Beginnings

Early in 2011, a wonderful lady hosted a simple dinner at her home for a group of young people. All of these people are going through some period of transition in their lives -- entering school, leaving school, changing jobs, trying to find a path -- and she gathered us together simply to offer her support, to allow us to support one another, and to enable sharing & networking to create positive change in, and with, our lives. Since that first (lovely) get-together we've had several dinners, and have dubbed the event Spaghetti Sunday. It's a little salad, a lot of carbohydrates, and safe, supportive conversation.


Simply put, we're a group of people trying to build sustainable lives and communities. We gather every two weeks, eat a lot of pasta, and we talk about what we have, what we need, and what we seek to do to create lives, livelihoods, and communities that are sustainable. This multi-author blog is where we can touch base with one another, keep track of what we've discussed, offer new ideas between gatherings, and share what we're doing with the wider community.


This past weekend was our third meeting; we nearly doubled the size of the group, and continued the process of clarifying exactly why we were together, and what we're trying to do. The most succinct explanation so far has become this blog's tagline. Throughout the evening we came to several general agreements:

• Our intention is to explore sustaining our lives, inwardly and outwardly, with other people interested in doing the same.
• We generally expect to explore both inward & outward, personal & community topics at each gathering (rather than on alternating in/out weeks).
• We don't have a concrete timeline for each evening, but might start with general introductions & maybe an icebreaker or two (getting to know each other better, especially when new people come into the group). We can check in with one another, see how projects or issues are going, and if someone has a pressing need we can concentrate on that person before getting into the outward/community discussion.
• We wouldn't mind sharing ideas for edification, but we really, really don't want homework. Really.

from http://mamasays.us/blog/

As for the blog: as much as the Blogger software allows I'll set this up as a wiki-type blog, where any spaghetti people can add & edit. If I've missed or misarticulated anything major so far, don't hesitate to say so. And I know we're still missing a member -- I'll add him to the authors list once I get his email address.

Until next time,

Kelly