Editor:
I want to acknowledge and thank the young woman who spoke out at the annual general meeting of the Sunshine Coast Community Forest on Monday, April 20.
She clearly and kindly spoke of how the day is coming when conscious companies will no longer accept clear-cut logs as viable for use in their business. She also charged the new mayor and council, who readily received a bonus dividend cheque for $500,000 from the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF), to apply it in conscious ways in the community to serve the youth in finding meaningful and financially sustainable work on the Coast.
A further note as a listener in the room: may we each challenge ourselves to truly listen when someone is presenting both sides of a conversation, and reserve our side talking until there is a break or an opportunity to speak.
Both those who are obvious supporters and non-supporters of the SCCF as well as the SCCF staff themselves seemed to constantly disregard the other’s voice.
There will be no opportunity for something new to arrive if we all cannot offer the respect of listening first. I realize the challenges before us are great, as they are all over the world right now. May we be the ones who can pause our dysfunctional habits of relating and meet each other freshly.
There is a possibility of “the third thing” that neither of us has thought of to arrive — and we and all of the world will benefit for having made the effort.
Penny Allport, Sechelt
