Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Spring Blossoms (Winter check in)

Spring has sprung and I am happy to be celebrating in my small rainforest home in Robert’s Creek, BC. It is important to recognize and honour the changing of the seasons for many reasons, but mainly to recognize the earths cycles. The more in tuned we can become with the natural rhythms of the ecosystems, the more in tune we can become with ourselves and better integrate with nature… because we are inherently a part nature.



The new year brought me new adventures as i moved to where i now call home on the Sunshine Coast off of Vancouver. It was quite a journey for me, moving to a brand new place, but one of the most beautiful experiences of my life so far. Winter for me is a lot of going internal, letting go, and clearing space for the new to arrive. I definitely did do a lot of this in order to feel grounded in the choice to join a new community while trying to stay connected to already existing ones.
Photo by Dana S Wilson

 Since my arrival, i have been welcomed with open arms which has allowed me to feel integrated into the community right away. I have truly felt a sense of home here that i have yet to find anywhere else so far. I feel especially blessed to have the most amazing land mate ever. We share meals multiple times a week, work on the land together and share an office space. She is one of my dearest friends and i could not ask for a more aligned person to share space with!

after one short month of integration i went back to Calgary for an epic level 3 weeks of taking courses, learning, teaching and meeting. It was interesting to see how fast my body adjusted to the weather on the coast as when i went east, by whole body was in shock! I also realized how challenging it was to be back in the city, but what made it amazing was being surrounded by family, cosmic community and to be doing what i love.

 I took some fun technology training with Learning through the arts and then taught 3 full days of sessions with grade ones around seasonal change. It was tons of fun and i even got to have my good friend join me, which was a great support for the rowdy kidlets .


 In between the days with the 60 little light beings, i taught the second session of my design course and a sold out introduction to Permaculture class! The design course was a pleasure as always and was super full and exciting with 5 different guest teachers (all of which were some of my dearest friends)

 
In preparation for my classes i continued work on my diploma and made 3 new prototypes for games on Soil, water and trees, and on that note, i have continued working on 3 books for the AREA and a diploma folio that showcases the work i have done over the past 2 years.  These books should be released by my next check in!


I also got to meet with 3 lovely ladies to discuss more about Mark Lakeman coming to Calgary.  We are excited to announce that he will be in the city from July 17- 20th doing multiple events.  Stay tuned for more information coming soon!


Upon arriving home, I was offered a few new opportunities. I am now the Food Systems Network Coordinator for One Straw (www.onestraw.ca) , a super amazing local organization promoting food sovereignty and community resiliency across the coast , I was asked to become the coordinator for the new community garden in Seschelt and as of today, have also been invited to coordinate the gardens at 3 group homes for mentally diffabled (differently abled) people, though the details for this are still being worked out.

                        
      

Another amazing opportunity that has come up is to teach a PDC with Delvin my mentor and dear friend. At this time, we still have to fill the course to run it, but if all goes well we will teach a full design certificate together! I am super excited for this opportunity to co facilitate with one of the most inspiring teachers i have yet to meet! I also feel we are able to offer a unique niche in teaching with a well balanced male and female team :)
To promote the course and deepen our teaching connection, we taught 2 free intro days on the sunshine coast and in Vancouver together this month. www.langara.bc.ca



 On the teaching note, i have also taught a Permaculture and Placemaking class as part of the City Commons course which i have been lucky enough to help organize in Vancouver with a few of my dear friends (who are totally amazing to work with!). There are still spaces left to drop in on courses over the coming months. Visit www.vancouvercitycommons.ca for details. Some of my contributions have been to make a few posters to promote the full course and individual sessions. I have enjoyed the opportunity to practice graphic design and learn the skill a bit more.






Art wise, i have been continuing on with doing the energy portraits.  These tie my Reiki practice with visionay art.  I take clients on a journey to their highest selves and then tap into their field and then draw their chakras and write poetry to represent their passions and gifts.  The portraits are meant to act as a reminder of who we really are and help us to stay connected to ourselves as we go through challenging times.  Here a couple that i have recently worked on:






On our land (the Forest Atrium) we have been having meetings trying to see the way forward with plans. We are trying hard to change the existing bylaws so that there can be many multi tiny dwelling sites along the coast. We are also working the details for our communal space which will be an earth ship style structure with modifications based on our climate, and I have started brainstorming my home! I have been learning about trees and shrubs more as i have been pruning the blueberries and weeding the blackberries as well as helping clear trees so that we can have firewood, mulch and more light! It is a lot to learn! This entire few months of experience has brought so many wonderful lessons, including taking time to integrate.



A few weeks ago, i had a mini melt down and couldnt stop crying! I asked myself, “why are you crying? Your life is amazing, and you are been graced with so many gifts?” so i thought and i thought as i cried and cried, and then finally surrendered to the tears, realizing maybe i just needed to let something go. Then it came to me, “ you have almost completely changed your entire life in the span of 60 days! New home, new region, new community, new roles and new goals!” wow, i guess that is enough to slightly overwhelm one… but it also taught me that we are resilient and more than anything so blessed. Although it can be stressful, we are adaptable. We can make BIG change and we will be OKAY! In fact, we will often be rewarded with beautiful results!

 Looking back, everything about the experience was perfect and it taught me the importance of taking time to slow down and observe. (this seems to be reoccurring lesson in my life, which to me highlights the importance!) I would like to make a goal to take a moment at least once a day to take a deep breathe, and just observe what is happening, feel into my heart and check in. If i can do this, things can only get better as i deepen my awareness of myself and my environment. I encourage you to do the same and see what magic comes from this!

As one last note, I have created my first ever video blog to compliment my written blog, if you would like to check it out, here is the link

 Heart felt thanks for your ever support and inspiration on my continued journey,
 kym chi

Friday, January 10, 2014

2013 - Year in Review

 So I guess in the whirlwind of this thing we call life, I abandoned my blog for a little over a year! oops!

Well here I am, finding myself  spending the last week visioning and scheming about what i want my 2014 to look like, and reminiscing about my 2013.  

Since many of us have such busy lives, i thought that sharing a  journey through my year would be a good way to connect with everyone and give a glimpse into the life of kym chi!

I encourage you to leave comments, ask question or share your own journey if you feel compelled. I would love to hear about your life too! <3

 The past year was one of the most transformational yet! In January, i had all kinds of plans for the year and by April all the plans had flown out the window.

 The year started with doing some work in Fort McMurray. For those of you that don't know, i have been working on a pretty inspiring project there with Learning Through the Arts where we are involved with a program to help keep youth in school and teachers reach differentiated learning styles. Our main focus is to teach the standard curriculum with our art form, offering more experiential education, but what makes Fort Mac so special is that we also work closely with First Nations and help them to share stories of colonialism and residential schools. The experience has been very eye opening for me as i had also not known the full truth and it explained to me a lot about our current paradigm. It warms my heart that the healing process is starting with the sharing of our histories truth and as we progress i see it acting as a catalyst in bridging our cultures.

 After being away for half of the month,  I feverishly prepared for the final session of a year long Permaculture design course at the Chapel of the Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) in New York in February. This course was pivotal in my life for many reasons.

photo credit: www.scottcorman.com

 CoSM has held a special place with me for a very long time. The founders (Alex and Allyson Grey) have been mentors/ heroes of mine and have very similar goals to me.  "The Mission of CoSM, is to build an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire every pilgrim's creative path and embody the values of love and perennial wisdom." (from their website) www.cosm.org.

Being able to travel there 4 times in one year to invite Permaculture into my life more deeply and share some of my gifts was a true blessing. During my time there, i met life long friends, an amazing Permaculture mentor and one of my deepest cosmic buddies.
I  had opportunities to learn,

photo credit: www.scottcorman.com

and to teach,
photo credit: www.scottcorman.com

 connect with some ancestors of the land
photo credit: www.scottcorman.com

 and reconnect with my cosmic creativity through the building of Galactik Trading Card displays :)
http://elvism.net/
photo credit: www.scottcorman.com

Being on 40 acres of land that hosted a visionary art retreat centre was vastly different than my crazy Calgarian urban setting, and allowed me to truly integrate the permaculture teaching of observation.  One of my key contributions was helping co create a mapping book that tracks the wind, water and sun pathways, as well as identifies the many beings living there.



As part of my design presentation, i created a guided mediation that presented what CoSM could be like in 20 years with a permaculture design.  I was lucky enough to be able to read it during a full moon gathering!
photo credit: www.scottcorman.com

 If you would like to learn more about the course check out this short video http://vimeo.com/61135493

Coming back to Calgary refreshed and inspired. I taught my very first sold out Introduction to Permaculture course.
 My dear friend Brendan and I  helped plan a large event at the AREA that introduced the membership program i had developed with the board.   Using a grant Brendan awesomely acquired, we coordinated the free evening that consisted of food, art, music, talks and slideshows to honour how far we have come and to share how we were moving forward.   We sold a number of memberships and created vast interest in what the AREA was all about.

The membership program was one facet of a new structure of the organization that would hopefully help create longevity for the space. Little did we know, one short week later, the city would shut us down. They told us we did not have the proper permits. We spent time trying to figure out what the next step was and it was leaning towards possibly giving up. It was a sad time for all of us and a moment that would redirect me onto a whole new path.

 At the same time, my good friend and Permaculture mentor was due for a visit. We got to have what i thought was one last chance to teach an advanced Permaculture day in the space. It felt like a great way to close and honour the AREA.


That same weekend that i realized that although i dearly love the community, Calgary was not my heart's home. I set intentions to move to BC, though i was not sure how or where and didn't really have time to figure it out yet as i was heading back to Fort McMurray and still dealing with the aftermath of the AREA's closure, as now many young entreprenuers and community minded folk were without a space.

 May came quickly and the AREA although closed, decided to keep on trying.  We remained in discussions with the city that seemed to go nowhere and so the long process continued. I went to BC where i got to do some co teaching of Permaculture on the coast. It was awesome to teach with one of my mentors and see how well we could collaborate.

I started to work with my awesome friend Lisa on some gardening projects. They werent exactly Permaculture, but it gave us lots of time to scheme about ideas for a new community project in Sunnyside called ContainR.  As we weeded, we visioned about the 2 yr placemaking site where we would be installing a new Permaculture demonstration site.  Although short term, this gave me hope for Calgary as by this time i was really missing the AREA.  Gardening with Lisa also gave me an amazing opportunity to spend some nights in her and her families ultra inspiring off grid straw bale home.  It was nice to be away from the city, enjoying good converstation and watching the starlit sky.

I spent alot of my time preparing for one of the busiest times of the year, summer! I attended a great festival in June called Inshala www.inshala.ca, where I taught 2 classes there including kids permaculture. It was nice to relax in nature and with community for a few days. It felt like a calm before a storm… literally.

 I came home to finish organizing for a 6 day teacher training i was hosting with an amazing teacher, Michael Becker from Hood River, Oregon. Michael successfully transformed his grade 6, 7 and 8 classrooms into gardens and greenhouses where all of his classes are taught (*My hero!*).
The day before his arrival, flood evacuations began. When i awoke the next morning i was on the island of Ramsay and most of Calgary's inner city was under water.


I had to quickly decide if we should cancel the course. I had people flying in from across Canada and the city was in a state of emergency. It was a tough decision, but then i realized that Permaculture is all about resiliency, and what would be more activated for Calgary than to have 22 high level Permaculture people together for 6 days learning how to share it.



 The day before the class began, my mentor, two close friends and i hosted another advanced class where we did a design for disaster charette on site of the actual flood, which gave some great perspective on using conscious design that could avoid things like this happening again.



The rest of the week was a whirlwind, but i learned many things from the amazing Michael Becker who really taught me the importance of reaching people in a way that they can access information and also the importance of self care (which many of us healer types can easily forget) The greatest gift of the the week was being able to connect with 2 wonderful beings from a guild i am a part of.


 Their ever support through the week was unwavering and we got to do some great brainstorming for future projects. At the time we all lived in different parts of the globe, so it made it very special to connect together over that length of time.

The last surprise of the whole adventure was connecting with my dear friend from Vancouver. She arrived at the Michael Becker event close to the end with camera in hand, recorded his public talk http://vimeo.com/74904208 and documented the class in action as we taught an introduction to Permaculture class to 50 students! Also, the kicker... we got to do it all at the AREA as it was one of the only venues not affected by the flood.

                                                     Photo Credit: www.mortalcoilmedia.com
           
To top it all off as i sent Michael back off to Portland, another one of my heroes Mark Lakeman was landing in Calgary to do a talk for the crime prevention conference. My surprise friend from Vancouver and I had just been talking about him and somehow ended up picking him up from the airport! We all shared a lovely tea together and i realized how truly awesome Mark is.

Although it was a full on week, it is always refreshing to spend time among common people who deeply share your passions. 

Barely letting it "all" sink in,  I jetted off to Astral Harvest (www.astralharvest.com), a multi media festival in northern Alberta focusing on music, art, conferences, healing and more! Last year I taught 3 workshops there and fell in love with the location, vibe and community.

This year, i was asked to take on another role as environmental coordinator (or site beauty). It was fun to see how things go from the other side and to work with such amazing people that are super open to making the festival more environmentally friendly. My personal goal is not to see festivals leave no trace, but to leave a regenerative trace :) We will see what we can do!

 In August i had a great opportunity to go to OUR Ecovillage on the island to spend 6 days in a training with Starhawk, a highly activated elder in the Permaculture, pagan and activist community.

                                                     Photo Credit: Dana Wilson, www.mortalcoilmedia.com

This courses main focus was on group dynamics, conflict resolution and non violent communication.  Being quite the talker (as many of you know),  I decided to spend most of the course as an observer.  It was a great experience to watch the interactions of the class, and I learnt alot from the instructors and my co students in this viewing state.

The most inspiring thing that happened while away, was reconnecting with my artist side.  In my  time, I started to draw and gave a couple drawings away as gifts.


It was inspiring to connect this way as I did not consider myself someone who can draw, and it sparked an interest in me to practice more.

September brought some auspiciousness into my life as i was able to live with the Leaf Ninjas ( + Sierra)  for a stint.  It was a true blessing not only to live with some of my dearest friends, but also to deepen our relationships and to be in a space that was fully in line with my values.

We had lots of fun wild foraging, and just all around being silly.
                                                     (seabuckthorn is my new favorite!)

It was definitely nice to live in a chill environment, as my month was quite busy outside of the home front.  One of the main projects was a Permaculture installation at my friend Jay and Kylee's.  There were about 7 of us who spent a day in the pooring rain putting in a seed of life mandala garden.  Thank goodness for the community coming together and making it fun,  or i am not sure i could have done it!


 Still being inspired by my art connection at Starhawk, I felt called to start a new service called Energy Portraits.  I seem to have a gift to see into peoples hearts, really recognizing their true potential and their inherent gifts.  I also see energy through my Reiki practice.  Really wanting to dedicate myself to my art practice more and  having a long time goal of  helping people connect with their creative self expression and self love made offering these the perfect thing.  I put the word out and the next thing I knew i had 10 people wanting portraits!  I truly enjoy the experience of creating these drawings and seeing the benefit they have on the recipients is awesome!


October was also a super awesome month. I went to Vancouver for the Living the New Economy Conference http://neweconomy.ca/.  This was a 6 day conference all about alternative ways to move forward and create a new paradigm of the way we look at our economy.  There were way too many awesome events to highlight, but my all time most favorite part of the whole week was the first day where my my friends and I got to spend the whole day with Mark Lakeman. 


It was our second time meeting and as I learn more about Mark, I respect him more and more, and can't wait to continue learning from him in the coming months!  Here is a link to one of his awesome presentations with Ian McKenzie: https://soundcloud.com/ianmackenz/living-the-new-economy-keynote.The rest of the week was quite inspiring and i loved the way it was expressed that the new economy is truly the new community! YAY!

During my trip, I took a jaunt over to the Sunshine Coast where I visited some close friends and stayed with Dana (one of my favorite people) in her beautiful tiny home.  http://www.gaiacraft.com/forest-atrium It was during that stay that plans fell into place for my move to BC.  It was a sigh of relief for me as it had been a long time coming and my heart was full knowing that it was going to happen. 

 I always try to make my trips to nature as long as possible, so i hurried back to Calgary to do a couple of speaking engagements and then hopped into the first session of my first ever 4 season Permaculture design course.  I was super excited to have 20 super high level students enrolled in the class.  I was completely in awe of how amazing they all were and i learnt so much in such a short time that I will implement into future sessions.

It was extremely empowering to share what i have been learning over the past 3 years with such an open and brilliant group.  I am in anticipation of the rest of the course and cant wait to see where each individual goes with it all!

It also gave me a great opportunity to try out some of the teaching tools i have been developing.
Which brings me to another large highlight of the year. As some of you know, last summer i was asked to join a guild (group) with a few other Permaculturists from across the globe, called Gaiacraft. We act as a platform for open sourced education, and one of my contributions is to create a series of teaching tools for Permaculture. So far I have prototypes for 4 games and i am hoping to have them released in the next year.


Currently there are some tools available that my mentor has created with other guild members, please check them out (www.gaiacraft.com) and download them or purchase the print on demand versions if you feel called.  Keep an eye out for more coming soon!

In conjunction with the teaching tools, I am still working hard on my Permaculture Diploma focusing in Education.  Part of my documentation will be an AREA legacy book along with a mapping and design folio , and a book that will show my diploma learning journey.   They are all in process and will hopefully be ready to release soon! 

November also brought the news that after over a 6 month journey with the city, the AREA would not be reopening and was being sold.  This was a true sign that it was time to carry on.  I had been feeling quite displaced since our closure, but knew that the AREA would live on in some form.

December approached and I realized it was time to start figuring out the logistics of my move.  With everything happening so quickly throughout the year, i really felt like i was learning to live in the moment.  You almost dont have a choice when things happen so fast. 

I had moved out of the Ninjas and decided to couch surf for a few weeks in as I was leaving to invermere soon and then heading further west.  

It was a tough month as it seemed like things just werent going right.  I left my purse on the bus and had some money stolen, my hours got cut for work and my van (Galaxy) broke down a mere 5 days before i was supposed to leave.  I wondered if for some reason I was not supposed to go, but my intuition strongly told me to have faith, and that it was time to move on.

I have always believed in community and have been someone who has really desired to help the greater whole, but sometimes i have a hard time accepting it back. It was in a time of need that i finally opened myself to receiving, and it was amazing.

Not only did i have safe, cozy and awesome community places to stay (without any stress) for the 3 weeks, (thanks Ramsay house, Nicole, Esther, Dustin and Amanda!)  but i had people helping me out with my van, and even a dear friend (you know who you are, and thanks!) gifting me money which helped pay for Galaxy to get fixed so she was road worthy again.  

In the midst of it all, i was doing interviews with various community members for a book i am making for the AREA as a legacy. It was amplified even more through this, just how amazing our community is and the importance and value of honoring those we have in our lives.

It was a beautiful note to leave Calgary on, to know how truly blessed I have been to share space with such amazing individuals. I am infinitely grateful and profoundly humbled. I know i will be back, but it was still a bittersweet goodbye.


Off I went with my friend Dana, Galaxy and all of my possessions in tow to the coast where i now reside in the heart of Robert's Creek, BC.  :)  http://goo.gl/maps/ShTWB



As I reflect on the year, there were many lessons learned, journies travelled and relationships forged.  It was shaky for me as I didnt really have anything "planned", but it all came toghether.  I feel a sense of freedom in letting go, infinite gratitude for the wonderfull beings in my life and a deep sense of faith in opening myself to possibilities.  So here is to another amazing year on a new adventure! May all of the seeds you plant germinate and grow into thier full potential! 

Love allways,
kym chi

Monday, December 3, 2012

Fall Updates

Hello from the depths of adventure land where time has been lost in the depths of experience!

 The last couple months have been a dream and I have realized that I have not blogged since last in New York for part 2 of Visionary Permaculture.  I didn’t even do a true review of September.

 So, now that things are slowing as we enter the darkness of winter, here is a quick synopsis:

 In September I:

- Finished up a Permaculture Design project and implememntation in Riverbend which included a rain garden, mini forest garden and an annual mandala bed.
-Spent a good portion if time working on a deisgn for a local Calgary homebuilder.
-Attended Evolver and Permaculture Guild meetings.
-Continued the volunteer program at the AREA.
- Coordinated the new Inglewood and Ramsay Farmers market
- Helped to plan the awesome Abundance Festival.

Here is a great photo from the Farmers Market


 I did all of this before a special trip to New York for the Equinox and the Visionary Permaculture course. September was a whirlwind for sure. I had just returned from doing festivals all summer and was learning how to get in the flow of creating my own schedule since leaving my job. It took a few weeks to get into a good flow. It is very interesting getting into this new way of living and I have been excited to get deeper and deeper into the Permaculture consciousness.

 September ended with a bang with the celebration of the Abundance Festival and led into a very interesting October.

 In the first 2 weeks of the month we did our final harvests of the AREA garden and put it to bed. We also did a huge compost revamping and started to create the hoop houses out of willow branches and they look so beautiful!

Wintery Willow Hoop houses 

 I am looking forward to seeing the completion of the beds over the winter and early spring.

 I spent a good portion of October preparing curriculum to teach my very first introduction to Permaculture Course, I was so happy with the way it turned out! I had 5 amazing students in my class and learned so much from our guild. I am very excited to teach it again with some small upgrades and modifications.

 There were a few endings, the Farmer’s Market came to conclusion, as well as the garden volunteer program (just for the season) and my internship with Verge Permaculture.

 The last week of October was spent in Fort McMurray starting my first ever session of Learning Through The Arts teaching. This is a unique program that pairs artists with teachers to teach the traditional school curriculum more creatively. This contract lasted for 3 full weeks and involved me flying to and from Fort McMurray every week. It was nice to be able to come home on the weekends but it made for a lot of travel!  So far this is one of the most challenging things I have done, the school system is severely broken and classrooms are so large that it makes it almost impossible to reach the kids.  It is so worth being there, even if it reaches one student, I am able to learn about the way the system works in preparation for a full permaculture redesign!

November brought with it a ton of adventure, starting with an epic teacher training on the Sunshine coast in BC with Larry Santoyo and Scott Pittman.  Over 5 days we were able to glean some pretty special stuff from them as well as have a great opportunity to teach.

Here I am doing my teaching segment Larry and Scott are on either side of me :)


For my segment I used a brand new template of a game that i am developing that teaches the Permaculture principles. It worked out really great and i got alot of fantastic feedback that will help me improve it and make it super awesome for its release in the new year.

At the teacher training i had a special Diploma meeting with Scott, Larry and Delvin and then made a special promise to Larry that i would teach Permaculture Design Courses.  i very rarely make promises so this was very meaningfull. There are very few female teachers out there, so I will hopefully be the next!

Another extremely potent meeting that happened during the adventure was meeting 2 very special members of Gaiacraft, a Permaculture education initiative i was recently invited to join. Gaiacraft is changing the way we share education, keep an eye out for my teaching tools to be on the site in the new year!  You can also get some great tools on the site now that Delvin, Lunaya and few others created together. I am so grateful to be apart of this inspiring project and look forward to the many collaborations it will bring. Our website is: www.gaiacraft.com

Here we are gaian visionaries and core Gaiacraft crew: Shane, Kym, Lunaya and Delvin!

After the teacher training i spent a few days in Roberts Creek and helped Delvin in his gardens to create a special guild in a new bed in the heart gardens called Alabaster Terrace.

Me and Del in the garden :)

After the coast I stayed in Vancouver with close family friends for a few days and got to catch up with some special people.  I also got to collaborate with a great friend Heather on some new teaching tools she graciously offered to help create!

Then it was off for a short trip to Portland where I stayed with another core Gaiacraft member Keala.  What a great host.  We made the most of our time checking out city repair sites, meeting Michael Becker (one of my biggest heroes of all time),  doing a kundalini chakra dance class, walking up Mount  Taber, attending a Thanksgiving ceremony, touring the planet repair institute and pulling an all nighter to do some visioning on the CoSM site.  It was such a dense and inspiring time!
Me and Keala at a City Repair site

Planet Repair Institute

Me, Michael Becker and Keala

After leaving Portland I flew to New York where I am now, staying at the beautiful CoSM retreat.  I have been here for over a week and there is much to share, but alas that will come in its own special post!

If you are interested in any details regarding any events in this post, I will be creating individual posts about my internship, teacher training, teaching tools, Planet repair , Michael Becker and the Visionary Permaculture course on my Giggling Chi Tree blog.

As a last remark, I would like each of you reading to know that I am grateful for your presence in my life, we are living in such a special time and every interaction we have is so meaningful.

Love and blessing to all beings, 
kym chi