Fall Equinox Open Day

Sunday Sept 20
Come for all or part of the event!

10:30 am arrivals
11am Tour of Ampersand- see the latest changes
12pm Potluck
1pm Discussion Circle

Suggested donation $10 – $20.

No one turned away for lack of funds.

Supervised children welcome.

Please RSVP by email: amanda@ampersandproject.org

We’ll start our Discussion with questions around how collapse can sometimes release adaptive capacity rather than extinguish it and we’ll see where it goes from there. Read below for more context.

It’s been hot. Records have been breaking. Living off rainwater has not been possible as we’ve only had 3.5 inches of rain so far this year. And that doesn’t even mention the dryness of the 2025 part of winter. We notice this sort of thing as we have designed our living systems to harvest the water when it comes, sink it deep into the soil, and rely on that to get our minimal garden environment to make it through the dry times.

The land around us has been so dry that the squirrels have enacted what seems like a military operation to comandeer our chicken food. The roots of the juniper trees have created networks of water harvest through our annual garden systems. And of course we feel the impact of the violence of the larger systems that have so clearly abandoned the idea of protecting and providing for the people of this land. We feel the violence of the data centers acting like a new monster to steal our water, land, and the resources it takes to make the energy it needs.

How can we be willing to look into this abyss and yet not to drown in despair?

This is the question posted by an article I read recently by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read called Inspirational Collapses? Learning from the civilisations that tried to break down well. (https://www.resilience.org/stories/2026-03-11/inspirational-collapses-learning-from-the-civilisations-that-tried-to-break-down-well/)

Right now there may not be many clear answers in terms of remedies for our times, but asking interesting and new questions might lead us in a more helpful direction.

It reminded me of how adaptations sometimes unfold over generations. Could it be helpful to think at that scale? This article suggestes it might be a hopeful contrast with the amount of people today who focus on the next election, annual report, or their retirement fund.

The article looks at how collapse can sometimes release adaptive capacity rather than extinguish it.

“Within the modern societies which we are aware of, what is missing in both popular culture and political discourse are narratives of intentional contraction, adaptive simplification, cultural continuity through transformation, and dignified loss. This is where historians and archaeologists can contribute — not so much warners of roads not to take, still less as prophets of doom — but as curators of possibility.”

It’s natural to look for the practical answers to questions like what food should I stockpile? How do we stop the latest water guzzling development? Or how do I adapt my travel plans to higher gas prices? But upstream of that is how we think about what we are experiencing, together. What is our cultural narrative about this time? How can we become curators of possibility?

We invite you to come to our Fall Equinox Open House on September 20th where we will open a talking circle to discuss these questions and see what others arise. We will explore our story for this time and where the possibilities may lie. We look forward to this community discussion!