What is your community like?

When you think of your community, who comes to mind? What beings do you include? What does community mean to you?

This is the perfect question for me to find tonight.  I have just returned from an amazing day.  At work, lots of, lots of, lots of data entry must be done.  We have to switch to a new computer aided dispatch system.  It's stressful for many of us.  I do enjoy change though and challenge, so it's okay with me.  My work community is filled with hard workers, smart folks, conscientious and giving people.  I'm lucky and also, it's not just luck.  I've contributed to my work community being the way that it is.  I have a choice in each work relationship.  My relationships have really grown and deepened over the twelve years that I've worked there, much of it is because I have grown. 

After work I wandered the streets of Aspen town for a couple of hours before going to the FREE Architecture Lecture.  Town was filled with happy summery people.  kids playing in the fountain and on the playground equipment right next door to the outdoor restaurants and cafes.  Musicians on every street corner downtown.  A cellist.  A banjo player.  A string quartet.  A big band.  Bicycles everywhere.  And the pedicabs (I'm going to be driving one tomorrow evening-- yippee!!). 

I wandered into the Big Wrap, the yummy healthy wrap place and called Adam who was still working, to see if he wanted anything.  He did, so I picked up a burrito for him and walked down to the Mountain Rescue Cabin to drop it off on my way to the Aspen Institute. 

I was a little early for the lecture, so I found a nice spot of grass under a tree and just looked up at the sky for awhile.  When it started to rain I went inside and read The Aspen Idea, all about the Institute and what they stand for-- values based leadership.  Soon it was time for the lecture. 

I love, love, love architecture lectures because of the amazing diversity of problems the architects are faced with.  I love hearing them talk about how they solve the problems of sight and usage and energy and materials and design-- how they make all the puzzle pieces come together.  Tonight I was so fortunate to get to hear Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos speak.  Wow!  I don't even know where to start.  All of the projects he showed us were astounding.  And every single one incorporated a deep respect for the earth, it's resources and it's people.  He cares about community.  He cares about humanity.  He cares about all the puzzle pieces that make up the big picture.  How do I know?  Because all of his projects reflect that reguard.  He makes me want to be an architect when I grow up.  Of course, almost all of the architecture lectures do that.  But tonight's talk went above and beyond.  Mr Norten and his team are rehabilitating a UNESCO cultural heritage site in Mexico City.  They will clean the water using energy from biomass that is grown right at the sight, preserving a way of life (growing vegtables and flowers) while also creating an energy source, at the same time creating a new civic space and he is incorporating all of this into his architectural plan.  The whole project will be entirely off the grid.  And he is passionate about it!  It gave me SUCH renewed hope and joy for the world.  for humanity. 

After the lecture I meandered back to the Mountain Rescue Cabin, the home base and command center for Search and Rescue.  Adam was still working (MRA is essentially a part of the Sheriff's Department- it's complicated) because of a Rescue in the Maroon Bells area. MRA (Mountain Rescue Aspen) members are volunteers.  They take time ouf of their own busy lives to train for, organize and run searches and rescues in our amazing backcountry.  They willingly, even happily, head out into the Wilderness with big backpacks to help injured climbers, skiers, hikers, etc or lost ones and often end up spending cold nights out.  I gave Adam a brownie to help keep his energy level up (he'd been at work since 7am and it was almost 9pm) and headed out to catch a bus home. 

Even the bus driver and the other passengers made me think of community.  I loved how the bus was nearly full.  If everyone of us on the bus had been driving our own car, then how much more congestion and pollution?  Wow.  I said a silent thank you to every other passenger. 

I am more than blessed to live in this magical community.  I would like for everyone to be so blessed. 

And then, a few moments here at Gaia.  Another wonderful part of my life.  I love, love, love this life.  Thank you Gaia for giving me a place to share my love of it. 

(I'll apologize in advance for any typos.  I'm typing fast so as to be able to get some laundry going and get to bed so I can work early in the morning and then ride the pedicab from 5 to 9pm.  If you're in Aspen and need a non polluting way across town tomorrow night, I'm you're grrrrl.  :-))