Painting Possibilities
Collectively imagining the future of the Hub
If you’ve been following the Hub’s journey into the digital world, you may have seen me as a collaborator on various posts. I am the woman behind the camera for the media that you see on our Substack.
Ms. Tik is the pseudonym that I create under and my special skill is using digital media to revive ancient wisdom in a modern way.
Rebecca here, as a guest author for the week!
As the social media coordinator for the Hub, it is my job to capture what is currently happening with the building project. But another, perhaps more important aspect of my job, is to use media to paint a picture of what the Hub could become.
When we paint a picture of possibility and share it with all of you, the hope is that someone will see what we are creating and say “I wanna join in!” or “How can I support what you are doing?”
Working with the collective has been a unique experience because I get to be a part of the initial dreaming and visioning for what this place might become. Even though I don’t live at Dancing Rabbit, the Hub crew has given me a seat at their table and a voice in their conversations.
Every time I visit the Hub, I am amazed by how much the crew has accomplished on the building. I am invigorated by the ideas that are beginning to take form.
Before I left the Hub a couple weeks ago, we sat down at the kitchen table (where all important discussions happen) and talked about this as a group. We all painted a slightly different picture of our vision for this place.
Liz envisioned a seat at the table for all values-aligned individuals and a builders guild to create much-needed housing in the village.
Ciaran said that it could be a gathering place for sharing skills and exchanging knowledge.
Alex mentioned that it could have a space to grow food or process mushrooms.
I saw it as a part of a network of wisdom keepers, third places, and radical spaces.
The collective picture that seems to be forming is that the Hub is becoming a kind of sanctuary. A house for exchanging knowledge and learning new skills. A space for artists and activists to retreat from the world. A gathering place for conversation and nourishment- in all its forms.
As Ciaran put it, it is “a place that helps fill needs.”
I love the idea of a solid physical space with flexibility around what it is used for. This allows the collective to be responsive to an ever changing community and a very unstable future.
The picture that we are painting will continue to change depending on who picks up a brush and adds their ideas to the canvas.
This is the beautiful and difficult part of working cooperatively.
Every week, the Hub gets one step closer to being fully operational.
As the sea of sawdust clears and the power tools quiet down, I am looking forward to seeing the Hub fill up with new people and fresh ideas.
Now more than ever, we need places like the Hub. Places that create a container for connection, community, and resilience.
I am honored to play my part in turning this beautiful building into a living, breathing community. Where this journey will lead, I cannot say, but I can guarantee that it will be an interesting one.
Who knows, maybe you and I can share a cup of coffee at the Hub someday.
Want to hear more musings from Ms. Tik? Check out The Hummingbird Chronicles. Here is her latest podcast episode about living between wildly different worlds.
