A Future Story of One City…

This is a future story of one city, among many…

I tell a story now of a time just a few years in the future; a story about the Golden Innovation that gave cityfolk a new lifestyle choice and created abundance for all as governments and corporate structures collapsed. Here, we consider one city only; the interconnection of OhGs in cities around the world, each unique and individually designed to meet the needs of the communities they serve, saved and set Humanity on a whole new tangent.

Our story begins about 3 years after the establishment of the first Our Heart Gardens (OhGs or the Gardens) in Kamloops, BC, Canada. We look first at the effect it has had on the Downtown area of the city and the people who benefit most visibly, and then at four families living in different communities within the city…

In the centre of the city the atmosphere has changed – there’s no panhandlers or people sitting hopelessly on the sidewalks, people with shopping carts full of all of the best they have, without anywhere good to go; nothing good to do. The Welfare office doesn’t have line-ups anymore… where is everybody?

They’ve found better places to be–

• some go to the downtown Our Heart Gardens to access services or volunteer for tasks (the City and the University have teams that work and eat together wherever they are).

• coffee with breakfast draws people in, and once in, they bathe, do laundry, stash their stuff and participate!

• others have gone up to the Sa-Hali OhGs where they can help in the Gardens and listen to Grandfather Weston (we’ll come back to him), and others, tell tales. They can access services there too, including different wellness practices, where their needs provide students with hands-on experience.

• OhGs’ computers provide everyone access to the experience and education held by the entire OhGs distributed network. “Social Argonauts” explore online and provide search services to their community, share online stories, commentaries, documentaries and virtual synchronized world-wide ceremonies. They facilitate voting on issues both close and far-reaching; and create films and documentaries about their own OhGs, and the people and lands it serves.

• Some people find ways to do, in OhGs, things they did when they worked for money: teach, coach, sew, cook or serve in the restaurant, etc. It supports self-confidence, the synergy of OhGs, and the passing on of knowledge and skills.

• Participants and staff of Our Heart Gardens co-create a place where everyone is welcome, everyone can get their needs met, or get help to find new ways that work.

• The big old brick school was a perfect building to re-purpose – no longer up to code for schoolchildren, it provides lots of space and a prime location.

Downtown, the corporate bustle is gone; the retail frenzy is over but there’s prosperous shops, lots of flowers, people walking, laughing, enjoying street music…

OhGs! What’s an Our Heart Gardens?

When many people come together as a community, many needs can be satisfied. In OhGs, stories have happy endings, as well as happy trails:

• Man, 26 years old, works long hours and has no time to find friends – he came because OhGs is better than the alternatives. It’s not expensive; he gets to be with others, get a good meal – and he’s met a nice girl!

• Woman, 35, works hard all day and misses her family but Kamloops is where the job is. OhGs is where she comes to get her hair cut, do her laundry and laugh with the ladies in the Moon Room.

• Boy, 17, kicked out of his family’s home – came to eat, find a place to sleep and figure out what to do

• Girl, 19, pregnant and beaten – came for sanctuary and help

• Man, 65, fixed income, rent increased; came to access rental lists; lonely; hungry – finds a friend to share a place!

• Woman, 72, lonely – came to share her story, wisdom gleaned in her long life. She has time and money and likes to be part of things. She buys her meals at OhGs because they’re good, nutritious, and she doesn’t have to cook. Casinos take her money & give nothing!

• Young Man, 19, takes meds for Clinical Depression and cannot hold a job because of side-effects and appointments – finds the OhGs atmosphere uplifting and he’s feeling better; no extra appointments needed. He’s hopeful it’s a trend!

• Young Woman, 23, broken home, broken life – comes to OhGs /a place that welcomes her, helps her feel hope, gives her something to do.

The Easters –

live in Valleyview, new family, husband works at Hydro; mother stressed by baby, no outside contact, money issues, health concerns

• She takes the bus (using bus pass earned yesterday) first thing after husband goes to work so she can have an OhGs breakfast. While she learns good management/people skills, supporting volunteers in the day’s tasks, the baby stays with the Aunties in the child-care centre (free if she’s working there). She is getting good healthy food so is able to breastfeed her little one, good value! She enjoys working in the happy atmosphere where the bottom line is not the focus, and she likes the idea of encouraging people instead of pushing them. She especially likes contact with people and being close to her baby.

• Husband takes the bus to work (using pass earned yesterday) where he manages the contracts that bring alternative power sources to the grid. After work, joins his family at OhGs. He likes to use his muscles after sitting all day so helps move planters, mix soil or works out in the POP (gym with machines that convert his effort into power). He enjoys the speakers that educate or entertain them while they eat supper and, afterwards, there’s lots of different ways of socializing. He’s glad there’s something cheap to do that’s fun. Paying a reasonable rate once a month covers all the suppers and the work outs and the fun, and his money helps to keep Our Heart Gardens running. For others, without work, different arrangements are made but it’s not important to him – they are all the same, working together at Our Heart Gardens!

• The family has been unable to find a family doctor so having access to the paramedics, nurses, nutritionist, herbalist, chiropractor and naturopath students has been very helpful; he’s been able to avoid medical issues that could have benched him. Knowing that his family is safe and happy, eating good food with good people, relieves his concerns and all symptoms of Clinical Depression have disappeared – it’s surely the atmosphere but is it the positive vibes or the effects of the bacteria that lives in the dirt that makes the air smell so good? Either way, it works for him – and it works for everyone!

• When they go home, there’s lots of others on the bus, people from the Garden and others, even though it’s late… Ridership has increased because of the OhGs arrangement so the buses are more frequent and the people on them are happier too; now, more people use them.

The Weston Family

In Brocklehurst a single mother with 6 month old twin girls and a 2 year old son share a 1 bedroom apartment with her First Nations grandfather-in-law; nobody brings in a paycheque, both are diabetic. She was an honour student with plans to become a doctor but got pregnant at 17. The young father stood by them but was killed recently in a car accident after having a couple of drinks after work and there’s no insurance money.

• While she dislikes being on Welfare, there’s really no choice until she’s worked long enough at OhGs to be able to get a reference. She tries hard to get there early so everybody can be fed and settled before she starts work but things happen, so sometimes they’re late, but OhGs doesn’t watch the clock. The babies are left with Grandfather or the Aunties until she’s finished work. First she helps Mrs. Easter manage the tasks for the day until it’s time to make lunch; then she lends the chef a hand with food preparation, has a bite to eat herself, then helps in the Community Kitchen handling the food collected or gleaned for the Food Hub. She’s learning how to run her own kitchen some day, or will take classes to become the doctor she dreamed of being, but that decision doesn’t have to be made yet. She’s young, and so are the kids.

• She’s been seeing a grief counsellor once a week. That support, along with being a part of the OhGs community, is comforting and helps keep her family together. She’s been urged to think of others, to take her out of herself and her troubles, and when she listens in the sharing circles, she forgets her broken heart. It’s helped her confidence, sharing how she feels in the sharing circles, and people treat her better now they know her.

• Grandfather Weston watches the kids or teaches carving. After supper, he drums for the circle and tells stories, shares his culture and wisdom – the kids just love him! Having people around keeps him stimulated, as does being a member of the Elders Council. It’s been a source of great satisfaction, first that he was elected and now, that people listen to his council.

•  After lunch he takes a nap in the lounge and then teams up with a couple of young people for a half hour to walk the place, providing a welcome to new people or a calming influence should discord arise. It gives him a reason to go for that walk everybody’s supposed to get everyday, and allows him to get to know some of the young people. Having two to walk with him, one can go for assistance should it be needed. Hasn’t been needed yet, but it’s good to be prepared!

• She goes home early with the children so they can go to bed and she gets the place to herself. She takes a well-earned long soak in her tub – yes, hers, because everybody else bathes at the Garden. She enjoys bathing there too so she gets her back washed, and the towels are so fluffy. A little luxury to warm her heart, to help her remember the pleasures of being alive!

• The whole family consults with the nurses and the doctor who drops in once a week. He’s created a diabetic clinic to engage all the people with the same kind of issues. It’s become a club, like AA, where everybody gives everybody else support and help. The doctor has been pleasantly surprised at how well people are, especially because of the peer support in the club, and getting OhGs diabetic-appropriate meals!

• Grandfather comes home and sleeps on the sofa, happy after a long day and quiet bus ride home. He doesn’t miss the excitement of the years he spent in bars, now he has a good place to go that appreciates him. He sleeps well, though not for long… You don’t when you’re old and happy!

The Norths

2 car family in Westsyde, father and mother both work, 2 teenagers (1 in sports, the other is a problem) live on land that flooded so house needs costly repairs

• She works part-time in a grocery store. It’s hard to find full time work, and she never knows when they’re going to call her in for an extra shift. But she can drop in to work at OhGs anytime and, for a few hours quiet transplanting or weeding, she can take produce home and get bus tickets for the next day, avoiding the use of the car. She’s looking forward to when they open an OhGs in Westsyde!

• He works shift work at the mill and it’s hard work. He used to stop at the bar on the way home but now he meets his wife at OhGs, works out and learns how to carve, something his father did. Free lessons makes it affordable and it’s good to be around happy people! Sometimes the entire family eats dinner there because the food is good, the atmosphere is congenial and there’s stuff to do after dinner – like dishes! But his hands are soft now, and his wife likes that.

• Daughter is struggling in school but loves grass hockey; time after school is spent on the field and twice a week she goes to OhGs where a tutor helps her with math and English. Thanks to seeing how math is used every day in calculating everything, she has learned the value of math, and hearing the way the storytellers weave words, she’s turned herself around in the last 6 months. She’s been spending time with a group of young people who are working towards a Camp Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth Camp) summer holiday, where they can go out to learn to live on the land and connect with the Earth.

• Son has stopped hanging out with the “bad crowd” he used to – actually, they’ve all started coming to the Gardens and it turns out they weren’t bad at all. They just didn’t have anything good to do! Now they’re all thick as thieves up at the Gardens, working out in the POP and just making eyes at the girls, well chaperoned as they are. They’re putting on some muscle and learning good ways from the Elders – they’ll make good husbands and fathers some day.

The Southills

Up in Sa-Hali, a temple-going Hindu family with room-and-board students of Thompson Rivers University (TRU). Grandparents live separately from  the family, and each other, in Riverbend and in long-term care for Alzheimer’s:

• Stay-at-home Mom has felt isolated since the kids started going to the Gardens after school. She’s shy but wanted to see where her children went; they always came home laughing and bright-eyed. It was good to get her hands back in the dirt again. The Master Gardener at OhGs told her they would consider planting the crops she was used to eating! And was interested in seeing the baskets she wove as a girl. It would be so good to pass on that skill; it’s not hard, but you need to pay attention at first, and a quiet corner in the Garden is perfect, or the Moon Room. That’s a special room where menstruating women can get away and be themselves, be pampered, eat, dance and share with other women the stories of their lives, their joys and sorrows. She heard it’s very popular, especially with women who work at the City who get time away from their jobs during their time of the month to volunteer at the Gardens and spend time in the Moon Room. It’s made a huge difference in the attitudes and atmosphere at the City Hall!

• She’s loyal to her temple but it’s more like work now, with so many gone. The new priest asked about OhGs and she suggested he might speak to the Elders about talking at dinner sometime, and join the sharing circles. It’s hard to attract new people to the temple these days but she could use some help; maybe he can find someone there interested in helping, but he’s not supposed to “preach”, just talk about the good things they believe and do, and the history of the religion.

• The kids go to the Gardens after school to help plant, transplant or tend the plants, clean up and listen to Grandfather Easter tell stories. If they help out, they get tasty meals and bus tickets to get home and back again. They love that they don’t have to pay money to have a good time. The school is considering starting an OhGs on school property and that would be great because no travel time, but they’d miss the stories and being with the people they’ve come to know. But the buses provide great circulation within the city, and that changes everything!

• Visiting the children’s grandparents includes a visit to Papa who has Alzheimer’s once a month; and twice a month they visit Grandma, living in Riverbend Seniors Community. She still visits Papa almost daily but he hardly recognizes her anymore so it’s disheartening. It was suggested the children’s Mom could bring Grandma with her sometimes so she can enjoy the children. If Grandma wants to come more often she may be able to take the proposed dedicated bus – OhGs has become so popular a schedule has become necessary.

• TRU students find a warm welcome at OhGs, and it’s part of their curriculum. It’s also good to see the positive results of so many students’ innovative work (like the POP, planters and…) and working with people who started as students and just won’t leave is a testament to the integrity of the OhGs concept. The art piece at the Grand Entrance was created by a TRU student with only a few guidelines – it had to be big, it had to show how plants (like bulrushes or hemp) cleans the water (you put dirty water in here… and it comes out clean here…) and, if they showed the life cycle and usages of the plant, they’d get extra credit. The contest was open to the public, but it was a TRU student who won! Because of their research and adaptations, we have baskets we wove ourselves, diapers don’t go to the landfill and we have great compost! Cattails stand rooted, ready until we gather them, and all those little tiny seeds can be ground fine like flour or planted and become 6-8′ tall plants! Or eaten when they’re sprouts or leek-like. The roots are like potatoes and new shoots grow again next year; just thin them out! There’s a wide range of projects available to put one’s mind to, as well as easy quantitative (scientific) tasks like measuring the size of plants after 1, 2 and 6 months. Culinary students are always trying new ways to cook bulrushes and the other crops grown at the Gardens. Psychology, nursing and engineering students all get hands-on experience and enjoy the opportunity to interact with such a diverse community.

Albert Einstein said “Problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them.”  We have problems to solve and, working together with the resources we have, we can meet the challenge. The new mind-set we need must be created by nurturing and empowering people. Synergy and cooperation are key.

A network is forming, an Indra’s Net full of nodes that serve the selves that serve them, and more. I envision the Awakening to sparkle brilliantly throughout the Virtual on SINE vibes linking OtherNetworks.org (and other networks), and Humanity Rising into the OhGs opportunity, inherent in the “problems” we have, unfolding in OhGs, the Gardens that form the quantumly entangled Hearts of #TheOneWeAre.

I’m a storyteller, a “futurist”, and I love #TheOneWeAre. I am the vision-holder of Our Heart Gardens and I need your help. Together we can make this vision reality.

Shannon McArthur
email: sparklingwithall@gmail.com
website: ourheartgardens.com