As I take a few days to sit and process all the inspiration from the last few months traveling on a mission to sow the seeds for a new Earth and a new culture, I think about the possibilities for us as a people to transcend the limitations of the current social, economic and other organizational systems failures which no longer favor the planet or our well being.
I no longer want to focus on the negative, or bash what I don't like or agree with. I am over that sense of pessimism and powerlessness that does nothing but continue to feed the energy that I don't want to see rule the world any longer.
The question calls to ask, what can we do to create the reality that we do want to see? First lets clarify what we do and what we don't want to see.
Perspectives may vary according to our time and space in our particular stage of evolution, but generally sane people don't want to see, poverty, pollution, illness, extinct species, violence, etc. Unfortunately this is part of our reality and we do not want to deny or it or be at war with it.
We can take the problem and turn it into a solution by taking these challenges as incentives to take alternative lifestyle routes.
In that case we will take the feedback of our social and ecological spheres and consider them consequences or by products of our own unconscious pre-programmed modes of action, they’re fore taking response – ability, the ability to apply reflective observation and self-regulation.
Allowing us find ways to re- adapt our impact with small and slow solutions that we can employ as a direct positive response towards an outcome that starts out on our closest circle of influence and then allowing it to expand to neighboring communities, counties, states, nations, etc, until we receive positive feedback from the larger system as a whole. The Planet.
If we want to take a good look at ourselves as a humanity it calls to ponder if we are guardians or tenants of the Earth, the planet that feeds us, clothes us and shelters us.
Are we just renting the earths assets and paying a quote for its precious resources turned commodities?
The more we have the need to buy things rather than borrowing or using something that has already been used, the more resources we are demanding from the biosphere. Keep in mind these resources are limited, such as metals, fossil fuels, woods, and other prime materials needed for manufacturing. We must remember that future generations will also have needs and we don’t want to exhaust the supplies available in the planet.
Do we even have the minutest intention to care to regenerate and protect the resources of the biosphere and all that is living?
To look at these questions and receive an insight lets look at the following excerpt from Bill Mollison’s Permaculture In The Landscape & Society from The Permaculture Designers Manual.
This is one of the first topics we look into in our Urban Habitat Permaculture Design Course.
It is useful to recognize that we cannot take care of nature if we don’t govern our own needs and waste. We are at a tipping point in nature where we must make safe refuges for all of living global life forms. Permaculture is a design system; it is design of landscape, social and conceptual aspects. Our major responsibilities is to get a household garden in our place of living so it can support us, secondarily is to regulate our own population responsibly. If our homes, cities and gardens do not shelter and feed us then we end up taking resources and producing waste in other natural systems. If more people were sustainable and cities were self-sufficient there would be more landmass available for wilderness and conservation. When we are taking response ability of our own needs and wastes then we are being socially responsible Earth citizens.
Bill-Mollison 1988
Yes we do have needs and yes we must satisfy them in order for us to live comfortably in this world, but can we tell between excesses of programmed desires that are carefully instilled into our psyche by marketing companies and what real human needs are?
Humans have several needs, we are multifaceted beings, and we have physical, emotional, mental, & spiritual needs
• Quality: Food, Air, Water: (Nourishment for the physical self)
• Beauty: (Self expression thought color, art, music, dance, movement, garments, creativity etc)
• Warmth - Cooling: (Fibers for cooling or insulation)
• Shelter: (A living place where to feel safe, protected and comfortable)
• Variety: the need for the unknown, change, and new stimuli (A need to discover new knowledge, ideas, experiences)
• Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed (You have something to offer that no one else has and gives us a sense of having a place in our world)
• Connection/Love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something, family, friends, tribe) (Humans are meant to be social beings who are nourished by interrelations)
• Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding (Constant expansion of consciousness to become aware of the whole picture)
• Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others (The feeling of having served a purpose larger than oneself is by far one of the best feeling any individual can have)
Permaculture is a form of culture that rises beyond growing foods is no longer only about agriculture but it is regenerative form of satisfying our needs that we have as humans in a way that is nourishing to ourselves, the earth's resources, the elements, and other living species simultaneously. We can view it as whole systems design for thriving!
It is art, music, honor and stewardship for all of life. It is the union of system's edges merging into synchronic design. Lets get creative on the way we satisfy our needs for growth, interrelations, service, and contribution to something larger than ourselves. Socially organize to create new ways for fulfilling each other’s needs. We’ve been told that the basic necessities must be purchased, lending itself to reliance on foreign resources and robbing the individual of any control within his or her community.
What can you do to responsibly meet your needs? • Join a Community Supported Agriculture farm near or a local food co-op. • Divert what funds you can from the Corporatocracy’s of the world and send that energy back into your own neighborhood by having local hand made markets. • Make your own soap. • Grow your own veggies; they will taste so much better! • Turn your balcony’s, terraces, patios and lawns, and put in useful edible medicinal gardens. • Host a gift circle, where a group of your community gathers to gift each other something that you may already have and want to pass on to someone special. • Form part of a tool-sharing co-op or have swap parties where people exchange or borrow articles they may need. • Propose a block party with workshops that include re-skilling activities such as DYI natural cleaning products, herbal tinctures, kimchee, planting knitting, carpentry, aromatherapy, instrument making/playing or some other useful interesting skill. • Share your skill! Teach others to become good at something that they can learn from you. • Get your neighbors inspired to live more healthy, connected interdependent lifestyles
It is time for us to become our own leaders there’s is no one that we are waiting for but our own empowerment, a new world is one where everyone is allowed to be free with out limitations or chains to arrest or exert a control over another person, species or environment.
It is a place where each soul has a righteous place and a set of gifts to offer to the whole, where we can be natural, and have room for self expression, where we can abandon the need to judge or criticize, where everyone has a whole to fill, a grandma, a poet, a singer, a painter, a thinker, a writer an inventor a carpenter or a mother lady, the little ones and the large ones, the quiet ones and the loud ones, a world where everyone has a skill, a song or a story to share!
It is time for cooperation rather than competition. Time to become Response-Able.
Resources of the day:
Watch Movie : Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU Lets Share: http://www.shareable.net/
