Mission & Contact: 2 I Thank the Sun for Shining: 3 Zines in the Time of Ebola: 4 Calendar: 5 - 6 To Appreciate the Little Things: 7 - 8 Bike Rides: 9 Potluck & Yoga: 10 Volunteer Opportunities: Back Cover
I t h an k t h e s un for s h i n i n g
Come sit by the fire and warm your soul and realize these things that ought to be your goals. To live life to the fullest, to love, and to be grateful for all things. I thank the Sun for shining, grass for growing, rain for pouring and Every day I am awestruck when I contemplate the inconceivable process of Photosynthesis, plants turning light, to energy, to life for all living beings. These gifts are given to us whether we deserve them or not. Mother nature shows us true love, true thankfulness for our existence. I thank Springfield for growing, thank my creativity for flowing, and all of my friends for knowing they are beautiful in everything they do, Blossoming in a culture ever-developing. I am grateful for life. I am grateful for my friends, I am grateful for Springfield. Live, love, light the way. b y J oon yper L i g h t
3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zines In The Time of Ebola
“What is a zine?” We've gotten that question a lot in the last couple months. Or sometimes, simply... “What is this?” Local Well, this is a zine, but more specifically it's a quaint lil' culture in piece of homegrown culture. Our gut reaction is to compare it to the familiar...it is a small local magazine. We a global age can also say it's a bit like that mother's day card you made in elementary school art. 'Zine' is a label used to describe a wide-ranging and fluid form of expression
through the creation and sharing of small batches of booklet-like objects. These objects can take on almost any conceivable shape, size, material, and content. It is all up to the ingenuity and imagination of the creator, as well as the resources they may or may not have at hand. The underlying principal is basically that zines (whatever shape they take) are made by individuals (or small groups of individuals) to suit the needs and interests of their communities, and the unique identities that make up those communities. They are quintessentially D.I.Y. So, why? Well, honestly, why not? We live in a time of unprecedented global communication, but most of that communication is still filtered through and facilitated by dozens of government and corporate interests and entities. Social media may allow us to connect with one another more readily, but most of the culture we share and discuss is still so far out of our hands as to seem to appear magically out of nowhere, spawned by some internet organ for a brief and disjointed existence. We aren't created in vacuums. We are products of the world around us, the culture we consume and surround ourselves with leaves its impression on us in more ways than one, and ultimately plays a huge part in the composition of our identities. When we are selective about the culture we consume, and play an active role in creating that culture, we are selective about who we become and play an active role in creating ourselves. That is the D.I.Y ethic, and zines are an expression of that ethic. So share this with your friends, think about what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong for you, and let us know. Or, do something yourself. That way, we can all be who we want.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ask about local zines, authors, and comix at your favorite book store... check out these fine folks for some of our favorite local connections -arts and letters -bookmarx -vintage stock
4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
n C om m un i t y
o
GLO Center First Sunday Potluck (5-6pm @ The Old Glass Place, 521 E. St. Louis St) 11/2 Circus Sunday @ Phelps Grove Park (Hooping, staff dancing, poi, fire breathing, drum circles, and fun people!) 11/4 Tuesday Night Game Night (7pm @ Games, Comics, etc...every tuesday) 11/6 Thursday Night Game Night (7pm @ Metagames Unlimited...every thursday) 11/7 6th Annual Springfield Sleepout ($1 0 registration, 2pm @ Wesley United Methodist Church) 11/9 Springfield Record Show ($1 entry, 9am-2pm @ Lamplighter Inn & Suites) 11/10 City Council Meeting (6:30 @ City Hall...second and fourth monday each month) 11/12 Humanist Group (6:30-8pm @Unitarian Universalist) 11/15 National Game Day (1 -4pm @ The Library Center) 11/16 Monthly Vegan Potluck ($1 , 6-7pm @ Unitarian Universalist, bring copy of any recipes) 11/22 Kirtan Divine Singing and Potluck (5-8pm @ Circle in The Square) 11/2
v
e
M us i c
Open Mic (7pm @ Big M 11/3 Open Mic (9pm @ The 11/4 Whiskey Jam ($5 entry, 11/4 MSU Symphony Orches Juanita K Hammons Hall) 11/4 Drury Chamber Music C Thompson Hall) 11/14 Wild Bob's Musical Bo Years of Solitude." ($5 entry 11/16 Operazzi (5-7pm @ Th music cabaret open mic nigh 11/18 Queen City Ukulele Cl Music) 11/3
B ei n g
Sitting & Walking Medita Quang Buddhist Temple) 11/2 Yoga (2:1 5-3:1 5pm @ U 11/5 Yoga on the Farm (7:30 Farm...every wednesday) 11/10 Stress Management C For Humanity ReStore) * 11/23 Agility + Balance + Stre Workshop (1 :30-2:30 @ The 11/1
Fes t i vi t i es
G O VO T ake a fr i en d
T ues d ay N ov 5
m
b
e
r
C l as s es
Momma’s...every Monday) 11/3 Family Nutrition and Fitness Class (6-7:30pm @ Flea...every Monday) Jordan Valley Community Health Center) * 9pm @ Lindberg’s) 11/3 Genealogy Workshop (7:00 pm @ The Library stra Fall Concert (7-9pm @ Center Auditorium) 11/4 Get Hooked on Loom Knitting (4pm @ Midtown Concert (7:30-9pm @ Clara Library) 11/4 Farm2Table Cooking Class (5:30 @ Jordan ook Club "One Hundred Valley Community Health Center) 6:30-8:30 @ Lindberg’s) 11/17 Debt Reducing Strategies Class (6:30-8pm @ he Creamery classical Habitat For Humanity)* ht.) 11/18 Dollars and $ense - Budgeting Workshop (1 lub (6:30-8pm@ Springfield 3:30pm @ Missouri Career Center... call to register (41 7) 887-4343) 11/24 Legal Rights of Property Owners Class (6:308pm @ Habitat For Humanity ReStore)* ation (9-1 0:30am @ Dinh
Unitarian Universalist) am @ Urban Roots
Class (6:30pm @ Habitat
ength = Athleticism Creamery)
OT E or n ei g h b or
vem b er 4 t h
Ar t
Mosaic Marathon Work In Progress (6-1 0pm @ IdeaX Factory...meet the artists learn about the project) 11/7 Guatemalan Textiles Art Talk (6pm @ Park Central Library) 11/7 Ballet & Modern Dancers in Places You Don't See Them: New Photography (6:30-1 0pm @ Arts & Letters) 11/8 Mosaic Marathon Workshop (1 2-4pm@ IdeaXFactory...contribute to the mosaic) 11/20 MO Poetry Slam ($5 entry, 7-1 0pm @ Skinny Improv) 11/21 Four 201 4: Midwest Invitational Exhibition Reception (5:30-7pm @ Springfield Art Museum) 11/21 Wildflowers from Salzburg A Photographic presentation (6pm @ Botanical Gardens) 6 11/7
To Appreciate The Little Things
was painting strokes across grass, scratching cement and lifting up the bark. I decided, for me, this was already an all-nighter, why not let by paul sleep go and see the morning, slowly, as the spencer world awakes. We were the last band to play at the By 6:30 AM, I began meditating in my “This is not a rave” show. Spending the day at study with green tea by my side and a good a funeral put us seemingly in tune with the helping of sage embers resting in an abalone “feels” of the season. Where death grabs life shell, filling the air with smoke shafts. I lost and harbors it in the ground until spring comes. track of time, began breathing deeply, filled my As friends we drank, as children we danced, mind with peace and came to look at the world as ourselves, we understood our lives by the forgiving itself through the weight of the sun, bittersweet times of living with all odds against the love of the light. What was previously on us. The show wound down, a wonderful my mind came to walk in reality and I left my evening with vivacious beings bringing their peace only to carry it to Phelps grove with me. humble feet to bold floors to dance for rain in In my backpack, in my heart, in the earth. the midst of October. It had to be about 5:00 It was a wonder, to see it as if it all were AM by the time we began spilling our looking at me, saying “Hello” to me, saying, goodbyes and our thankfulness through 1 0 “Good Morning, friend” and I would say the pound eyelids and subconsciouses, same back. We were One, through an internal continuous jawing of wishing our friends well to dialogue. I came to sit down on a bench and the day that will have them. Once riding past let my mind lose everything it had wanted, lights, leaving Commercial St. behind, the sun needed, and received. I sometimes place began to arise and some internal clock was shapes, angles and fractures of nature in ringing with it. The sky was so dull at that time, through a feed, so I may look at life as if I see and though grateful, I thought more of how my it eye to eye. I was looking at a tree. As I felt a body would feel squeezed to my bed and less whim of negativity, the light and my perception of the beauty of the morning. brought a frown to this tree's face, but once my Half-way we stopped so our friends ease let go and I could rest in what was, it could nourish their bodies with questionable, brought loving smiles. We spoke to each other easy-access, “along-the-way” foods. That as if we were friends of light-years past. silent clock kept ringing in my mind. I was I trudged my sleepy body and my naturally feeling my body “coming to” in the attentive mind towards the park garden and morn. showed my respect to all the creatures who We stopped our journey and breathe so we may take in fresh air. Animal air most of our bones at the house, carried those filters of the universe. They are truly alive. The lazy bones to bed and began sleeping, “In”. I plants, the sunflower and the roots beneath couldn't quite keep the weight of my eyes them. What good they do for us, slowly and down though, they astonishingly pulled subtly within our lives. upwards at this hour. The light from the sun
part of the fractal nature of all things. If I didn't I stepped very softly, not wanting to disturb see the plant as the beauty it contained, I their morning waking ritual. I came to a very would not have noticed the bee and if I did not complex organism that had a long stem notice this creature I would not have noticed coming from the root arching into a spindle of the whole family! What I am speaking of here small yellow flowers that tapered off about 1 2 is affirmation of the simplest thing to inches to the tip. Walking up I noticed how understand the whole. The universe is waiting beautiful the plant itself looked and I was to show you all the mysteries and complexities happy to see it among the equally satisfactory it has to offer, but it wants its favorite beings to bushes and flowers. While looking with praise take the time to notice the effort and patience and delight, something began fidgeting around it took to simply create a fragment in the within it. I thought certainly, I was tired and my painting of the entirety. eyes were telling me to go to sleep. BAM! What does it mean to notice the little Once I saw it, it was a second new wave of things? sensation. It was a bee! It wasn't simply that it From this experience I realized that was looking for pollen. It was waking up! there are galaxies, whole societies, entire Never in my life had I ever thought I'd take the worlds sitting just below our feet, in front of our time and be given the opportunity to see a bee faces, to wake up to, waiting to tell us, wake up in the morning. He was docked inside “welcome, we have been expecting you. We the flower, nestled in it. It looked almost have much to show you now.” Stopping and involuntary, his antennas going from stiffness realizing these worlds made me want to listen to rapid excitement as the sun turned to shine more and understand that all the answers for down on him more. The bee and the sun were the new world are sitting right beside us. Will doing a dance and I was witnessing. Soon the we take the time to sit down from the clutter of bee shook off his haziness and began getting our lives and be grateful for life? For love? For straight to work, to produce honey, to pollinate, existing? Will we meet our universe with to give us and everything life! I was so grateful thankful hearts and peaceful minds? I did. It that my whole day was made just by this bee was easy and I found out that nothing is trying doing what it does everyday. KABOOOOOM. to break you down, nothing is trying to hurt My vision widened and what I saw next was a you, we do this unnecessarily to ourselves. whole new universe to discover! There were The earth wants to help us, the earth needs tons of little bugs and bees waking up all at the our help as well. What did the earth ask of me same time. There must have been at least 20in these freighting days of our world? “Be still 25 bugs just chilling out and getting ready for and know, come and sit with me and be the day on this one plant. That 1 0 minutes grateful for all things.” before hand I couldn't even notice one bug, let That's all you have to do. alone the plethora of beings it contained, all Happy thanksgiving earth. the while I thought it was a lonely flower. Happy thanksgiving to all of us. A deep wisdom was bestowed upon me 8 Thank you for reading! that morning. I watched my mind become a