After retirement, Ruah plans to work for 'Great Turning'

Since I announced my impending retirement as General Secretary in the May-June BeFriending Creation, many readers have asked what I will do post-retirement. Yes, I do plan to spend more time reading good books, gardening, and keeping in touch with my grandchildren on Facebook. But I am still going to be out there promoting Earthcare so those grandchildren can have a better future. I will start by visiting Transition Towns and Sustainable Cities in North America, Europe and Israel/Palestine and writing about what others are doing for a sustainable future.

Since returning from our "Peace for Earth" walk down the West Coast in 2007-2008, Louis and I have thrown ourselves into the Transition Town Initiative in our little town in Vermont, recognizing that the best way to prepare for different climate and a post-petroleum world is to build resilient communities. Only through community can we help each other find the joys of simpler living and provide support when times are tough. We know this well as Friends, but how do we share this with a broader constituency?

The Transition Town movement began in England, using permaculture principles to equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. (See this issue's Quaker Eco-Bulletin.) The methodology they've developed has a lot to do with tapping into the inherent wisdom of a community and the belief that ordinary people have tremendous creative problem-solving capacityas long as they know what the problem is. The movement has member communities in many countries worldwide. (See <www. transitionnetwork.org>.) We have had some successes in our town, and I want to learn from other's successes in order to give others hope and tools.

Although there is a website which reports various activities of the different initiatives, there still isn't a common vision emerging. I hope to reflect these varied successes, struggles, actions, and joys into that vision. After considerable discernment and approval from my Monthly Meeting clearness process, I am responding to a leading to embark on a spiritual journey during 2011 that will be a journey of learning as well. I am planning to visit with organizers of Transition Towns, Sustainable Cities, and "green" initiatives in Europe, Israel/Palestine, and in North America. I will be asking each group a set of questions based on the divisions of the Transition Handbook into "Head, Heart, and Hands."

During this year of hands-on research I will be blogging about my experiences. I hope to compile what I will have learned into a book to help others in the "Great Turning" (as Joanna Macy and David Korten call this time in human history.) How can we learn from the hundreds of initiatives instead of always trying to start our own from scratch? How do we live into a new world if we don't have the vision of what that world might be? I hope my blog and book will share such a vision, with a spiritual foundation and practical tools for action. After completion of the book, I hope to share what I've learned wherever I am invited or wherever I can find a venue, both within and beyond Quaker circles.

One poignant part of the trip is that while I'm overseas I will visit cousins in Israel, Sweden, England, and Scotland whom I may never see again, since as part of my own environmental witness I plan not to fly again after this trip. I believe that the potential outcome of my research is worthy enough to justify the plane travel. As soon as my blog is live, we'll be sure to share it with you so that you can follow my journey.

I will also be spending more time on our little homestead, canning, freezing, and preserving what we grow and hopefully expanding to raising ducks and goats. I am so appreciative of having had the opportunity to work for QEW for the last 16 years. It has been a joy and a challenge. The biggest joy is that I met so many of you and hope we will journey together. I will continue to support and promote QEW and its goals and purposes and hope you will too. •

You can help support Ruah's Transition Town `vision quest'

QEW is raising funds to help with Ruah's sabbatical project. You can contribute directly to her fund through QEW; just earmark it for "Ruah."

An anonymous donor is matching 1:2—up to $2,000—any donations that are in excess of your last year's contribution to QEW. Of that amount, 50 percent will go to the QEW General Fund and 50 percent will go to Ruah's fund.

You can follow Ruah's blog at <www.transition vision.blogspot.com> beginning in October 2010. •