Film and conversation
Friday, February 28, 7:30-9:30 pm.
Fireside Room, Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, 505 E. Charleston, Palo Alto
FREE, donations appreciated
After the film, Peter Drekmeier (water activist and former Palo Alto mayor) will lead a conversation about local water policy.

About the film: Las Vegas, in the middle of the Mojave Desert, is the driest city in America, yet it leads the United States in sustainable water conservation. The efforts of Las Vegas, in its search for sustainability, have produced creative solutions (technological, political, and financial) and provide an interesting case study for cities that want to create their own sustainable water system.

The film follows the story of Patricia Mulroy, the controversial founder of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, whose leadership is shaping Colorado River politics. She’s espoused conservation and pioneered a list of progressive urban water programs, but also bristled at any suggestions that Las Vegas’ growth should be limited.

Everything to do with Las Vegas’s water supply and disposal is watched, measured and checked. 40% of the water is recycled for indoor use. Every drop is monitored acoustically to detect possible leaks within 6,500 miles of pipes. Southern Nevada’s conservation efforts have also generated a keen public awareness and spawned hands-on programs in the public schools to teach about food-growing and water use in the desert.

See the trailer…

Monday January 20, 6:30-9:30pm

Session 11: Train
Leon Logothetis
I See You: The Power of Human Connection

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day let us remember together what is possible.

In this session, Leon discusses his incredible journey around the world—one that relied solely on the kindness of others. What these Good Samaritans didn’t know is that as they gave from their hearts, they would be given life-changing gifts. From a sending a homeless man back to school to building a house for a HIV-diagnosed mom in Cambodia, these gifts were Leon’s way of giving back. Leon’s journey will inspire you to recognize your own potential and give back in any way you can. He’ll discuss his long trek out of the corporate world and into the life he was always meant to live: real, raw, rewarding. In this refreshing presentation, you’ll explore:

• The power of helping someone feel less alone
• How kindness can change your life forever
• How you can change the world one kind act at a time

For Third Monday, on January 20, 2020, the plan is 6:30p potluck, 7p viewing of a session of “Sounds True –  Waking Up in the World”, 8:30p Discussion – in Sunnyvale.

To ask any questions, please contact Victoria varmigo@earthlink.net Event link. 

Friday, January 24 7:30-9:30 pm.
Fireside Room, Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, 505 E. Charleston, Palo Alto
FREE, donations appreciated

With the threat looming of the U.S. getting involved in yet another devastating war, Films of Vision and Hope will take a look at a remarkable alternative.

In 1948, Costa Rica dismantled its military establishment and intentionally cultivated security relationships with other nations through treaties, international laws, and international organizations. Free of the burden of military spending, they used the financial savings to invest in their people, creating strong public institutions including public higher education and universal health care. In short, Costa Ricans created a society committed to peace, solidarity, and international law. They have survived with safety and relative prosperity for nearly 70 years without a standing army.

‘A Bold Peace’ details the events that shook the country to its foundations, culminating in the 1948 civil war and the decision to abolish the military. Over the decades, the Costa Rican model has survived several serious crises, but the current threats may be the most formidable of all.

See the trailer…

Monday December 16, 6:30-9:30pm

Session 10: Train
Rhonda V. Magee, MA, JD
Mindfulness and Racial Justice: A Path for All of Us

Rhonda V. Magee is an internationally recognized thought and practice leader focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law, and social justice. In this moving conversation and training session, Rhonda speaks with Kriste Peoples in the wake of yet another fatal mass shooting in the United States. Rhonda helps us explore ways to engage with the feelings of outrage, exhaustion, and fearfulness that often peak after such events and guides listeners through a powerful guided practice for healing. Topics include:

• Meeting all of life with “friendly awareness”—not as bypassing or denial, but as cultivating a capacity to be with what is
• Awareness practices as keys to personal, interpersonal, and collective transformation in the face of challenge and opportunity
• Disrupting the harm done by our biases and building multicultural communities
• Reckoning with the suffering caused by bias in general, and creating a pathway to healing and redemption

For Third Monday, on December 16, 2019 the plan is 6:30p potluck, 7p viewing of a session of “Sounds True –  Waking Up in the World”, 8:30p Discussion – in Sunnyvale.

To ask any questions, please contact Victoria varmigo@earthlink.net

December 20, 7-9pm
Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto
505 E. Charleston, Palo Alto

Come greet the holidays at the Transition Palo Alto Holiday Potluck Dec 20! Let’s hang out, enjoy good food and connect with each other.

We can recall the accomplishments, joys, and sorrows of the year, and look ahead to next year — what each of us wants to do make a difference. And you’ll hear about three TPA projects you can be a part or champion on your own.

All you need to do is:

Bring food, drink, or both to share — along with the story of the food. Did you grow or forage any of the ingredients? Is it a traditional dish, a family recipe, or your own creation? Did you shop your kitchen for ingredients or go to the farmer’s market? 

Think about a project you’d like to do next year. Creating a saner, more resilient community means all hands on deck.  What’s your plan for next year?

See you on the 20th!

Friday, Dec. 6, 6:30 pm

At October Fourth Friday we heard from Crystal Huang about People Power Solar Co-op and the local solar cooperatives that it is incubating in East Oakland and Ingleside (San Francisco).  We were excited to hear about this forming network of energy cooperatives and learn the basics of how to kick off another in our neighborhood.

So, we’re excited to gather, over a potluck in Sunnyvale, to explore the possibility of incubating a South Bay Solar Co-op along with the model of and working with People Power Solar Co-op.  We’ll learn more details about how People Power works and what it would take for us to create a solar co-op entity in our own backyard.

Date:  Friday, Dec. 6, 6:30 pm
Please bring a dish to share.

Please RSVP so we’ll know how many to plan for:  transitionpaloalto@gmail.com.  We’ll send you the address upon receipt.

Please take a look at these resources from a recent memo about Community Solar – the more you can read before we meet the better the conversation will be.
Community Solar: We launched the People Power Solar Cooperative, which allows everyday people to buy and own shares to finance solar projects. It’s the first cooperative of its kind in California! We did their cartoon Bylaws and a cartoon Power Purchase Agreement. People Power just sold shares to 80 community members and built its first solar project. Here’s a short video about it. Now they are incubating two neighborhood-based solar cooperatives in East Oakland and Ingleside, SF.

Looking forward to seeing you on December 6.
–Peter Ruddock

Friday, November 22, 7-10pm. NOTE TIME CHANGE
Fireside Room, Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, 505 E. Charleston, Palo Alto
FREE, donations appreciated

Fasten your seatbelts for a fascinating, in-depth portrait of one of the most remarkable scientists of the 20th century. Lynn Margulis was a scientific rebel who challenged entrenched theories of evolution to present a new narrative about life evolving through collaboration.  Her brilliant and radical approaches challenged the entrenched, male-dominated scientific community and are today fundamentally changing how we look at our selves, evolution, and the environment.

As a young scientist in the 1960s, Margulis was ridiculed when she first proposed that symbiosis was a key driver of evolution, but she persisted. Instead of the mechanistic view that life evolved through random genetic mutations and competition, she presented a symbiotic narrative in which bacteria joined together to create the complex cells that formed animals, plants and all other organisms – which together form a multi-dimensional living entity that covers the Earth. Humans are not the pinnacle of life with the right to exploit nature, but part of this complex cognitive system in which each of our actions has repercussions.

We’re starting at 7pm this month because Symbiotic Earth is a long film (about 2/12 hours). But if you’re like me, you’ll find all of it fascinating and emerge with a deeper understanding of how life evolves and our relationship to the myriad other life forms on earth.
–Barbara Weinstein

Inner Transition  – Group Continuing this Month

For Third Monday, on October 21, 2019 the plan is 6:30p potluck, 7p viewing of a session of “Sounds True –  Waking Up in the World”, 8:30p Discussion – in Sunnyvale.

Adyashanti – Embracing Our Totality

“Waking up,” reflects Adyashanti, “is a fundamental alteration in the way we perceive ourselves—in who and what we take ourselves to be.” And this shift can make all the difference in how we bring our truest beliefs into action. Join Adyashanti to explore:

• Moving from “goodness” to “wholeness”—why we need to question our abstract, utopian visions and stay focused on helping others in our actions
• How vulnerability and undiluted clarity help us embrace our shadow dimensions, such as rage and despair
• Bringing our higher “soul values”—including truth and love—to the real-world problems that surround us

To RSVP or ask any questions, please feel free to contact Victoria (varmigo@earthlink.net).

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Oooh, another Scare Faire is coming your way, full of spooky goodness – on Sunday, October 20th, 1-3pm at the Museum of American Heritage. 

Old costumes lurking? Send them packing to possess a new home in our Costume Swap. Bring your adult and child costumes in good condition (as well as Halloween decorations) right at 1pm, get a number, and start choosing costumes at 1:20!

Bring your old costumes at 1:00.  We’ll give you a sequential number.  At 1:20, we’ll call numbers, starting with 1, to let people in to look for new costumes.  Every few minutes we’ll let in people with the next few numbers. When all of the numbers are exhausted, we’ll open the room to share the remaining costumes with whomever is the

While you’re waiting, check out our Scare Faire – a traditional Transition Palo Alto Share Faire with some Halloween twists.  Learn a skill, find something in need of a home, meet your neighbors, have some fun.

We’ll once again haunt the bewitching Museum of American Heritage with our Halloween and Holiday Scare Faire, a chance to get to know your ghastly neighbors, scare, and share.

You’ll be under the spell of our Series on Eating your values as well:

• Peter Ruddock will share thoughts on Eating Transition Values
• Kim Acker will demonstrate how to cook from the Farmer’s Market (and Cooking your values!)
• Diane Ruddle will teach us how to save and use up our food and scraps (without Wasting your values!)

If your ghostly appetite is still not appeased by all that food talk, you can also:

• Bedevil yourself, having your face painted by Nimita
• Exorcise your laptop or computer, thanks to Bart Anderson‘s technology expertise
• Materialize a Halloween craft, in the expert hands of Hamsa Rajaram

As always, we’ll have goods to share, including garden, clothing, household, books and more. So scare up your own to bring!

And we’ll share each other’s good company while building a BOOtiful, stronger community.

Please plan to join us.  If you’d like to volunteer as a greeter, for set-up or clean-up, or for whatever, please sign up at https://bit.ly/scarefairevol

Free, donations appreciated. RSVP here. 

Want to learn more about our Sharing Events? More info here.