Relocalization in Action

Interdependence Is the Flow State

Many hands make light work. Volunteers at the Kiwanis Petanque/Bocce court at Libby Park

Isn’t it funny how often people say sunny days are nice, or rainy days are bad? The hydrological cycle is so important, and rainy days are actually wonderful if you remember that the planet and our bodies are mostly water, and water is the lifeblood of all terrestrial life. We need warm dry days and wet days. If we only had one it would be awful. “Good” weather is an interdependent relationship.

On with the story: One sunny, warm, comfortable, and alarmingly dry February afternoon I was sitting in a circle on a plush couch in Northern California at my weekly Kiwanis meeting. Next to me was my dear friend of 30 years, a guest at my club interested in joining. We met by giving away organic gardens to people in 1999 if they agreed to not use pesticides, used heirloom and native non-GMO seeds, and returned surplus to the collective. We called ourselves Planting Earth Activation, or PEA, and together we youngsters gave away hundreds of gardens, closing streets to work fast, and often planting ten in a weekend.

Back to the Kiwanis meeting: Near us were other guests for the day, a group who founded and run the nonprofit, Play it Forward Music Foundation They give away instruments to youth in need and teach them to play. One well-to-do board member shared how his family was too poor to afford a clarinet as a kid, so he earned his living, retired, and is now giving back as a driving force to raise $100k to support their programs.

In the Kiwanis Club of Sebastopol, we have a meeting tradition called Happy/Sads. It is where people put in a few bucks and say what they are happy, sad, (and sometimes ambivalent) about. It is a gem of an experience and why I ultimately decided to join. My first in-person meeting was during Covid, and we were meeting outside under a wonderful oak grove adjacent to Peacetown’s Peace Garden at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center. On that day, I paid attention to the flow of emotions and experiences, and realized that, in a strange new way, it mirrored my own. I felt connected to this wonderful group expressing honest feelings. I had found one of my tribes.

Back to present: On this warm and sunny, disturbingly rain-lacking though hypnotically comfortable February day, our Happy/Sads start and our Co-President and Secretary first shared his happiness for “general ebullience.” Our President goes next, right into a deeply moving experience. Mind you, he is a most stalwart retired Coast Guard member, a commander with a heart of gold. He is the type of person who publicly acknowledges and brings out the best in others and challenges those around him to excel. He shared how happy he was to have found a recording of music, Pachelbel’s Canon in D, produced by his late wife and found after searching for ten years. It brought tears to him and his children’s eyes. He shared how a friend also just found a minute-long recording of her.

We heard from every other member, from sadness for a recently deceased member, gratitude for guests in attendance, and even about the Kami of a member’s refrigerator, who kept it working till the day before the new fridge was scheduled to arrive. There were jokes and laughter interspersed. One guest commented on the fun we were having and suggested they were moving to Sebastopol to join our rag-tag bunch. The reason I joined Kiwanis in the first place was on full display, as were the legs of so many wearing shorts in February when we would be fortunate if instead a full rain suit were required. My feeling of interdependence in my people was reinforced.

Right after the meeting ended, my feeling of connection to my club grew suddenly, more than I previously experienced. Do you ever get that deep visceral sense that you are doing the right thing? That you are where you need to be, doing what you need to do, in the moment? Some call it the flow-state; or being in the zone. It is like all things suddenly are very real and present, as if nothing else exists.

This is what happened to me. I turned to my friend, my guest, and asked what community work is important to him. He talks about a group he recently heard of, California Homemakers Association, that unites Sonoma County’s lowest-paid domestic workers and their allies to fight to end poverty conditions and the government policies that create them. I inform him that a long-time club member works day and night for that group, introduce them, and share how most of us are independently working on a project or two to make the community better, and we also come together to do the same on bigger projects as a group.

As I say this, all around are quick conversations by different members and guests, efficiently moving the needle forward on each of their projects. I catch words here and there, sensing enough to know that I am surrounded by an incredibly diverse group of individual leaders. It is a beautiful moment, a tapestry of community collaboration that feeds individual projects and collective efforts such as helping children of the world; Kiwanis’ mission.

As I tell my friend this observation about how we are all leaders, I simultaneously sense all of the other local service clubs and organizations doing similar work for “community interdependence”, such as: the Sebastopol Grange #306, Lions Club of Sebastopol, Rotary Club of Sebastopol, Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise, Sebastopol Masons, Order of the Eastern Star, St Stephens Episcopal Church, Sebastopol Christian Church, Community Church of Sebastopol, and numerous others. Many of these groups already meet quarterly as part of the Sebastopol Service and Action Coalition.

For a sweet moment, I feel that it will all work out, grateful that so many give of themselves daily to make the world a better place, one project at a time. I sink into a contentment so deep and wondrous. This moment even took the alarming edge off of a bright and pleasant February day though it most seriously and deleteriously lacks the rain we desperately need.