More Basic, More Slowly, More Depth

I once went out hiking with a nature guild. He led on a walk up a stream bed at the foothills of the Angelinos Crest, all the while gathering edibles, and educating us on other uses for the plants. At the end of the walk we cooked some of the gathered food. It was a tasty but meager snack.

Had we hiked outside of the stream bed, gathering food would have been even more labor intensive. The cultivation of food was a prerequisite for building communities. When humans stepped in, cleared land, and planted a lot of one food in one spot, every bug and beast that liked that food came to dine. And the struggle began…

When science appeared, with its shinny promises of no bugs, no weeds, many felt that salvation had come at last.

Once it became clear that –that dog don’t hunt. (Putting toxic chemicals on our land, in our food and water,) someone thought to ask themselves;
WWND- What would nature do?
Why, nature has sustainable systems.
How do we get ourselves one of those?
At which point, Bill Mollison & David Holmgren broke it down into rules to design permanent agricultural which would mimic nature in establishing relationships found in natural ecologies.

Permaculture is a map to sustainable.
Sustainability is important because…
We (closing in on 7 billion of us,) sit upon, one round planet hurling through the vacuum of space, made up of diverse eco-systems within eco-systems. Eco-systems which humanity has altered with little to no regard for the space they were holding. And it has just become apparent to some, that our small isolated planet is not getting any bigger and we either become sustainable or render ourselves extinct.

Here is where the map will take a leap. Not to worry as I will circle back in another bolg.
Remember the song from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young:
“We have got to get ourselves back to the garden.”
Well perhaps they were profits of the times.
We do have to get ourselves back to the garden.
The first move is into self.
How does one get reconnected to the WEB of Life?
Because unless one feels the direction and pulse of the web of life, everything created is from good intentions and an ideals. There was a time when that was enough. That time has passed.

Connecting into the web is doable, I’m in, and I’m not here alone. Yes, my mind will jump in, spin a good story and act outside of the integrity of my Personal Permaculutre. But when I can stay awake and ask the right question, then continue to stay awake long enough to support the answer into action, the result is something which is real. It is integrated with the web, life, the planet and me.

Like in the story the Secret Garden, nature is magic and has healing powers.
There are a lot of things in need of healing.
Nature lives inside of each of us. Granola not required.