Alternative Routes
Blog posting #1
by Shayna Stock, with photography by Dominique Fenton
Shayna and Dominique are traveling across Canada to seek out intentional communities and learn from their experiences. They’ll be blogging about what they find on www.briarpatchmagazine.com. Read their introduction to the project here.
We are somewhere in the middle of Quebec, on the Trans-Canada Highway. It’s about 10pm. We’ve been on the road since 8 this morning. We are looking for a place to sleep.
My partner, Dominique, and I are on our way from Toronto to Halifax, sharing a ride with two friends, about to begin a cross-country tour of intentional communities.
Why are we doing this, again? I ask myself.
I look at Mirinda and Phil, asleep in the back seat, and remember…
Mirinda and Phil came into our lives in a miraculously serendipitous moment walking down the street in Kensington Market one day. The details are a bit long and convoluted, but it was one of those small world moments, where distant and separate social connections join together in one short but profound human interaction. They were looking for a room to rent for the summer, and a ride to Halifax. We were subletting our rooms, and heading to the East Coast.
I feel like this trip is, in large part, about those small world moments. It’s about manifesting more real relationships, and then relying on those relationships and embracing our inter-connectedness and inter-dependency as human beings.
In preparing for this journey, we have relied heavily on our own social networks – for inspiration, for guidance, and for equipment. Almost everything we’re bringing with us on this trip, including the car we’re using for the first half, was borrowed or donated by friends and family, or else bought used.
In addition to environmental sustainability, and our limited financial resources, we were also thinking about this decision in terms of community-building. Since the idea for this trip was born just a few months ago, we have received innumerable blessings, offers of support, and donations and loans of equipment. It all came from people we know, members of our various communities.
With a tent from our friend Lesa, travel mugs from Emily and Adam, a Coleman stove from Uncle Peter and Aunt Carolina, sleeping mats from Christine, a car from my parents, and a great deal of support from all of these people plus many more, we set off with a whole community of people behind us.
As we settle down in the parked car, all of our limbs intertwined with one another, finding pieces of sleep between suitcases and guitars and a steering wheel, I comfort myself with thoughts of this support network.
It’s a wonderful feeling to have so many tangible expressions of love around us; and I have a feeling we’ll be experiencing a lot more of it along the way.
Advertisement
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://briarpatchmagazine.com/2007/07/10/hello-small-world/trackback/
Jul 11, 2007 at 8:24 am
Mary McGeachy
Way to go, Shay and Dom! It’s all happening for you. I was reminded of some incredible experiences I had while travelling in Europe and Asia in my younger days. I would run into people I knew from Canada in the strangest places or meet new people who just seemed to fit right into my life at the time. Your positive energies and love of life is helping you to create possibilities and bringing you good things. Keep it up! I look forward to reading all about your many adventures with eager anticipation from my little paradise. p.s. love the BM shirt, Dom. - Mary
Jul 11, 2007 at 7:56 pm
etaylor
Hey Shayna!
Thanks for forwarding this, I think this is a really interesting idea and look forward to reading about your travels. I’m not sure if you know, but Halifax has an extremely active and vibrant (intentional) Buddhist community. I think you might be interested in including this in your first stop.
Halifax is home to one of the largest
communities of Buddhist converts in North America. There are a number of Buddhist communities in Nova Scotia. If you are interested a good place to start would be the Shambhala Centre in Halifax. The Centre’s website is http://halifax.shambhala.org/
Good luck, looking forward to hearing more!
Em
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:33 am
david j
There are perhaps a couple places of interest in your first 1500 kms… Sackville, NB, right on the Trans Canada is home to (according to the irreputable Maclean’s) the best undergraduate university in Canada. There are an assortment of communities there, as you have academic life meeting rural maritime town (student body and town population are about equal). There are the students who stay over the summer, drinking coffee during the day, beer at night, hanging out at the beach, attending small local festivals, etc., while perhaps holding on to some meagerly remunerating employment. There are the non-locals who live in town, usually because one member of the family is part of the university faculty. They are often young families, and can be found at the parks and beaches or at each other’s houses all summer long. Lost of very cool people from a huge variety of backgrounds. Or there is my personal favourite, the recreational fishing community, made up almost exclusively of locals, who can probably trace their roots through the region back over generations. They most know eachother, always exchanging fishing stories, always touring around the back roads from lake to river to mudflat at high tide, searching the big catch. Some true gems there.
The city of Quebec, where I presently reside, has a marked small-town feel, I think because there is a relatively homogenous population, the overwhelming majority are white-franophone, who again can probably trace their roots back generations in the region. There are some interesting communities that exist in the downtown where I live, whether it’s the grunger/anarcho-punks hanging out around the public library or in the historic graveyard and who always have a mini pack of beautiful dogs with them. Or the activist crowd, which is relatively small in QC, and when you’re in it you seem to be involved quickly in everything, from urban transportation issues, to socialist party organising, to anti-war protests and pamphleteering.
Enjoy your adventures!
David Johnson
david.johnson.2@ulaval.ca