Helping you renovate and revive old lonely places into vibrant community spaces.
Nathan Marion
BlueTree Consulting
Seattle, WA, USA
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Here’s to more Community Building events this year! Want to bring one to your town? Email us! Some of these have spread to Tacoma WA, Austin TX, Portland OR, Lebanon PA, Vashon Is. WA, Anacortes WA, and more soon…
The Abbey’s old pipe organ wasn’t fixable, so we’re re-purposing it into new useful items! I designed the basics for this bench and then Steve Withycombe added some nice touches while building it. The door was made by Clint Ceder. Other re-purposed items around the Abbey include a vintage couch, barrels, branches, and an antique TV we made into a bar.
Old (but fun) places for Weddings
I get asked a lot about good, local, environmentally conscious (yet cool) places to rent for weddings or nonprofit benefit events. People want something unusual though too, not just a boring hotel lobby or a fancy garden. So here’s a very focused list of places I think are “green” in more ways than one…
I found this rather inspiring, from author David Brooks at TED 2011.
Tell Your Story With Your Whole Heart
A beautiful TEDtalk…
you’ll want to be able to say “i knew her when” so check this out, from my hometown…
A new song, Love Somebody, filmed by Christian Sorensen Hansen in the Skagit Valley at the house I grew up in and will always call my home.
Fremont Abbey Arts Center renovation photo gallery (a 1914 brick church in Seattle)
Love this! Also from the book “Let My People Go Surfing”.
…’put everything aside. There’s nothing to be afraid of, except a little cold water. Just focus on the next step you are taking. I feel so happy running down the river, sun reflecting off the water, my body naturally going where it’s supposed to. I almost don’t think at all. I just respond to what’s in front of me’.
“…He stops talking and heads downstream again. We slowly pick our way across the rocks, catching rainbows and brook trout. The day passes quickly, and my confidence rises. Soon I’m playing and racing down the rapids with eyes wide and senses alert, not knowing I’ve just received my first lesson in Zen. — The air drifts over my body. I grasp the immediate. I reach for the next hold.”
- Dean Potter
Full story: “A Lesson in Zen”
Mountain climber, Dean Potter, shares this touching story of his first lesson in Zen taught to him by his father during a childhood fly fishing trip. This excerpt is from the amazing book, “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Business Man” by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia.
