Sounding Off: Local businesses need help

Another local business is closing its doors.

Where do we go from here?

Our goal at Oasis Child has always been to educate, serve and bring community together through conscious activity. We succeeded in many ways, and we are excited about the future.

What can we, as a community, do to support the growth and evolution of sustainability, conscious living and community?

?Support our local commerce;

?Make our voices heard by attending City Council and city planning meetings;

?Become or stay active in local activities such as beach clean-up days or Transition Laguna; and

?Walk the walk and be a role model for our children, our friends, our families and our community.

What can the city do to help keep our city moving in the direction of sustainability and consciousness? Just some ideas:

?Implement sustainable business “credits” of some kind, make allowances for retail signage, outdoor displays, etc.; ease the stringent parking requirements; ease the high costs of Planning Commission hearings. These make it difficult for businesses to explore new options without excess capital.

?Implementation of city regulations on rent during this time when we are all having to shift, adjust and change focus.

Ultimately, we must follow our passion. If you are guided by a drive for change or movement then take a hold of that passion and use it.

Start your own business, become a volunteer, run for office, start a blog, etc., and become a leader and voice of change within our community.

We in Laguna have had many successes as a community over the last year, and the inability of Oasis Child to financially sustain is not representative of that in any way; it is simply what it is “” it’s difficult to sustain a retail business in a challenging economy, period. I am constantly astounded by how many of us here in Laguna and the surrounding area share a common vision. There are so many of us working together to accomplish conscious acts of community such as beach clean-up, the drive to eradicate plastic bags, community recycle bins, etc.

Also, we have been blessed by the generous spirit of the community as they share their excitement about the changing tides with us and we watch these shifts in consciousness happen together.

There is rarely a day that goes by that someone doesn’t walk through the doors of Oasis Child and breathe a sigh of relief that this space and business exists. People are bursting with their own ideas and businesses and movements forward and every day someone walks in wanting to share these things with us because they see us as a vehicle for change and growth.

We are blessed to hold that space for people, and as we, as the individuals of Oasis Child, begin to shift into our new roles within the community we carry with us the beautiful energy that was created in this space, and we hope to continue to be an inspiration as well as be inspired by our community. What can we do to continue to raise the consciousness about sustainability and conscious living? We all have something to offer and we all have a way in which we can serve one another.

BLYTHE ROWEN recently closed her business, Oasis Child. She lives in Laguna Beach.