Jessica's Blog — Connections

Poverty isn't just for Christmas (or Living in Abundance and Generosity)

Posted by Jessica Duncan on

Poverty isn't just for Christmas (or Living in Abundance and Generosity)
Like puppies, poverty isn’t just for Christmas.  Poverty isn’t going anywhere soon, so it is up to those of us who have enough to help those who don’t.

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How Do We Care For Each Other? or Creating the Shtetl We Want to Live In.

Posted by Jessica Duncan on

How Do We Care For Each Other? or Creating the Shtetl We Want to Live In.

We can care for those we love, and we can care for complete strangers. We see it every day. We do it every day. Community care happens despite atrocities. Community care happens because of atrocities.

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Reciprocity

Posted by Jessica Duncan on

Reciprocity

“You might rightly observe that we no longer live in small, insular societies, where generosity and mutual esteem structure our relations. But we could. It is within our power to create such webs of interdependence, quite outside the market economy. Intentional communities of mutual self-reliance and reciprocity are the wave of the future, and their currency is sharing. The move toward a local food economy is not just about freshness and food miles and carbon footprints and soil organic matter. It is all of those things, but it’s also about the deeply human desire for connection, to be in reciprocity...

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TRANSPARENTING - Five Years in and loving it!

Posted by Jessica Duncan on

TRANSPARENTING - Five Years in and loving it!

  I wrote this blog post a few years ago, and, in honour of Pride Week starting in Victoria, BC, I have decided to re-post it.  It has now been five years, almost to the day since my son informed us that he identifies as male.  As he approaches his 19th birthday and legal adulthood, I could not be prouder of him. He is a smart, kind, compassionate, engaged, generous human being, and I am honoured to be his mother.    Well, it happened again. A friend recently asked me, “Are you okay? How are you doing?” Then, “It must...

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What Makes a Market Vendor?

Posted by Jessica Duncan on

What Makes a Market Vendor?
Every July, like clockwork, I ask myself what the hell was I thinking starting a granola business. But, here I am, a long-time market vendor, selling my hand-crafted wares to both the unsuspecting public and loyal fans, and I also think to myself, life could be worse.

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