When we describe the United States, “sustainable” is not usually the first word that comes to mind. Our nation is the leading contributor to global warming, and high material consumption has long been taken for granted. But in little pockets across this country, people are forming communities that embrace environmental sustainability as a way of life. And not only environmental sustainability, but social sustainability too. We’re starting to learn that in order to form communities that can endure and thrive, we must not only manage our ecological resources wisely, but also our personal and emotional resources. We must learn to care for and understand each other if we are to form truly sustainable communities.
This Saturday, an exciting new film, Within Reach, enjoys its world premiere in Berkeley. The film chronicles a young couple’s 19-month bicycle journey across the U.S. in their search for what they call “sustainable communities.” They visited 100 communities that seek to live sustainably, exploring not only how these communities interact with the Earth, but also how they practice commerce, how they raise children, and how they build a cohesive social structure. The communities visited are diverse: they range from an electricity-free “radically simplistic” farmstead in Missouri, to a household of Buddhists in Wisconsin (who flourish while spending only $40 each per month on food), to the urban, creative Berkeley Student Housing Co-ops right in our backyard. Not all visits were harmonious—on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, the filmmakers were chased out of a secluded squatter community by an unstable man—but overall, the directors Ryan and Mandy discovered that living in loving harmony was a common thread amongst these communities, which not only brought them together but also sustains them.
At Café Gratitude, we attempt to cultivate a loving, supported community--a socially-sustainable community!—that is also nourished in an environmentally sustainable way. After all, shouldn’t the two go hand-in-hand? More importantly, can they exist without each other? For when we learn to love each other, the people around us, we learn that we can extend this love to future generations as well by protecting our environment. And when we take care of our planet, we nourish all her people. Achieving a sustainable nation may still be a long-term goal, but we can start right now in our own communities.
Lately, I am so present to how important it is for me to be in integrity and be a good role model for those coming up behind me.
With my Great-Grandmother passing on last week, I am fully present to how blessed my life is and how it wouldn't have been possible without her (and all of the Grandmothers who have come before me). I realize how blessed I am to have known my Great-Grandmother and to have had her in my life for so long. I was truly raised by a village. Not only did I know her, but I lived with her, was raised by her, held by her. I come from a line of powerful women. My Great-Grandmother, Grandmother, Aunt, and my Mother all raised me. Alongside them stood my Great-Grandfather, Grandfather, Uncle, and (step)Father (who fully stepped in to be my father and take me as his first child when I was a baby). They've watched me grow, learn, stumble, get up, take a stand, love, find myself, be myself, graduate, get married, move away, move back home, loving me through it all. Through them, through my Great-Grandmother, I have learned (lived) community. Living with her has taught me so much about loving and taking care of each other. It was never anything that was considered as a decision in my family. It was just what we did for each other, even when it was hard. It was (is) a way of being.