015: Live your dreams. Produce no waste.

6/22/2014

Welcome to Episode 15 of the Empathic Writing Journey Podcast! I started this podcast nearly 6 months ago as a way of chronicling my intent to:

(1) FREE myself;
(2) BE myself;
(3) deepen + sweeten my love affair with life; and
(4) promote empathy and permaculture/regenerative design.

Being faithful to each of these intentions has helped bring me healing I didn't even know I needed. I was surprised to learn how angry and resentful I had become from feeling like I never had enough time or mental space to simply think.

It seemed modern life was always rushing me along, and crowding my inner world with unimportant clutter and chatter. Two things I'm not particularly fond of, by the way. I'm contemplative. And mystical. And empathic. To flourish, I need plenty of time and space to tend to my solitary arts.

But my life wasn't designed around those aspects of myself. My need to think deeply. Move slowly. Connect meaningfully. Create beauty. And live gently.

Instead of doing those things so important for my well-being, I wasted my energy trying to adapt to CrazyWorld! I had accepted an extroverted, consumptive lifestyle as my own, even though at my core I am neither of those things. I was at odds with myself, and experienced a lot of suffering as a result. So six months ago I just stopped listening, to the cultural mantra that hums in the background like a humidifier, and convinces so many of us to slay our dreams. I listened, instead, to my truth-telling heart which had been holding The List my soul had made, of the things It wanted to do with this life. Needless to say, droning along was not on that List.

Living your dreams is the entire point. Believing otherwise is not only an acceptance of the ho-hum, it's an insistence on it.

I'll close my check-in with this final observation: The caterpillar has NO IDEA of the things the butterfly gets to enjoy. If it is transformation you seek, it's important to consult those who themselves have been transformed. It's a lot of well-meaning caterpillars out there.

I'm interested to know what's new, or lively, with you? Please let me know in the comments.

Jill Lanier of Permie Peeks...

...recently featured my work on her inspiring blog. Please see her article here. She includes some pictures of vegetable beds from my yard, getting a nice watering from young neighbors :-)

A recommended Charles Eisenstein Video

Big thanks to Monica for sharing with me Charles Eisenstein's talk at the recent Slow Living Summit called, "Time is running out. Let's slow down." It helped me better understand the anger I mentioned in my check-in. Please make the time to watch, and consider, what he says.

The 6th Permaculture Design principle.

The 6th Permaculture Design Principle advises us to "Produce no waste." To carry out this principle, I recommend backpacking/"roughing it" at least once in your life for a minimum of 2-3 nights:

(1) You will consider every piece of trash you produce, because you have to carry every piece of trash you produce until the end of your trip; and

(2) When you have an established relationship with the outdoor world -- when you connect to some aspect of its beauty and power, and not just in an exploitive way, but in a relational way -- you will feel protective of its resources and, at the very least, you'll be more mindful about burning through 'em.

Along those lines, below is a two-ingredient conditioner that made no waste, AND made my tight curls soft, defined and frizz-free. See pictures below!

Accepting my naturally coarse + curly hair. Finally.

It took 43.5 years, but I have finally embraced my naturally curly hair! No more forcing it straight with heat, and self-rejection. (I'll share more about that whole process later.) Curly hair is always thirsty and ready for more moisture, so I loved the results of this simple, very effective two-ingredient hair conditioner:

* 1 banana (you can also use an avocado)
* 1 egg

Mix in bowl until the texture is a smooth puree. Rub into hair liberally, from scalp to ends. Pile hair on top of head, and cover with plastic cap for at least 20 minutes. Rinse. Enjoy softness, shine, pattern definition, decreased frizz... and aside from a banana peel, you make NO waste! ;-)

See those banana bits? Do a better job of mashing than I did. They made for slow drainage in the shower!

BEFORE banana-egg conditioner.

AFTER banana-egg conditioner.

6 Comments

Fenesha link

6/23/2014 12:43:40 am

Hey Erika- Thanks for sharing your journey about how you are shifting your consciousness about space, pace and creativity. Your reflections on intention, time and creation in the CrazyWorld remind me of a text I'm currently reading by Peter Block (The Answer to How is Yes). In it he says, "When speed becomes the measure of performance it governs the way we experience our lives as well as the quality of our lives. Speed becomes a reason to settle for lower quality and ignore our desires. ... If we want depth, we need to step out of time. ... If we yield to the temptation of speed, we short-circuit our values." (77) I'd love to hear your insight on something else Block says, namely that 'If we love going fast and speed is our friend, then we need to ask what are we postponing.' (PS. Nice hair mix!)

Erika Harris link

6/23/2014 09:07:11 pm

Wow. I'm savoring what you have shared from Block's work, Fenesha. Thank you! I *strongly* agree with his insights... about stepping out of time. And about asking WHY we are so doggone hurried all the time.

I don't know why most of the world rushes, and accepts it as a reasonable pace. Or why so many defer what they really want indefinitely. Manic calendars make it nearly impossible to have a slow and graceful unfolding of oneself.

When I played that speed game I was MISERABLE. I am not built for that, and I think happiness is learning what kind of journey you have been built for, and then following *that* path.

And it definitely doesn't need to be an expressway! LOL.

Jill Lanier link

6/29/2014 02:53:27 am

Produce No Waste - this is one of a couple of my favorite permaculture principles.

Another way to look at it, is to Produce Waste, only if Waste = "Food" for something else.

6/29/2014 03:10:42 am

Thanks for the shout out Erika! I love that 1) the little ones are involved in the shared gardening and 2) they seem totally engaged and present to the task at hand.

Every one young or old has a part to play in contributing to the well-being of their community. Yeah!

Wisdom Seeker

7/4/2014 07:28:29 am

Live Your Dreams-

With open honesty, we are escorted through a lifestyle-transformation from 'CrazyWorld' consumptive living to a life designed around the vital and meaningful personal needs required to 'be'.
Listened to, was "MY TRUTH-TELLING HEART WHICH HAD
BEEN HOLDING THE LIST MY SOUL HAD MADE OF THE
THINGS IT WANTED TO DO WITH THIS LIFE."

There is no time for us to 'drone along' and 'slay our dreams':
"LIVING YOUR DREAMS IS THE ENTIRE POINT. BELIEVING
OTHERWISE IS NOT ONLY ACCEPTANCE OF THE HO-HUM,
IT'S AN INSISTENCE ON IT."

After hearing this podcast, how can one any longer remain a caterpillar?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Produce No Waste.-

Waste is the unnecessary use or loss of something valuable. One of the keys here is v-a-l-u-a-b-l-e. When we waste during the process of consumption, we are not considering the importance of that commodity -- generally because of its abundant nature and easy availability. In the U.S., we rarely suffer shortage in the marketplace where bounty overflows, engulfs, and suffocates. Perhaps,if we consumed less, we would value more ... and have greater values.

Thank you, Erika, for sharing your Brilliant Light and beautiful truths with us!

Jill link

7/10/2014 07:33:58 am

I very much enjoyed the conversation with Charles Eisenstein. There were many things that resonated. One thing in particular emerged during the brief Q&A after his talk. Someone asked something to the effect of how could you persuade others to embrace a more reverent way of viewing what exists outside of ourselves. His answer was something I had come to see for myself awhile ago.

>>that as long as people can get some small part of what they want or need, they are less likely to challenge a system or process that is broken, which could exponentially improve the situation for all concerned.

>>by some estimates this recession is in its breadth, depth and reach, as bad or worse than the Depression, and I used to wonder how we could hum about our daily lives with such a far-reaching catastrophe unfolding in front of us. Well as Eisner observes, for those for whom the system continues to work in some fashion, they will do just that. Hum along until they can't. Until then it's difficult to get people to see otherwise.

Thanks for sharing this video Erika!