Strike, within the general public there are still questions as to whether Occupy is a potentially violent movement.

To counterbalance these flawed, but prevailing perceptions:

  • Occupy must clearly convey its unwavering committment to diversity and inclusion.
  • Occupy must show its efforts are focused towards destabilizing unjust behaviors and systems, rather than people.
  • Occupy must declare itself aligned with nonviolence as it challenges and refuses cooperation with those systems.

The mass social movements led by Gandhi and King sustained themselves through the challenges of nonviolent direct action with personal practice to help them remain centered. Arab Spring Muslims continued to pray five times per day in accordance with their tradition even in the midst of rising up against dictatorial rule. We see Occupy as potential carriers of these admirable people-driven movements.

Occupy has succeeded in capturing the attention of the nation and world; now it’s time to capture minds and hearts.

We believe this can happen by making the connection people have to the movement even more sustained and profoundly personal. While everyone may not be out of a job, or have lost their homes, nothing is more personal than most people’s connection to spirit, to faith, and to transformation within their own lives:

  • Many people of color and poorer peoples organize around their faith.
  • Indigenous, earth-based and practitioners of Eastern traditions organize through ceremony and/or connection to spirit.
  • Many yoga practitioners, non-theist Buddhists and atheists organize in relationship to self-transformation.

What these groups have in common is a connection to practice: of prayer, of meditation, of centering, to embody their values. Values that translate beyond personal interest into collective concern. Thus, we propose explicitly reaching out to communities of faith, spirit and transformation to broaden and deepen support for Occupy. This will succeed in creating space for the many families, church groups, synagogues, mosques and temples that are committed to justice, while showing that the Occupy movement extends its invitation to those that are most often not invited.

SIT4Change hopes to generate this profound connection through a call to action this coming Saturday, November 12th. It is an invitation for a critical mass of spirit- and faith-based communities to show up at Occupy sites everywhere.  It is an opportunity for people to demonstrate the transformative power of practice and to make a connection of the heart to this movement for change. For us to truly OccupyTogether.

We will make this call through our networks of spiritual leaders, organizations, partners and institutions that are committed to economic justice and deep change. But nothing is more welcoming than an invitation, therefore:

We propose that you, the Occupy organizers at each local site, endorse SIT4Change and take up this call to action to invite people to your site in solidarity on November 12th, 2011.

We ask that you utilize the valuable networks this movement has created and reach out to the spirit, faith and transformative leaders in your community and support their presence.

We encourage you to call upon your local practitioners, meditators, clergy, yogis, people of faith and keepers of spirit. Invite them to share 108 minutes of their own expression of the sacred, of prayer, of ceremony, and of compassion as individuals, as families, and as communities.

We believe this can do nothing but enhance the Occupy movement, furthering its potency and image as a movement of The People, for The People and by The People. All 99% of the People.

We hope you will join us.

In peace & with great blessings on this collective journey,

The organizers, partners and supporters of SIT4Change

Additional information, including a short, powerful video, History, About Us, FAQ and Event Instructions can be found at http://sit4change.org, and we welcome questions, comments, clarification and feedback here: http://sit4change.org/contact

 

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Remembering summer

By Jennifer | Published: November 6, 2011

Greetings,

Right now, I’m looking out of my window at one of the most stunning displays of fall foliage I’ve ever seen.  This may seem an unual backdrop for musings about the summer that just passed, but Claudia, our founder and Executive Director, has recently returned from a 4-month sabbatical, and we’re doing a lot of reflecting back at the moment.  I think I speak for all of us, staff and board alike, in saying that I didn’t know what to expect when Claudia began her pilgrimage last June.  We certainly had done enough planning to have high hopes that all would go smoothly, but the reality of how it would all play out was unknown.  Four months later, we find ourselves a bit more wise, a little more tired, and a lot more invested in the future of stone circles and The Stone House.

Our core team was reduced in size, yet our ambitions for the summer were as expansive as ever, as we sought for ways to provide space and sanctuary for those doing the work of progressive social change in the world.  In addition to our regular rentals, we hosted our first ever SOUL Sanctuary for Artists, and forged new relationships with old friends like the Highlander Center for its anniversary fundraiser, and Windcall, for its 3-week residency program.  We opened our doors for fun and fellowship in July with our 2nd annual concert featuring Rising Appalachia and Justin Robinson, and our 4th Anniversary celebration in September.  We laid the groundwork for two powerful institutes – Transforming Movements and Food Justice -  that will be taking place at The Stone House this fall and winter.  Additionally, our Board kept things growing by adding two new members (please see below for more details).

And, we launched our new website on September 1st.  What do you think?  We’ve been ironing out the final kinks and hope you find it to be a useful source of information and resources.  Please try it out to read more about what’s going on here, and drop us a line to give us your feedback.  We value your opinions!

All in all, these four months without Claudia required us to stretch, deepen, grow and learn, both individually and collectively.  We gelled as a team, had some fun, and strove to embody our mission while doing more with less.  For myself, achieving this balance remains a work in progress, so, it is a blessing to be in an environment in which this standard of sustainability is held up as a North Star. As we welcome Claudia back, we are all changed, and I look forward to seeing the yields from what we have planted.  Many thanks to you all for your prayers, your support and your well-wishes during this period of transition.

Blessings, Jennifer
Associate Director

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Turning to the natural world

By Claudia | Published: November 1, 2011

from Gary Philips

For Gita’s birthday

October 29, 2011

Now we welcome into our circle of community and spirit the whole of creation around us, the earth that sustains us and the stars above and the creatures of the field and wood.

What is happening now in this season of the natural world, under our feet and above our heads and into every unseen corner?

First of all, we have just entered the new moon of Scorpio, which will show itself tonight as a waxing crescent.  Scorpio is the sign of emotional fearlessness.

Tonight in the southern sky Castor and Pollux will blaze on the horizon with Orion. Bright Aldebaron, the eye of Taurus, is high overhead and Pliedes shines like a jewel necklace.

We are in a powerful changing season but field asters and groundsel trees are still blooming and this is the mating season of harvestmen, known as daddy long-legs. We hear the last calls of crickets and katydids. Ladybugs, hawks and hummingbirds are all migrating south. Monarchs are on the wing to Michoacan.

This is hunker-down time, the hunter’s moon. Beavers are stockpiling sweet gum branches, deer, squirrel and wild turkey are competing for acorn drops and possums and raccoons are making their last attack on ripe persimmon.

Hickories are in their glory time and the incandescent yellow leaves of sassafras are indescribable. Just as we say goodbye to some migrants we say hello to others; on the winds of this October nor’easter cold front will arrive juncos, white-throated sparrows, winter wrens, myrtle warblers and more. Much more.

What a time it is! What an amazing day! The world is turning and we are gratefully gathered to celebrate your birthday. May all of nature share in your joy, and may you enter into the arms of sleep tonight blessed and protected and filled with wonder. Amen.

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Letter from Claudia

By Claudia | Published: October 15, 2011

Greetings all,

I am writing to you from Mebane where I recently returned from my four-month sabbatical.  I was welcomed back by these gorgeous October days and crisp nights, by the welcoming embrace of everyone at The Stone House and the goldenrod and aster growing with abandon in the pasture.  It is good to be home.

And it was also good to be away, reconnecting with friends and family, spending a lot of time in silence, and experiencing the fullness of my life without work in it.  As I relaxed into unscheduled days, the anxiety I’ve known so well over the past few years began to drain away slowly from both my body and mind. I started to see just how much this anxiety has provided adrenalin for my daily endeavors; it has been the primary current into which I plug myself in an effort to soldier on.  That adrenalin is what has kept me going in the face of cash flow challenges, has allowed me to stay up working way past when I should be asleep, has powered my hunger for news of the day’s events.  Who would I be without this?  Who would any of us be?

With a long stretch of unobligated time, I found my way into a different rhythm.  Staring at the ocean for hours each day will do that to a person.  In the midst of deep rest and sweet time with loved ones, I started to feel myself being moved by a different current, one I can feel in the space between my gut and my heart.  It is a subtle pulsing not unlike the experience of babies when they are sleeping or a very still night.

I come away from all of this with boundless gratitude and an even stronger commitment to liberation – my own and other peoples.  More than ever, I want to use my time on the earth as a catalyst for this, in whatever small ways I can.

Some of that will happen directly through the work we are deepening into here at The Stone House.  I’m particularly excited about the Transforming Movements work, a series of trainings and programmatic initiatives that will bring more transformative and spiritual practice into social change work.  It kicks off with a statewide institute this November – a collaborative endeavor with Beloved Community Center, Blueprint NC, Center for Participatory Change, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, and OpenSource Leadership Strategies.  And we’ll be holding a second Deeper Practices of Transformative Social Change training for trainers February 9-12, 2012.

I look forward to seeing you on your next visit to Mebane.

Much peace,
Claudia

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Occupying the Space

By emily | Published: October 10, 2011

  Big changes tend to bring on a case of the nerves for me sometimes. Moves, losses, growth, relationships…they hold the potential to send me into a tailspin, feeling like a shrub, scraggly roots ripping out of the ground. Starting a job at The Stone House has been one of the recent rare exceptions;  a major change, yes, but- interview jitters notwithstanding-  I have felt a sense of groundedness throughout the process that is often lacking in times of great transition. And I am profoundly grateful to all of you who have eased this passage with warm hearts and open arms.

And now, more changes blow in, as crisp as the fall breeze. As thousands take to the streets to demand change in New York City, the world has started to pay attention. At first I watched with vague interest, then I thought, “Hey…maybe this is really turning into something,” and now…well, it’s huge. Huge in numbers and quite possibly huge in implications. And shortly after I started thinking about taking a northbound bus, I heard the first whisperings of Occupy Durham, one of many occupations in other cities that have spun off in response to and in solidarity with the movement.

I attended the first Occupy Durham with excitement and a solid dose of curiosity. What was this going to look like? What foundation are we standing on in this wave of change? Media critics of Occupy Wall Street have stewed over the movement’s goals- what do these kids want, anyway? At one point will they put their signs down, consider their jobs done, head home, and take a shower?

Fair questions. And yet I believe that transformative change- real, deep, profound change- requires space. It requires room to meander, to ask the questions, to root itself, to grow. That is, after all, why so many people come here to The Stone House; to find a safe space.  To root or to re-root, and then to grow. That space is what keeps me from flying away- on the good days- when everything around me is in upheaval. Journalist Naomi Klein, when she spoke to the crowds at Liberty Plaza a few days ago, said, “Only when you stay put can you grow roots.” And so I see this movement- in New York, in Durham, and all over the world- as putting down its roots, gathering its masses, asking the questions- and challenging some very real and very powerful sources of what has gone haywire in the world.

It seems, in many ways, that Occupy Durham is reflecting this process. As the crowds gathered last Sunday, many people spoke out about their frustrations and hopes. We split into small groups and discussed why we were there and what we wanted out of this. Folks had gathered for many reasons that were tied together by a common thread: we were tired of  being part of the masses who are unheard and hurting, feeling like their voices are being lost in the quiet din of plutocracy, corporate greed, and corrupt politics that have craftily destroyed a major chunk of the democratic process.

I left the assembly feeling encouraged and inspired. People were listening to each other, talking about next steps, wanting to stand in solidarity with Wall Street and at the same time bring it home to Durham- to confront the injustices that are here in our backyards and on our doorsteps. We did not create a list of goals or demands. We did talk about race, class, housing, the environment, economics, sexuality, immigration. Does the movement have all the answers? Oh my, no. There are so many questions right now- and they are directed at so many facets of our society. But in our flawed and imperfect human ways, with our messy movements and our gatherings of people with brilliantly different minds and hearts, we will continue to ask these hard questions and hold these difficult conversations. At no point has a true democratic process been neat. I have no illusion that this will be short or sweet.

The conversations have continued throughout the week, and there is no talk of putting signs away or going home. There is talk, though, of how to channel the emotion that’s splashed across cardboard signs into something permanent, something that is rooted to the ground we stand on. There is talk about how to make this movement last, how to create real and deep change in our city, our country, our world.

Some of the wisest words I’ve ever heard are so simple: Show up. And so we do. We show up in solidarity, we show up for those who can’t because of the color of their skin or because their documentation says they don’t matter or because they’ve been working all week and are tired. And in this time of- can I say hope?-  as we hit the streets to claim the changes we seek, we also seek grounding, we seek foundations, we seek safe spaces in which to root…and then we grow.

In peace and justice,

Emily

 

 

 

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Food Stories for Food Justice

By rachel | Published: September 19, 2011
Over the summer, Tahz and I were blessed with the opportunity to sit down and talk with a range of leaders working in our regional food system. These interviews have helped us prepare for an exciting new series of food justice workshops at The Stone House this winter. It’s been wonderful to engage in such a patient and intentional process, drawing on the vast wisdom of our community and exploring what we, as stone circles, can offer in the service of growing a commitment to justice in our food system.

We began each of these conversations by sharing experiences that have shaped our relationships to food, agriculture, and land. I noticed as my response changed each week, growing and deepening as I reflected on my family and personal history. We then turned the question to our interviewees, inquiring how their own story shapes their work.

As intimately related as all of us are to the food we eat, many of us struggle to uncover these powerful connections. My European-American grandparents and many others of their generation turned away from agricultural backgrounds in favor of the comfort and status of a middle-class, suburban lifestyle. One woman we spoke to shared her poignant experience of discovering as an adult that her family farmed in Palestine. She expressed her deep sorrow at losing this relationship to land, one she is beginning to rebuild as she ventures into the garden that friends installed in her urban front yard.

The primarily white members of the rural community where I grew up mourn this loss, and have sought to return to a sustainable relationship with the land.  While working on several small organic farms and at farmers markets as a young adult, I’ve gradually awakened to the boundaries of this community, defined by complex dynamics of race, class, and culture. As I claim and examine the many forms of privilege that have provided me (and denied others) access to fresh and sustainable food, I am beginning to explore my role in building a more just and equitable food system.
Our interviews have taught me the power of returning to my own story with new eyes, unclouded by shame or fear. What transformation might happen if we honored all our layered stories as valuable—even expert—knowledge? Perhaps we will discover that we already hold the keys to understanding both the current challenges and future possibilities of our relationship to food.
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Time for Rest and Renewal

By Claudia | Published: August 17, 2011

Dear friends,

By the time you receive this newsletter, I will be on a four-month sabbatical.  I was one of five leaders in North Carolina chosen for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s sabbatical award, and am incredibly grateful to the Foundation for the opportunity, and to the staff and board here for making it possible.  After our initial effort to get The Stone House off the ground, and recent effort to keep it going amidst financial crisis, my intention is to see what life is like – and what I am like – with what my friend Ted Purcell calls “unobligated time.”

Occasionally folks wonder if a place like The Stone House might provide its own experience of retreat for those of us who live and/or work here.  It certainly is a gift and a labor of love to be here on this beautiful land, doing this work, and meeting the amazing people that we do.  But, alas, it is not a retreat in the purest sense.
So, after some time on Ocracoke, I’ll be heading to New England to spend time with family and friends: my young-at-heart parents (both of whom turn 75 next year), my 12- and 5-year old nieces, brother, and sister-in-law, as well as some of my dearest friends whom I don’t see enough.   From there I’ll transition into a more solo stretch with an alternating rhythm between road trip and retreat.  I plan to do some writing, a lot of resting, and to be near the ocean as much as possible….and hopefully training for that half-marathon my brother talked me into!

We’ve been through some real challenges over the past year and the organization is moving forward in exciting ways, thanks to many of you.  We’ve done careful planning so that vital work moves forward and strategic outcomes will be met; our “transforming movements” work in particular will be ramping up in the fall.  This sabbatical period is also the beginning of a period of tremendous growth for the organization.  Jennifer has agreed to serve as Acting Executive Director during the period, and the rest of the staff and the stone circles’ Board of Directors (along with many other volunteers, committee members, etc.) will be holding down important leadership roles and responsibilities.  And, it also allows the organization to put a little more distance from its founder, an important step for any growing organization.

Overall, it’s a wonderful chance for us to practice what we preach as an organization on multiple levels – the importance of time for deep rest and reflection, work/life balance and shared leadership. It’s an amazing opportunity and while I’m grateful, I’m also aware how many others deserve it.  I hope you will find your own sliver of sabbatical at some point this summer – an afternoon playing hooky with your kids, a midnight swim, an adventure to a new town…perhaps a retreat of your own at The Stone House?

Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to reconnecting in the fall.

Much peace,
Claudia
Executive Director
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What’s Poppin’ In the Garden?

By Jennifer | Published: August 16, 2011
by Tahz Walker, Land Steward
The beans are blossoming, the squash has come and is on its way out again, cucumbers are plentiful, the chard is full and green and flavorful, and the lettuce is sweet, not bitter. The tomatoes are so very close – a few red ones but mostly still green;  I think any day now.  Each year I am amazed at the bounty that the soil produces and how the soil gets more fertile because of less tilling, more care and some periods of rest. This year alone I scared five or six frogs out of their home by pulling out last year’s ground cover from the garden beds. The soil has come a long way from the hard red clay of a few years ago that baked in the summer heat, was hard to work with, and was difficult to cultivate. Like the process of self-care, the process of growing soil is a restorative one; it can’t be done in one season, it can’t be done in a rush, and usually, if not always, it requires patience.
The sprouting vegetables also get me excited about what our cooks will whip up in the kitchen, maybe some new dishes, maybe some old favorites.  I think about what the groups and individuals that come out for retreat will take away from their experience on the land, in the soil, and from the kitchen.  It continually reminds me of what a gift we have here in the land at The Stone House, and the responsibility we have in making it a space that is accessible, grounded in justice, and in authentic relationships.
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