Greetings, Icaristas. I'm thrilled to share my beautiful and provocative project with you, Mad Dance: A Mental Health Film Trilogy. These films re-envision the way we think and speak about our individual and collective mental health in today's chaotic world. Check out the 5-minute video (best viewed smaller) on Kickstarter, and if you find the project unique, transformative, and enlightening, please contribute to its success today. The donor gifts are phenomenal!

THUNDER BAY – Healthbeat – A wide variety of stakeholders from food producers to health care providers have gathered at the Paterson Family Food Centre to set the groundwork for developing and implementing a regional food strategy. Jointly presented by the City of Thunder Bay, the Food Action Network and the Food Security Research Network under the banner “Cultivating our Future”, the Regional Food Strategy Summit will build on growing public interest in food security since the adoption of the Thunder Bay Food Charter in 2008.

The event, facilitated by Joan Brady of Grand Bend, Ontario, a food systems consultant with HC Link and the Acting Coordinator of FoodNet Ontario explained that there is widespread interest throughout the nation in creating food strategies. “Communities across the province and country are focusing energy and attention towards their food futures. A food strategy considers both the current status of the food system and community needs as well as projecting towards the future and the resources required to provide safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable food for all citizens,” Brady said.

“The organizers and participants are intentional about celebrating the great food initiatives in the Thunder Bay area, both past and present. The Thunder Bay food charter creates a vision for a food secure community within a healthy, just, and environmentally and economically sound food system. A food strategy takes that vision and mobilizes it with policy and collaboration across various sectors and government departments,” added Brady.

Organizing committee chair Catherine Schwartz-Mendez said “That the Summit builds on the range of activities that are already underway to enhance the way people access food in a sustainable way”. Schwartz-Mendez added that “The goals of the Thunder Bay food strategy could include improving access to nutritious, local and affordable food, integrating food policies into city-wide plans, managing food waste, creating more opportunities to grow food in the city, reducing distances between food production and consumption, supporting food infrastructure and supporting local food celebrations”.

Local food was featured in the meals that were offered to the delegates.

New music video for the Icarus Songs

This coming September will be the 10th anniversary of our Icarus Project journey. With your participation, we will be celebrating this milestone anniversary. We are asking each of you to reflect back on your own personal journey with The Icarus Project.  We want to celebrate our victories and learn from our mistakes, as well as look forward to what we envision The Icarus Project to be over the next 10 years. Currently on the agenda: re-designing the website; revising and updating all of our publications; creating a 10th Anniversary story sharing archive; as well as some organizational restructuring, including getting an advisory board into place.

and then i woke up.  so now what?

(and then, various ramblings about events since waking up, and asking: what now)

a poem that I'm especially proud of.. look for my new book coming out soon! Aloha, Cindy

Today, the best thing I could do is plant my garden.  It might not stop raining but I have another chance tomorrow morning.  They should be astounding, all these new chances to do things in a good way.