Smile, You're Changing the World.

I just got back from visiting Ripple Farm in Courtenay, British Columbia. I was only there for a week, but it felt like a month-long vacation! I had a blast and, best of all, I learned a lot.

Every morning, as soon as you get up, there are a number of "to do" items on the farm. Someone lets out the dogs, the chickens, and the horses. Someone feeds the animals. Someone waters the vegtable garden, and someone scoops up horseshit from the day before. When you get back in the house, your only hope is that one of these someones finished their chores faster than you, boiled the kettle, put on the tea, and all you have to do is pour and sit down.

These chores happen everyday. They have to! Dean and Moss, the owners of the farm, and all of their guests have an amazing attitude about them. Everyone is very focused on community, and they reminded me that it isn't what the task is, but how you think about each task that affects how quickly you can get it done and how likely you are to do it again. Reframing they way you think about everyday tasks is really powerful; it has a huge effect on productivity, and how you treat those around you.

The attitude at Ripple Farm reminded me of one tenant specifically here at CSI, Jane Farrow. Jane is the Executive Director of the Centre for City Ecology, a Toronto-based think tank influenced by the writings and activism of Jane Jacobs. Jane's desk is around the corner from mine, and I see her hard at work all day everyday on a great program that connects people to the environment and eachother. Despite her busy schedule, Jane is always the first person to volunteer to help clean out the fridge here. Between forgotten leftovers, soggy salad club ingredients, and the sheer number of people in and out of CSI's kitchen everyday, cleaning the fridge can be a disgusting job, but Jane helps Yumi every time.

Few tenants show up for fridge cleanings. They think it is stomach-churning, or they feel like it's not their responsibility. This is the key problem. If you think a task is going to be awful, it is going to be awful! If you think a task is not your responsibility, then chances are you've made judgments on your role and the role of others, and you won't want to revise that. In community settings though, if everyone does a little bit, the job gets done quicker and there is more time at the end to relax.

Jane and Yumi are always in fits of laughter over some of the gross stuff they pull out of the fridge, and Dean, the farmer, now refers to his time scooping horseshit on the farm as manure meditation.

A friend of mine hates this nice, super friendly, lovey dovey shit. Anytime someone smiles at her, she looks like she is going to  yell, "what the hell are you smiling about?" right in their face. She is, however, the first to admit appreciation when she encounters someone who is genuinely nice, someone whose positive attitude is matched with competance, and when the of the combination of these two things gets stuff done. This is the kind of substantive positive attitude I'm talking about. I am not talking about compassion.

At CSI, we often talk about reframing large issues, generating innovative solutions for local and global problems, and creating the infrastructure to back up these changes. But, we don't know where the innovation is going to come from. We don't know on what day, from whom, or where we will be. All we can do is set the conditions for it to happen easier, faster, and in a way that is more enjoyable for everyone. I think that setting the right conditions starts with this little lesson from Ripple Farm. A smile and a positive disposition aren't just that, they both help create an environment with happier and more productive individuals, and these could be the secret ingredients to widespread change. What do you think?