In Part I, Thinking Beyond, I spoke about first steps. The personally driven ones that come from my most inner Ring of Resilience - myself. I’ve got to decide what I can do. Want to do. Then I commit to those things by anchoring the activities in my home.This gives those pursuits the respect of a real space to do them, and gives me the ability to grow the habit of folding them into my regular life - so important with new, or renewed transition skills!
But something more happens when we anchor in place: Together, we and our house now offer our community that skill. We become a Local Asset, a gift to our neighborhood and town.
I love that my abilities, inclinations, passions,and quirky loves make my community more unique and resilient. In fact, I see the goal of a Transition Town as coaxing all these individuals' skills and “making passions” out of as many of us as possible so they are alive and available. To get the full breadth and depth of what our town's resources really can be.
There’s a man who bought a lovely home in the hilly streets of my City a few years ago. When I walk my dog past his home in the afternoons, the garage door is usually up and he has moved some woodworking project out to his driveway into the natural light. For the longest time, I just smiled at him as I walked by. But TJ told me to look into his garage next time. Yesterday I finally did.
He has broken through the back of the garage and incorporated all the house space behind it into what is his labor of love. And what a workspace he’d created: Clean pegboards with every woodworking hand tool I’ve ever heard about, including those fine Japanese blades. His work table is ringed with the table, band and scroll saws and a long table holds his rip saw. The drill press lives just next to that so he could easily move around from one to the other and back to his worktable for assembly and finish. It is beautifully thought out, and amazingly professional. Hmm, perhaps a bit too neat to be an everyday business. But now I understand the man in a new way when he stands there lovingly planing a door. Intent, and content, I’ll bet.
On one level, it matters little if it is a business or just this man’s beloved hobby. He does it with attention and care.That’s a good energy to put into his home and my town. Thank you. I will introduce myself next time and get to know this man who smells of wood shavings! (And yes, it harkens back to my wonderful husband who did as well. So first, it’s a new connection.)
On another level, knowing he’s there also means he can possibly be my and TJ’s local woodworker if we need something turned or crafted beyond our own skills. I’ve got a master walking distance from my door. He can expand what I can have done. What a gift to me.
On yet another level, as transitional needs become more acute, his skill could become a local business right in our town. His space is large enough to hire a “coupla” journey people. Anchoring and folding his love into his home gives him options as the world changes and possibly offer a few others jobs the town can really use.
Lastly, if teaching is his bent, he could choose to take on a young apprentice or two to help our community keep the skill local and grow it beyond himself now and then after him. Succession is so much a part of Transition Town-ing. Ahhh, all that from commiting a space to the abilities of our hands and hearts!
This is what it means to become a Local Asset.
So what are your loves? Quilting, playing piano, storytelling, teaching, woodworking, reading, bread-making? It need not be a craft. Can you bring culture, offer economic opportunity, education, encourage social cohesion. How do you DO resilience?
I mentioned early in my post about Toadhall, that this very unique space in our home was my Local Asset, a space I got to use and offer my neighborhood. I told you how Toadhall broadened all the ideas about what I could do, and did, in my house and with my community. That is true.
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