018: Permaculture! Superadobe! Weird Words To Our Rescue.

I've returned from my two-week training in Permaculture and Superadobe with tangible, hands-on skills I had been aching for. I learned things like:

• How to use the geometric strength of the arch and the circle in your home construction. 
• How to decrease the cost, and toxicity, of your constructed home by building it with earth architecture.
• How to get maximum gain (heat + sunlight) from solar passive energy in your home design.
• How you can make natural paint from powdered milk, and use magnetite as a natural shimmery additive to your earthen plaster.
• How to assess the building + growing qualities of your sub-soil.
• How to hold fresh rainwater on your land, and how to re-direct greywater (which is used sink, shower or laundry water) to needful places, like gardens.
• The components of a linear food forest, and how to install them.
• And overall, how to lessen your work, and increase your yields in all endeavors. 

Useful. Solid. But there's a gap between now, and my acquisition of land, so... what to do in the meantime?

It's tempting for land-less, apartment-dwelling permaculturists to feel unable to move forward with the brilliant techniques we've been shown. But there is plenty we can do. Here's four suggestions:

1. BABY STEPS: Do the hügelkultur later. Enjoy patio, porch or windowsill herbs now; 
   
2. HELP OTHERS: If we can't dig swales or rain gardens for ourselves at this present moment, how about helping someone else who does have land, but maybe lacks the perma-know-how, or needs additional hands for heavier loads?;
   
3. DEEP CLEAN: Follow the example of our deciduous teachers, and shed the dead from your life; and
   
4. HARVEST FROM WITHIN: Source something creative from your soul. Speaking of which...

9th Permaculture Principle: Use small + slow solutions.

Implementing #4, I started the sequel to my first e-book which was published two years ago. I'm calling it: "IT'S BEAUTIFUL INSIDE:  An Introvert's Right To Be."

There is wide-spread confusion about extroverts and introverts. People often mistake passion for extroversion, and shyness or introversion. Neither of those are accurate indicators. The way to know the difference between the two is simple -- note the way you recharge yourself. Extroverts recharge through social interaction with others. Introverts recharge through solitary time with themselves. That's the litmus test.

In a recent conversation, I shared my strong feelings about my right and need to live more simply and calmly, with time to reflect and create. "Yeah, but it takes all kinds," my extroverted girlfriend said. "If we were all the same, how boring would that be?"

Well, that's my point exactly.

The modern world highly favors extroverts. They are the cultural ideal, and the demonstrated bias starts early in childhood classrooms (if not sooner), carries into workplaces, and persists in most other aspects of our shared, public life.

Even before social media snuck its way into every crack and crevice of our human experiences, we were already well indoctrinated with the idea that it's rude to decline invitations (even if we'd really rather not go), and it's smart to kiss the butts of those with power + influence (even if we don't like or respect the powerful person). Fakery and pretense was anchored in at an early age, and called socialization. And in too many circles, sincerity is considered naive.

I think it's funny that parents and penal systems both use "solitary confinement" as a form of punishment. I consider solitude splendid. Social charades is what I find punishing.

Don't get me wrong. I know that our species is a social one. But it is destructive that on a very regular basis, introverts, empaths, sensitives, and anyone who cherishes interiority is shamed and cajoled into acting in ways that are simply untrue for us.

We should have the academic, professional and social freedom to be who and how we are, minus the burden of feeling inadequate just because we require time-outs from others, and time-ins with ourselves.

There are a lot of helpful articles + books on the matter. I have a Big Idea of my own to add to the conversation (hence the started sequel), but I raise this praise of inwardness now because...

...rather than whine about how the world doesn't feel like a place in which I belong, I needed a more pro-active solution, and I found it.

QUESTION:  How do I create a world in which I can genuinely flourish, rather than miserably "fake it"?

ANSWER:  Permaculture and Superadobe are two technologies that actually and literally empower you to take matters into your own generative hands, and build a home, a food system, and a life that you find sane and satisfying.

These two weird words help me not only protest the absurd stuff I find objectionable (like hyper-consumption + ecocide), but they also show me how to protect the precious stuff I find valuable (like living lightly + mindfully).

An example of this principle in action is seen in "Baby Steps," above. And an older version of this statement -- still floating around in my memory banks -- is from  Zechariah 4:10 of the Old Testament, which says, "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin."

YOUR TURN. QUESTION FOR YOU. What's a small or slow solution you can implement, to begin your work, whatever that may be? Let me know in the comments below.

It's Beautiful Inside: An Introvert's Right To Be.

Free-range thinking on the land between your ears.