Local
Moving temporarily to a place where I would need a car turned out to be very stressful. I have not owned a car in over ten years (well I’ve never really owned a car until now, but lets just say I haven’t consistenly needed to drive a car since I was in high school). It was a good run that has now come to a close. This past week was an eye opener to how the other half lives. Cars are expensive, unreliable, dangerous and make a lot of pollution. I used to think they sucked, maybe I still do… but today I bought a car and I love my car… so far.
Moving temporarily to a place where I would need a car turned out to be very stressful. I have not owned a car in over ten years (well I’ve never really owned a car until now, but lets just say I haven’t consistenly needed to drive a car since I was in high school). It was a good run that has now come to a close. This past week was an eye opener to how the other half lives. Cars are expensive, unreliable, dangerous and make a lot of pollution. I used to think they sucked, maybe I still do… but today I bought a car and I love my car… so far.
What made the day my partner and I purchased our first car really cool aside from owning a piece of fancy expensive metal was a circumstance that made me realize something about my hometown where we made the purchase and this idea that local is good. Up until now we had been relying on my mothers car as my mode of transportation except the day we needed to officially get my insurance coverage and register the car that we then needed to pick up. That morning my mother’s car broke down and this only mode of transportation was out the window. But alas! We have bikes. Because we chose to buy a car at at a local used car dealer and also insure the car with a local insurance agency we were able to bike to both locations and turn in all the paperwork needed in order to have the car on the road for Monday, our first week of work.
I loved riding my bike to pick up my car. It’s a good reminder that even though I have the conveniences of a car now my bike will also serve me well for many local trips. My new hatchback also fits two bikes in it so I expect a lot of getting places via the wheel as well as the cycle.
Status Change
April 23, 2010, 10:50 AM
Filed under: Living
Filed under: Living
As of this past week I have been back in Massachusetts, my home state, to start another chapter in this fascinating life called back to work in the woods. That’s right I got a J.O.B. with my man Jonathan at a sweet place called Earthlands. We will be performing caretaker and coordinator duties for the program center and will also have the opportunity to continue to do the things we love such as: grow our own food, cook the food we grow, ferment things like ginger beer and yogurt, help with alternative building projects, participate in an alternative learning environment, meet new people, continue to work on our publication endeavors, and have a good time living off the grid. This is all very exciting for the both of us. The only downside to our semi-permanent new location is the need for a vehicle. Neither Jonathan or I have owned a car for the past ten years. We will be first time car buyers in a time when we don’t want to buy a car. I am super grateful to be out of the city and in fresh air, but the transportation thing sucks…. maybe we’ll just never leave our little cabin.
Poetry
I wrote this poem at the end of the Ridge to Reef course I recently completed in St. Croix at The Virgin Island Sustainable Farm Institute.
Letter to my self:
I keep thinking about that other life, back there, wherever there is. It seems like a dream. But wasn’t this supposed to be the dream? Not anymore. Where I feel the most right about myself, the people around me, what I am doing, where I happen to be- I want this to be my chosen reality. I acknowledge that my reality is what I make it. Back there seems unreal. Like a movie I’ve seen before, it’s repetitive- sometimes it goes nowhere. I don’t want to repeat anything that hasn’t brought joy to my life. I know this will be difficult, perhaps unavoidable. I want to take this away with me.
Right now there is a breeze. I can hear it as the trees rustle about- connected with each other, and me, all while I think and write. I want to multi-task more in this way, as I connect with nature more naturally- it should seep in to my bones. I shouldn’t have to do it, but I should let it do it to me. Listen to nature, talk to nature, feed from nature, be with nature. These things are more important to me now than ever.
Forgiveness and sharing, listening: these are things I want to do more, all the time, with people. Singing, dancing, laughing too. Feeling comfortable in my own skin- skin is nature, it is everything- acknowledge this and the former is possible. I want to remember this.
There are so many things I can do now, but even more that I can teach, even if that teaching is simply spreading the word. I want to teach more. I’d like to be a mentor to someone(s). Now I know how to do this. I feel confident and ready. I want to expand on and implement everything I have learned in the past two months into what I do everyday, no mater where I am. This constant is important to me. I know it’s important to others. I’ll need to continue to trust in my beliefs. They’ve pretty much always been there, always held the same truth. Reaffirmation of their qualities and new understanding of their broader connections, here, has been important. I want to maintain this notion wherever I go. I must. Beliefs matter; they are the backbone of reality.
Seeing more without looking. Feeling the tentacles of the moment. Whatever happens to be great and whole around me, around us, hold on to this- grasp it with everything I’ve got. Remember this. I want to remember this. I know that I need these things here- all of these wants. Doing and being are what you do with needs. Nothing else, especially wanting, will do. I will always take this to heart, wherever I go. I do take this to heart, at this moment sitting in a corner of the Mandala Garden, next to a morniga, banana, papaya, holy basil, neem, cranberry hibiscus, chaya, palm, cuban oregano (where I first learned of this amazing species), seasoned peppers, akee- not to forget culantro at my feet, a little friend I have come to adore. It is time to always look around and notice the plants that share my company. I do not have to know their names or what they are for. But perhaps my curiosity, this continuous fire, will lead me there. Just noticing the plants, taking them in, is a connection I will never give up.
All of which that is important to me has grown, even though there are certain things I no longer find important. And I’ve realized that it’s not just about ‘saving the planet’. It’s about the people and their interaction, their connection with each other. The planet will save itself. Only we can save each other. It’s about this giant organism and whether or not we choose to remain part of it. I’d choose to because my reality right now is in love with it. I choose to live out my reality in this way, how I’ve done for the past two months, and at times, unbeknownst to myself, my entire life, because this is worth it to me. This life, in whatever form it takes is so fascinating. I know I am so curious- I don’t want it to stop. So I will ‘save the planet’ by saving myself. My integrity is intact. I am preserving my connection to all that is. To nature, to you, to me, and especially the stars.
Sustainable Food Jobs
This is a great job search site for work related to the kind of things I discuss on this site
SUSTAINABLE FOOD JOBS
Depletion and Abundance
After spending the last three months living a somewhat sustainable lifestyle: off-the grid, camping, eating mostly organic and local foods, using a composting toilet and solar pumped water for showering in an incredibly beautiful tropical place, that required I fly there via a fuel guzzling jet, I have come to a point where I feel at once with my world depletion and abundance. It also happens to be the name of the current book I am reading by Sharon Astyk.
I say I feel a sense of depletion and abundance because now that I have been back on the mainland for about two days (after a brief rendevouz to Vieques and Puerto Rico, more guzzling) I am disturbed by the world I thought I once knew and the one I know now, the way most Americans behave in relation to the place that supports their life is nothing more than destructive, however, today I feel equipped to act differently and this brings me a sort of abundance that I never felt before.
It took me a long time to make many of the connections that I do today. Happiness is linked to our connection with nature, self-subsistence and regard for the future. I’m not sure you can achieve it any other way. Who knew that littering was related to pollution but has more to do with human consumption? That environmentalism doesn’t just mean we need to save our trees and dying species, it means we need to save each other, the humans, because otherwise none of our actions will matter in a world that no longer supports human life (and have no doubt that the planet will maintain any life it chooses to just fine without us). Who knew that making sustainable choices like growing our own food, reducing our energy consumption and consuming less stuff in general will make us happier than we can ever imagine?
Today what I am faced with is communicating my findings and my experiences to my peers and friends, family and community. I think this will be challenging because it took someone like me a long time to get it, and I’m still working on getting it. My partner Jonathan and I are about to make our next move- still unsure where- but surely in a direction that supports more learning and offers more education to those around us. Our first initiative is to get more and more people growing their own food, even if they only have the smallest plot of land, or even fire escape to do this on. Over the next few weeks we hope to finish, publish and print the small hand book on this subject that we wrote and designed in St. Croix. It called the mini Food Forest. Keep visiting to learn more.
Please read this book. It is excellent for families or individuals that want to know what steps that can take to lead a more self-subsistent lifestyle that places emphasis on doing so in a mentally comfortable state.
r2r days 33-45 Bush skills, Project presentations, the course begins
During the final week of Ridge to Reef we explored survival and stone-aged skills during BUSH SKILLS. We also completed our final projects and presented these to the group and farm staff. Now the program is over, or everything else has begun.
I really enjoyed bush skills learning what many might think of as Boy Scout activities such fire making by hand drill and bow drill, basket and cordage making, creating natural pigments for dyes, instrument and tool making, flint napping, tracking, learning how to identify edible wild plants and more. It’s quite liberating to have these skills. There is nothing better than having the confidence that you can survive in your natural world without synthetic means. If you want to learn more about these skills and see some beautiful illustrations please purchase Earth Knack by one of my favorite instructors that week, Robin Blankenship.
After Bush Skills we presented our projects to each other. Jon and I finished up our hand book for a mini food forest and explained we planted a small urban/suburban demonstration garden at the farm- so visitors can take a piece of the beautiful farm home with them and learn to grow their own food.
Now the course is over and we are working on our next steps. Off to Vieques and then Puerto Rico next week. More on that soon.
R2R DAYS 26-32 ART OF MENTORING
This past week we had the amazing opportunity to take an Art of Mentoring course with Jon Young of the Regenerative Design Institute. As a group we created our own thriving culture on the farm which explored nature connection and the need to spend time getting to know our natural world in order to enrich our lives. We covered so much important information and it will be difficult for me to cover here all at once. I would like to stress that I think this course should be mandatory for all educators and well, for everyone. I have learned so much that is meaningful to me and I know you would feel that same, because everything we learned is stuff we already know in our hearts- we’ve seen our family, especially our elders practice these notes that I will share below.
Grandmothers are natural mentors
Western thought is not culture if culture is defined as connecting to nature, people and self
“If nature connection is lost, people don’t take care of it.” Jon Young
Read Last Child in the Woods and The Tracker and Dumbing US Down
Is our culture stuck in adolescence? RIGHTS OF PASSAGE
EROSION OF CURIOSITY
“our greatest frailty is that we repeat past experiences”
You must tend to the body in order for the mind to work
Get to know where you have come from before you go forward
Greeting customs matter, meet people where they are at
The VISIONARY in all of us will arise in nature connection.
Mentoring is invisible when it’s done right
Kids NEED to tell their stories, someone needs to listen. Elders need to tell stories too. Talk to your self when need and keep listening and asking questions.
Find a sip spot: a place in the woods, in a natural setting, whatever you have access to that leaves you alone among something wild. Sit there everyday if you can and observe and ask questions. get connected and see how this simple act will transform you.
r2r day 10
