032: The Antidote To Terror.

The definition of terror is "extreme fear."

The opposite of which is "extreme love."

Fear clenches. Restricts. Chokes. Like a hyperventilating man who needs oxygen, but will not get it with short, shallow breaths.

Despite his body's urge to go completely ballistic and flail in panic, exerting energy and burning the last bits of oxygen in his system, he must instead:
  1. Calm himself.
  2. Slow his breath.
  3. Deepen his inhale.

And we must do the same.

We can choose to opt-of of bandwagons racing toward Fearville. Just don't jump on. Let 'em ride past you. Hysteria is movement, but not necessarily wise movement. So remain calm and centered, knowing that your grounded state-of-mind is the greatest contribution you can make in a time of heightened pain and unrest.

Greet the knee-jerk rage that wants to kick and punch and react.

Say "Hello" to the rage, and then tell it to stand down.

A clear head + clear heart is needed. A mass shooting of love is needed.

How does that happen? What does that look like? It looks like being slow to draw:
  • conclusions
  • policies
  • judgments
  • guns
In slowness, direction is revealed. And it's the kind of direction you can live with. It's the kind of direction that transforms a society by transforming its response to rage.

We are all suggestible, to some degree. So the question is, whose suggestions are you taking? If those suggestions -- media of any form -- shorten your breath and tighten your chest, they are not good for your body or mind. Those suggestions are literally constricting life, and your body is even giving you a felt experience... of life narrowing when you feed fear.

And the opposite is true. Life expands when you feed love.

I don't know how a proud and egoic country like mine would implement this ideal on a national level, but if individual people in the nation choose to focus on extreme love, then the same effect will be reached.

​Breathe slow and deep. Love extremely. Expect great insight to be revealed. Carry out those insights. Share some of them here, if you are inclined.

Come Hear Me Speak @ WomenGrow Chicago, Dec 3rd!

"THE CAVE YOU FEAR TO ENTER
HOLDS THE TREASURE YOU SEEK."
(JOSEPH CAMPBELL)

My wordcloud this week started as an exploration of VOICE.
I was thinking about the things I used to do with my voice, like:
mute, muffle, whisper, censor, honey-up, dilute.

It was very disempowering.

And, apparently, no longer true.

Here's how I know I've moved past those fearful communication habits...

On Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 (6pm-8pm) I'm the opening speaker
at Chicago's WomenGrow networking event!

"(Science Shows) How Cannabis Can Help You Stay Calm
​This Holiday Season + Kick Ass With Your New Year's Goals."

If something like that strikes your fancy, or if you'd like to
show your support of my standing + speaking about
the BLESSEDNESS of cannabis, click here for all the details.

031: How To Grow A Life That You Really Love.

DISCLAIMER: I write personal things. Long, personal things.
That violates the blanching rules of "good journalism," click-baity web content
and anemic attention spans. So why risk over-sharing, and the appearance of self-obsession?

Because I have struggled to find/know/create a right-feeling place for myself in the world.
And I know it is a huge irony that A MASS AMOUNT of people feel that exact same isolated way!
Being earnest out loud helps dissolve felt alienation,
and ​dignifies the important role of our feelings and our hopes.
A year ago, I returned to my high-traffic apartment in Chicago after attending
a two-week permaculture + earth-architecture training in the Mojave desert.

I floundered, and felt quite lost at first.
I was unsure about what to do for employment.
I could not return to my old, matrix-y life from which I had unplugged.
But I also had little-to-no developed skills in the earth-oriented direction I desired.

I'd just turned 44, so it seemed a bit late in my game to have this intern-like
questioning going on... but extreme humility was required,
because I was starting fresh...
and I was not going back to corporate charades.
Or any charades.

Instead, I got out of the city and into a small town,
where I have been healing from the crispiness that comes from years
of trying to be things that you are not. Greenery and wildlife can hold you well.
Nature wants to encircle you, and tell you helpful secrets and ways
to become a free and whole person.

I've been listening, and I went from career confusion, to a fully digital
and time-sovereign worklife. (Check out http://www.erikasportfolio.com.)
My over-zealous nervous system insisted on a calmer, simpler, truer life.

Those, and other, lifestyle changes happened because I had been eliminating
"spirals of erosion," and increasing "spirals of abundance." Those are two terms
that come from Looby Macnamara in People & Permaculture.

This is the first book to explore how to use permaculture design and principles for people -- to restore personal, social and planetary well-being. People & Permaculture widens the definition of permaculture from being mainly about land-based systems to include our own lives, relationships and society. (Publisher's Description of People & Permaculture: Caring and Designing for Ourselves, Each Other and the Planet, by Looby Macnamara

Your Life Is A Glorious Ecosystem.

Healthy ecosystems REINFORCE LIFE.
There is harmony among species, activities, seasons, geography.
Everything is incorporated. Everything has impact on everything else.
And so it is in the webby ecosystem of our life.

Our work touches our mood touches our relationships touches our food
touches our health touches our earnings touches our experiences...
The links are real. The links are uninterrupted.

The more sensitive and perceptive among us... the canaries in the coal-mines...
we have always felt these links. We know the connection deep in our bones.
And when we are too timid to shoot out that Fire of Knowing,
we roast, and simmer, from within.
And then, become Phoenix.

Covered in ash, I now share with you my kindergarden
(which, did you know, is German for "children's garden"?)
This is my kindergarden list of what I have learned, and put into effect,
this past year, after having earned my certification in permaculture:

* Source a livelihood from what is inside me.

* Trust the goodness of my inner navigator.

* Resist antagonists to my joy and freedom. 

* Accept that I am a thinker, who causes deeper thought, in a time that hates thinking.

* Embrace the loftiness of my ideals. There is no shame in aspiration.

* Hold steady to my inner knowing, even in the face of financial uncertainty.
Especially in the face of financial uncertainty.

* Soul-synch with the arc of the sun, the phase of the moon, the blue-jays' visit,
and the unending supply of keys and notes from the Green Muse.

​_____________________________________________________________________________

I've been hosting collisions between...
fear + courage
rage + forgiveness
doubts + big dives off falsely-constructed cliffs
outer rules + inner anarchy

If you want an integrated life, host a Big Bang...
between your ears
between your pecs
RECONCILE
your gospel with your yoga
your sacredness with your sensuality
your faith with your funk
your reason with your rabid love
your sweetness with your boundaries
your wildness with your holiness

Take that conflict, and see it for the soul-snack that it is.
Take it into your mouth. Chew. Swallow. Metabolize.

REMEMBER
the medicine 
brought to you in poems
and slow moments
that let you savor such things
* basically, make peace in you *

There are many faces and voices of permaculture.
I am one. My harvest is my life, my walk, my talk.

​I am committed to our soul's nourishment,
and to the increased expectation of ecstasy
​and euphoria in our routine life.

On this I stand, my inner land.
​​I have not arrived, but I have transformed.

Permaculture helped me recognize myself as a devotional being...
​capable of creating a luscious habitat for myself, from the inside out. 
​
We all have our dark moments of the soul, when we go deep into our individual beings and ask hard questions, and sometimes get unwelcome answers. Are humans a plague on the planet? Can one person, when that one person is me, really make a difference? Can the juggernaut of consumer society be turned? Why should we single out our fellow humans for a special degree of care over, say, salmon, or whales? The answer is in this book. We take care of people because people matter, and because that is our nature as creatures who care. What we care about matters to the fate of the world, now as never before. If permaculture as a design tool is about making connections, this book is about how we reconnect ourselves -- to each other, to our inner selves, to our highest aspirations and, finally, to the cycles of life, of which we are just a small, but incredibly important, part." (Albert Bates, Author and educator, The Farm Ecovillage Training Center)

A Disability To Fake It.

Do you struggle socially? Maybe it's because you have a NEW + NEEDED PERSPECTIVE about how we behave together. And how we treat each other. The awkwardness you feel in so many common situations is A DISABILITY TO FAKE IT. And that's a very good thing. Free you. Be you.

030: Natural Feasts (Rotting Roses, Grounding Stew) + Alice Russell.

Picture

Rotting Roses.

It's easy to forget that apples (along with many other fruits) are in the rose family. I have a weird segmentation in my mind: roses are formal and romantic... apples are casual and snackish.

Also, apples come up a lot in religion. And technology.

Anyway, outside a train station, where all events are precisely scheduled to the minute, there stands this apple tree. This unregulated food source is not near any foot-paths, so its banquet is for the wild ones.

In my few watching moments, I saw a squirrel, and circling bees dive in.

​They dove in to what had been provided for them. If you have forgotten how to let go and loosen up, watch a wild animal or insect eat. Let them remind you how to enjoy wholesome, primal pleasures and delights.
​

Grounding Stew.

When you start seeing splashes of gold and orange...
in pumpkins... candy corn... deciduous trees...
that is a good time to have a nice, grounding stew.

Get your root veggies. Carrots. Beets. White and Sweet Potatoes. Onions. Parsnips. 
These storage organs hold energy -- that's their job -- to help the plant
survive adverse conditions. They do the same for you, and that is how
and why you feel their comfort when you eat them.

Heat some oil in the bottom of a big pot. Let it get so hot, it pops.
Let it hiss, like an angry cat, and demand that you feed it.
Then, give it the sweetness of white onion and red pepper.

It likes that. You can tell by the sizzle. 
And you notice as you cook, that
you have caramelized your cares.

In the heat that breaks down crispness
it hurts, yes. That's the cost of becoming tender
and good-tasting with other flavors.

Use a slow simmer. Not the rapid boil of an expressway.
Instead, the rhythmic rising of heat on a rural road, that does not rush.

Add the spices and herbs you love most.
Build your broth. Add your energy-holding veggies.
Then stir, and walk away. Let heat and time do
what only heat and time can do.

When you eat, appreciate what happened,
from ideation to burp.
This is how stew is made.
But, also, the next step of your life.

And to complete our soulful meal, Alice Russell...

... serves up the most delicious call to action I've ever tasted: let us be loving.

And the dancing sista in the psychedelic romper, with the proud 'fro who is pulling Goodness in... you are all kinds of beautiful, Woman...  in form, movement and in essence.

This is what soul food sounds like. It nourishes you so much, you can't help but want to run out and feed others in your own way, too.
​​

​HAS FOOD BEEN SPEAKING TO YOU LATELY? HOW SO?

029: Three Productive Things To Do When You Care Far Too Much About Something Absolutely Beyond Your Control.

Picture

It's no secret, that I am socially awkward. The commercial focus of dominant culture just doesn’t appeal to me. At all. 

And even more than that, it actually erodes my well-being.

So I made some drastic changes -- to accommodate my monkish ways -- and I work from home as an independent writer and lavish listener. (If you are under-listened to -- and who isn't?? -- you should check out my offering.)

A client recently asked me to write about the irresponsibility of Western filmmakers and media who popularize a harmful idealized myth of Gandhi.

I Decided To Write About The Root. Not A Petal.

Fifteen years ago I sat in a graduate World Religion class and, on the day we were introduced to Hinduism, I was horrified. Nothing could have prepared me for the explanation of caste. My heart broke for the VOICELESS at the very BOTTOM of this diabolical structure:


Free Will? Personal Rights? No, Not For Everyone.

How would you like to have your destiny scheduled for you? Instead of a birth certificate, imagine getting an official government designation that says you are such an impure pollutant, you yourself are "untouchable"?

Many of us in the US completely lose it over the word "nigga." And while we are in plush workshops “discovering our life purpose,” Dalits are routinely beaten, raped, set on fire, forced to drink urine and eat excrement… often for an ‘offense’ as minor as their shadow falling on a higher caste person.

And while there's all this fuss and fear over possible contamination by a shadow, or direct eye contact, Dalit vaginas must be esteemed as incredibly pure... when you consider how often higher caste men and police rape Dalit women.

Two hundred million people in India are sentenced to this predetermined, unprotected hell carried out in the name of 'ancestral callings'. Casteism is embedded in the doctrine of Hinduism, and is enforced by the government of India.

Whoa, This Problem Is Deep. What Can I Do About It?

  1. If you are a non-Indian with little or no knowledge of casteism, you can get an unbiased snapshot of real events in a digestible way by setting a daily Google alert for the word “Dalit.” Don’t worry, your inbox won’t be flooded, but the stories you do see will inform you. And probably change you. Just set it for a week. That's all it'll take for you to see.

  2. If you're intrepid, read Dr. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste.

  3. If you're a Dalit in India, convert. Cognitively separate yourself from ANY belief or teaching that destroys your humanity, by denying your humanity. Do not heed a master that cannot even see you. Disobey. Can the consequences be worse than your current oppression?

Crowd-Sourced Caring Made A Positive Impact

It was reported that a local village council in Uttar Prudesh had ordered two women to be raped and ridiculed, as punishment for their brother's elopement with a woman from a higher caste.

The council denied the claim, but that didn’t stop an Amnesty International petition from collecting more than 330,000 signatures… because decent people DO have an indecency threshold. And this crossed it.

The campaign was a semi-success. Awareness was raised, and India's Supreme Court did rule that the family be protected. But that was a publicized petal. The root of all this nastiness is casteism. The victims of all this nastiness are Dalits.

Even Though...

*  Even though we in the West need our own deep healing in racial and judicial relations, we are not short on love for those further away.

*  Even though we are undoubtedly burdened by real and immediate challenges in our own life, we must remember the designated least among us. And be appalled by the designation!!

*  Even though we may be shielded in comfort and illusion, it is to our gain to feel life without the shield.

Fifteen years ago, I cried hard over the images I saw in that World Religion class. Images as disturbing as ones I've seen of my own enslaved ancestors.

I protested us just "moving on," to keep pace with our curriculum. How could we move on? My emotional display seemed to annoy my more stoic classmates and professor. Why couldn't I just "accept reality?" Tell me...

...for the Dalit, what is acceptable about it?!

And now is a great time to plunge into those Three Productive Things You Can Do When You Care Far Too Much About Something Absolutely Beyond Your Control:

  1. MAKE NOISE. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to remain silent." (Edmund Burke)

  2. MAKE ART. "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way -- things I had no words for." (Georgia O'Keeffe)

  3. MAKE PEACE. Don't try to banish all of your discomfort. Some of it is intended to keep you tender. Human.

Hey, person-with-a-heart, wHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO MANAGE OVER-CARING?

Get A FREE TICKET To "Horizons 2015: Perspectives On Psychedelics" 3-Day Conference in NYC, Oct 9-11!


Back in March, I bought an early-bird ticket to Horizons 2015:
Perspectives on Psychedelics in NYC, Oct. 9th - 11th. I thought it'd be
a cool way to celebrate my 45th birthday, but turns out I'm unable to attend.

Horizons' DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT:

"Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics is an annual forum that examines
the role of psychedelics in science, healing, culture and spirituality.

In recent years, a growing community of scientists, doctors, artists,
activists, seekers and scholars have orchestrated a renaissance
in psychedelic thought and practice.

Horizons brings together the brightest minds and the boldest voices
of this movement to share their research, insights and dreams for the future."
So, my loss is your gain! I don't imagine there will be a ton of takers on this offer,
but if you are interested in this event and are fairly certain you can attend, contact me here.

Tell me why you want to go, and what you hope to get from the experience.
The first real-feeling answer gets the full pass, transferred into your name.
I'm excited, and curious, to see which psychonauts bite ;-)

The only condition... if something happens and you can't go,
don't let the ticket go to waste. Please pass it forward in that case. Thanks!
Let's close with something we must be unafraid to ask:

"Instead of all of this energy + effort directed
at the war to end drugs, how about a little
attention to drugs which will end war?"
(Albert Hofmann, Swiss Chemist)

If that earnest question makes sense to you...
stirs or troubles something in you... this might be a great conference
for you to attend! On behalf of cognitive liberty, Erika.

Curly Hair + Self-Acceptance.

My life's theme is making peace between inner + outer worlds. This means I look for alignment in relationships, work, lifestyle... and, appearance.

They are all reflections. Our friends, lovers, jobs, health, hobbies and looks are all a reflection of what is rooted in us. Hopefully, our outer circumstances nourish what's inside us, and don't negate what's inside us. 
In May 2014 I went to Miami Beach for sun + solitude. (Kisses to fellow beach-writers!)
I forgot my flat-iron. And Miami in May is about 80% humidity. So big-haired ladies know what this means...

I was headed to a drugstore to buy a replacement flat-iron because my room was right on the ocean, and the moisture was already making my hair swell and puff by the minute. As I got closer to the store, I thought about how much time I'd be wasting in the bathroom, fighting nature.

Why do we do that? Fight nature?

Anyway, at the traffic-light (I have made several big life-choices at traffic lights for some reason...) at the traffic-light I decided, "No more heat. No more straightening. No more mighty efforts to fight the natural pattern of my hair... which is ANYthing but flat or straight."

And ever since then, I have been practicing the acceptance of my nature, rather than the suppression  of it.

It's been a little disappointing, honestly, as some people close to me have deeply ingrained biases against unruly hair. But that's their issue, not mine. It has mostly been very healing and freeing to simply allow my hair to be what it is.

I Made These To Promote Sativa Yoga...


...and to celebrate the beautiful chaos that tops so many of our heads.

In addition to the notebook + travel mug, there is also a tote bag,
a zippered pouch, a throw pillow + more. VISIT THE STORE.

:: Thanks for SHARING with other curly yogis! ::

What Has Your Experience Been... With Curly Hair, or Self-Acceptance in general? Let Me Know In The Comments.

Ministry Of Rain

Fat drops hurl
down into
ravenous cisterns,
like me.

They cool + comfort
hot outbursts,
like me.

Naturally,
I want to disrobe...
throw my hands high
in clean surrender.

I want to be like the soil,
and sop up the spilled sky.

Blessed, wet reset.

028: A Primer For Courageous Creativity

:: CLICK TO PLAY THE PODCAST ::

Hey, Lovelies! It's been awhile, huh? How are you? Great in every way, I hope. I have been doing a whole lot of integration. Phew!

Better demonstrated, than passively discussed ad nauseum. Demonstration is where I'm headed.

As a result of me living in strong collaboration with my heart and soul, my creative projects got rearranged. So some planned things -- like the relaunch of "It's Beautiful Inside: An Introvert's Right to BE" -- got delayed. (My goodness... talk about a Pandora's Box! That essay is completely overhauled. If you got an original copy, please contact me so I can send you the update... which is progressing beautifully.)  

And some unplanned things -- like this Primer for Courageous Creativity -- got created.

Suppression breeds sickness, unhappiness and fragmentation. Expression, on the other hand, is a way to let our life breathe.

So many of us are holding our breath. Uncomfortably. Blue in the face. So programmed and processed, we forgot how to simply GASP for what's needed. Air. Freespaceformovement. Freshness in the day. Zest in the routine. Strong and true beholding in our relations. A life that actually feels alive.  This primer was written to help revive that feeling.

Table of Contents:
  1. Refreshment For Courageous Creators
  2. The Initiation
  3. Daily Refinement Is Our Power, Our Pleasure + Our Practice
  4. Ideas Deserve A Genre-Agnostic Birth
  5. Why We Need Creative Anarchy
  6. Give Your Personal Projects Your Freshest Mind
  7. Oil Yourself (And Others) With The Lubrication Of Lovingkindness
  8. Organize Your Life With Soulful Scheduling

027: Are You Stuck, Stalled or Stagnant? Not After This.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW!
Did you know a certain kind of conversation can help accelerate your dreams and growth-cycles? They can. Certain kinds.

We are wired with a longing to be witnessed. Children say, "Mom, look at me!" We post on social media and say, "Friends/colleagues, look at me!" And there is an actual correlation between virtual "Likes," and released feel-good neurohormones, like oxytocin. Social media and neuroscience has provided a lot of data about this human craving we have to be seen and affirmed. 

But our innermost part requires something more than screen-deep. Some souls do, anyway. Are you one? If so, with a trusted listener, try the following three steps to move anything forward:

  1. Know What Needs Moving. What is it, exactly, that you want to move forward? Be as clear about this as you can because, sometimes, 'confusion' is really just a great place to hide-out... which is fine... until you TIRE OF HIDING. Take delight + responsibility in knowing WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL FULLY ALIVE. Admit you want what you want, and do not allow your dream to be shrunken by someone who just can't get it.

    A big goal or dream is usually a moving target. As we pursue it, both the dream + the dreamer evolve which, I believe, is the entire point of this human experience: to evolve into the wisest, most creative, loving Beings we can possibly embody. So don't be afraid to name a large dream just because you think it may be too spectacular to attain at this very moment. Just give it sound right now. SOUND CONCEIVES.

  2. Translate Your Tremble. You need to have skin in your own game. If the stakes aren't high enough, it's easy to underachieve + even protect your own limits. Sneaky self-sabotage. So, to ensure you are "all in," give voice to the scariest part that's attached to your dream, or that's obstructing the thing that needs moving.

    Pull out the part that makes you tremble and, as best you can, say that thing out loud. Your first telling removes its stinger. Your second telling makes it your pet. Your third telling, of the thing that     used to make you tremble, is exactly what someone else needed to get through a tough time. Congratulations, you are now paying Good Stuff forward!

  3. Nurture, Don't Fret. Everyday, add layers of detail, specificity AND SWEAT to your dream, or to the stuck thing you're intent to move. It keeps stress down to just expect that the details will morph over time. Messy morphing is life's objective, not life's nuisance. (Morphing/transformation is) not the thing to get over, it's the thing to dive into!

Confession IS good for the soul. Not necessarily in a religious way, but in a human way. Confession, at its root, is acknowledgment. And in a culture that is so repressed, guarded and inhibited, most of us have been DIScouraged from acknowledging our strong feelings, and our true dreams. This is unhealthy, and it causes real suffering on many levels. Passions are to be expressed, not sanitized and silenced. Do you need a witness? I am here for you. BOOK A DISCRETE, COMPASSIONATE, LAVISH LISTENING SESSION WITH ME.

Cannabis + Flow

I wrote an article that was recently published at medicaljane.com. It's titled, "Flow: A (Desirable) Side Effect of Medical Marijuana."

What are your thoughts... about the article... about lavish listening... about whatever else that feels important to you? I'd love to know. Stay tuned for updates on Sativa Yoga™.

How Many?

* random acts of explosive violence will we mourn?
* species will we drive to extinction?
* ecosystems will we devastate?
* personal dreams will we abort or deny?
* human rites of passage will we commodify beyond recognition or usefulness?
* years will we, as a nation, continue to lead the world in trash + prisons?
* surface-skimming cursory conversations of zero consequence will we tolerate?
* of our heartfelt stories will we leave untold?

If this message feels true to you, would you PLEASE SHARE IT WITH OTHERS? Thank you!

026: What does meditation have to do with marijuana prohibition? Plenty.

I've gone through a lot of personal + professional transformation in recent years. It's a marketing nightmare, as far as niches + "tribes" go... but marketing + entrepreneurial strategies will always follow my personal growth, not lead it. My "right people" will appreciate -- and recognize -- what it looks like when you cooperate with your evolution. So, to calibrate, if you are:
  • highly sensitive + empathic; or
  • seeking liberty + sovereignty that is lived; or
  • a person whose ecology + spirituality are fused; or are
  • a cannabis activist, patient or devotee...
...we have LOTS to talk about. I encourage you to visit the "Sacred Conversations" page, and consider scheduling a private session with me.

Prohibition is a pressure-cooker.

Who I'm Built To Serve.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW!
It creates eventual rebellion in the person or group being forbade an innate human right. Awareness is the only required ingredient to start the simmer. Awareness that life mirrors the in-flight airplane: Flying at higher altitude gives a smoother ride. Unless your pilot (read: federal law) actually prefers low-sky turbulence... benefits from it, somehow.

A great example of REBELLIOUS FRUIT is capoeira. Capoeira is a stealth martial art, disguised as dance. It was developed in the 16th century by African slaves that the Portuguese colonized in Brazil. These slaves, like all slaves, were denied the most fundamental human right of self-possession. Colonialism strips the colonized of personal sovereignty + customs that threaten exploitive predators. Capoeira evolved as a way for slaves to sustain hope, cultural memory + fighting instinct.

Sativa Yoga is rebellious fruit. It does not promote breaking any law, but it zealously promotes correcting those disastrous laws. It also promotes the PERSONAL LIBERATION of its practitioners. Its meditative technique arouses freedom in your thinking, speaking, moving, being.  Soon, I'll freely share HOW TO PRACTICE it. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get video updates.

A Needed Third Space.

I'm grateful for the incremental progress being made regarding marijuana laws, but there is a conversation I'm looking to have -- and willing to host -- that goes beyond the bounds of medical + recreational use. I'm talking about a whole other kind of consciousness + mind-set that encompasses more than industry, business and disease symptoms. And, at the same time, it stays free + clear of any religious or cultural ideology. A conversation that recognizes, or can at least accept the plausibility, that the cannabis plant is here to bless VAST ASPECTS of our being. Limiting our cannabis conversation to medical + recreational use, ironically, keeps us bound to the same narrow, passive consciousness that permitted the prohibition to begin with... and that allows it to stand today:
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. (Albert Einstein)
The spirit of prohibition manifests as misinformed stigma, unwarranted shame + continued, collective silence. Those initiated in cannabis are needed to visibly + vocally work toward creating full vindication of + access to this mega-healing plant. Its illegality is morally, ecologically, civically + fiscally DESPICABLE. Learning about + sharing cannabis' countless benefits is one of the most efficient, high-yield acts of good we can do. And speaking of good acts...
The June 2015 edition of National Geographic accurately heralded cannabis "an embarrassment of riches." Indeed. It is a load-lightener. It has countless molecular gifts to hurl at our endocannabinoid system. It balances our autonomic nervous system. It quickly restores economic, emotional + environmental systems. If we would only get out of our own, confused way, and let this evolutionary plant FULLY do what it's equipped to do, which includes oiling dry consciousness, illuminating dark thinking and gracefully up-leveling our ideas about living together on this planet.

Yep, kumbaya, all day long! My expression is restricted, however, as I do not reside in an enlightened state, so let me now point to someone who brilliantly voices the kind of things we can be exploring in a non-sectarian THIRD SPACE. Below is a potent excerpt from Joan Bello's "The Benefits of Marijuana". Please ponder it:
To ascend the ladder of consciousness, human beings need as much help as they can get. Levels of consciousness above concerns of personal survival and power are neither necessary for human life, nor visible from ordinary states. Because these higher degrees of awareness threaten the power structure, all paths to them are often outlawed. If we are not taught by some older, wiser person that deep and timeless perceptions really exist (or unless we ourselves fortuitously catch a glimpse of these subjective realities), we remain ignorant of their existence and are easily molded into the lower social goals of materialism, competition, and power. This less enlightened state is expressed by a constant gnawing dissatisfaction. It is the dimension of perennial desire. With each fulfillment of a goal /need / want, another void erupts. In Buddhism, it is the realm of nightmarish, insatiable hunger, which cannot be resolved unless or until the being attains to a less self-centered level. Deep within each of us, an essential need for a higher meaning of life waits to be awakened. Because of its ability to unlock this yearning and allow us a glimpse of the deeper reality, marijuana is feared by the establishment and loved by the user. 

could you *Please complete this survey* by May 29th? Your opinion matters. A lot. Thanks for sharing it with me.

If you got value from this post, would you share it with someone?

025: Truest Thing + Sativa Yoga™

Cannabis UNIFIES my passion for ecological + emotional well-being. I am now partnered with cannabis to promote its legal + social vindication through Sativa Yoga™. Here are a few quick facts:

  • It is a devotional response to a plant that teaches + heals.
  • It promotes the personal liberation of its practitioners.
  • It does not require cannabis consumption to practice, nor does it encourage breaking any cannabis laws, but it does zealously promote reforming them!
  • It blends meditative movement + sound, activism and, in the inspiring tradition of Carl Sagan, responsible, adult consciousness exploration (where legal).
  • It arouses biophilia in nature-neutral + nature-negative people (environmentalism begins *inside* us, as a strong awareness or affection... and it works its way outside us as a side-effect of love. That is biophilia.).
And so much more. This path supports you as you allow life to be the wildly radiant uprising of love  + liberation that it wants to be.

Make time + space for it... for the excavation + presentation of the true you. Toss the faker-phernalia in the roaring bonfire, and SEE YOURSELF in truth-telling flames. KNOW YOURSELF, free of anyone's manipulative agenda.

Your essence. Your musk.

Spray it.

Be found by those who are actually attracted to your true self. Your true scent.

Enjoy the symbiosis of musk-made matches, in friendship, romance or business.

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Experience lavish listening for yourself. Go to my website -- empathicwriter.com -- to see a short + powerful video of Terence McKenna, and also to learn more about Sativa Yoga™.
[This post has AUDIO. To listen, CLICK HERE.]
What's the truest thing you can say?

That was the guiding question I used while writing an essay about introversion, inwardness and the inner life. I kept asking myself that question to keep me from falling into RE-search, and focus instead, on SEARCH.

It was messy.

And liberating.

And scary.

And worth it.

I realize I have come to sound angry at popular culture, for the way it has socialized us to be consumer-bots. I am angry about that, and the truest things I can say are not, necessarily, likable to mainstream society... so that is antagonistic. I mean no harm, or offense. A personal hero, Terence McKenna, said that dominant culture is not our friend. I agree. It averts the truth about things, and then asks (and sometimes forces) us to participate in a variety of collective illusions that aren't even interesting. Let alone good or wise. Each line drawn in the inherited blueprint of our life -- from school onward -- was for the furtherance of our ability to consume.

Not discover. Cherish. Restore. Plant. Explore. Nurture. Make. Create. Know + grow our own minds.

No, our highest collective pursuit is to consume. As if buying was being.

My truest thing? Cannabis advocacy.

Creating a life that actually feels like yours absolutely requires regular times of unplugging from group consciousness, so that you can come to really know your own consciousness. You might be surprised by how very different your true self is from your presented self. In my opinion, the most courageous + revolutionary thing we can do IS TO PRESENT OUR TRUE SELF. To not accommodate things + people that try to diminish our true self. This is disruptive work... to fling your mask.

Show yourself. When you have a decision to make, listen for your truest thing. Let it count. Let it influence your voice + your actions.

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

"The true last unexplored frontier is inner space, of each of us. We start exploring inside and say: "I don't care what I find. Whatever I find will be good, whatever I find will be real and authentic." That's when we really change things." Glenn Beck, on the Tim Ferriss Show (<--- CLICK TO LISTEN).

new essay available!
Made with love, for introverts.
* Get It Here *

Culture is a huge imposition on our free will. Customs, traditions + expectations are deep grooves in our trained brain to behave and pursue such-and-such ACCORDING TO SOCIAL NORMS.

One day I stopped and thought about how much power I have given to social norms. I deferred to them as if they were actually useful or fun. They are mostly a sign of disabled imagination.

So from our earliest days — after being born into stress and captivity — we are hammered with "the rules of life." Decorum. Etiquette. False politeness.

And the thing we want most, is to simply be ourselves. Yes, let's be that!

024: Less iteration. More discovery. Go within.

One-Month Check-In

It's been one month since our move from Chicago to the far south suburbs, and I am smitten!

There are a lot of changes... like the soundscape, for instance. There are so many different bird-songs here. My urban ears were accustomed to picking up, maybe, ONE... and ::poof!:: it'd be quickly gone... but here there are bird CHOIRS! I recorded a sample, and am dropping it in the podcast outro. Listen out for the pretty chimes.

There's a big tree in our front yard that's home to a woodpecker -- nature's percussionist. He's replacing the guys outside my bedroom window in the city who played upside down buckets for donations. Every day. Many hours a day. So I am ready for Woody Woodpecker :-)

My sense of distance + space is changing. It feels like, "Wooooowww, there's finally room to expand..." And I don't mean expand trinkets + junk. I mean expand visions + missions. Those persistent ideas I've been carrying around -- all crinkled up in a tiny pocket, waiting for enough minutes + enough money to unfold them... decipher, practice + share them. It's not that the minutes or the money came... I just decided to stop waiting! Some people move to the 'burbs to make babies + raise a family. I moved to make art + raise consciousness.

Deep Listening

Do you resonate with my work? Have you been interested in a one-to-one phone consultation with me? I have created a special offer for you called Sacred Conversations. Visit the page by that same name -- Sacred Conversations -- on my website to learn more + to book your appointment.

IBI Available 4/20

I'm intending to have "It's Beautiful Inside: An Introvert's Right to BE" available April 20th! While writing it, I've used the following question as my guide:

"What's the truest thing I can say?"

I kept that question at the front of everything I wrote, and ended up having the most liberating experience of my life. You can expect a very surprising + transformational essay, coming 4/20.

023: Black + Green: Black Insights for the Green Movement (A Book By Jamal Ali).

Makin' Home Sweet.

I've been in our new place for one week, and am getting used to the difference between urban and suburban life. One of the most noticeable changes I've enjoyed is waking up to the song of birds, instead of trucks and bucket-drums :-) As I get more settled, and as Spring emerges, I'm excited to share more earth-loving tips + inspiration with you. While I finish unpacking, though, this episode is based on an article I wrote that was originally published in the now gone, but not forgotten, Mindful Metropolis magazine:

Black + Green.

There's a perception that black people are outside the environmental movement. Black Americans—together with Native Americans—were, in fact, the original environmentalists in North America. Long before there were threats of climate change, we were recycling food, foil and fabrics. Reusing scraps, containers and paper.

We grew what we ate, and we made what we wore. Reducing waste was easy, because there was no excess to waste. We practiced renewable and sustainable living not as an opt-in luxury, but as a very real necessity. We were as green as the string beans we snapped... ’til we went and got too fancy to enjoy being outdoors, and we seem to have forgotten about our practical closeness with Earth.

A voice helps us remember that closeness.

Jamal Ali's book, Black and Green: Black Insights for the Green Movement, helps us appreciate the resourceful and innovative ways our parents and grandparents walked lightly. It's a strong and steady message that demystifies "going green," and shows that this is our movement, too. And, it needs our bold and broad reclamation of it. Consider how our immediate needs are all wrapped up in environmental issues, including: 

» Our most pressing health concerns—heart disease, obesity, diabetes and asthma—are directly related to environmental and food disparities. According to Ali, “When we see our bodies as temples, we will show far greater concern for the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.”

» The crime concentrated in black communities, which is directly related to how we perceive our surroundings. Our surroundings are an extension of our very selves. What does that say about the excessive violence, dumpsites and vacant lots common in many of our neighborhoods?

» The unemployment concentrated in black communities, which can be dramatically alleviated by the growing renewable energy and energy efficiency industries that need workers and leaders now. 

The green movement is most certainly a part of the black experience. It's up to us to make sure our experience is rightly reflected in the movement.
Oh, mercy mercy me. Oh, things ain’t what they used to be. No, no.
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas. Fish full of mercury.
Oh, mercy mercy me. Oh, things ain’t what they used to be. No, no.
Radiation in the ground and in the sky.
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying.
Oh, mercy mercy me. Oh, things ain’t what they used to be.
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can you stand?

-- From “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” by Marvin Gaye, written in 1971 .
Ali remembers growing up with the epic Marvin Gaye song “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” as well as regular reminders from his father to not light the entire house, while being in one room at a time. Those messages took root. Paying it forward, Ali and his wife Rosalind are raising their two children with keen environmental awareness and the clarity that they are more than consumers. The family composts, drives a hybrid, has a tankless water heater, installed CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) throughout their house, washes their clothes in cold water in a high-efficiency washing machine and cuts T-shirts to replace lunchbox napkins and paper towels, among other eco-friendly lifestyle habits.

Ali believes being a consistent, unwavering example is the best way to share green practices. He doesn't limit his influence to home, or his kids' schools, where he often speaks. He is currently in dialogue (emphasizing the reduction of operating costs) with the office manager at the ad agency where he works as an account director to have air dryers installed in the bathroom.

Adding vitality and beauty to our environment makes it less hospitable to violence and waste. Ali is also a community revitalizer, and he credits his biggest inspiration in that work to Elijah Muhammad. Ali says, "Muhammad brought a message to a people who had been discarded and taught they were worthless, but he refused to settle for this position, and found a reuse for them teaching their very own kinship to God."

Get Jamal Ali's book here.

Questions About Introversion + Inner Life?

With the move behind me, my creative focus is now on finishing "It's Beautiful Inside: An Introvert's Right to BE." This aspect of personality has gotten a lot of press in recent years, and I have no intention of repeating what's already been said.

Interiority and the (un)cultivated inner life has direct impact on our economic, ecological + emotional well-being. So these points will be looked at as the interconnected whole that they are, as well as the criminalized relationship between psychoactive plants (entheogens) and people, the effects of socialized superficiality, what it takes to live and work as Your True Self in a world that still loves masks + conformity, and other topics related to inwardness that are ready for mature exploration. Do you have any questions or comments you'd like addressed? Please let me know in the comments, as I'd love to include your views + voice.

022: Goodbye Chicago. Hello South Suburbs.

Know Your Nucleus.

Right after receiving my certification in permaculture 4 months ago, I felt myself synchronize with the cold winter season. I withdrew socially, and was more dormant on the outside, while Life was seeding wonderful things on the inside.

Some are starting to bloom... like the increased clarity about my life's motto and business tagline, which is: "Bridging the sacred + the solid." My diverse trainings + passions, finally distilled into a few words I intend to live out through writing and design.

I call this distillation -- this understanding your heart's core so well, that you can feel your own completion -- I call that "knowing your nucleus." I have lots of useful tips to share about this in my nearly done essay, "It's Beautiful Inside: An Introvert's Right to BE."  Stay tuned for that!

Change of address

Chicago is America's 3rd most populous city. After more than 20 years of living all over it (South Shore, Rogers Park, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Hyde Park, Bronzeville and Englewood), I'm moving to a suburb for the first time in my life! Well, technically, it's a village -- which is bigger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town. The parking is easy, the square footage is double, and wild deer are near. The contrast is so startling, I wanted to show you some comparison video footage of the difference between the two front doors:
Chicago population = 2.7 million. Crete population = 8,200.

Flexin' Mind Muscles.

I chose to rest my grumpy attitude about being an over-stimulated sensitive empath in an urban environment that was too loud, too crowded, too industrial for my full flourishing. "No more pouting about that," I decided. I finally understood that my complaints actually fed and sustained the uncomfortable situation.

So I really made peace with where I was -- in a small-ish apartment on a busy street of a large city. And in about a month or so, my residential reality completely changed to include so many of the things I had been wanting more of: wildlife, privacy, square footage, quiet, greenery, and beautiful nooks + spaces in which to create, practice regenerative design and holistic living, and share with you!

While packing, I've been feeling nostalgic. I love my city's diversity, creativity, excitement, lakefront beauty, awesome public transit... oh, speaking of transit, here is an entertaining subway story, where I interrupted a nasty conversation about getting gang-banged: How I turned two frogs into princes. (And no, I didn't kiss them.)

Yeah, good times on the Red Line.

A bit of randomness: In Chicago, we lived a few minutes away from President Obama's former home, and The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's current one. What a coincidence that his son -- Mustapha Farrakhan, who is the Supreme Captain of the Nation of Islam -- also lives in Crete. I have no ties with NOI, but am just noticing how permaculture has me spotting patterns in surprising ways :-)

Questions for You.

Are you a high perceiver (a sensitive sort) living in a big city? If so, how do your surroundings feel to you? Do you know what your ideal environment is? Are you moving closer to it... consistently thinking about its appeal? Can you imagine living in a way -- and in a space -- that supports your temperament + sensibilities? Have you already made a move to better suit who you are? Let's hear your voice in the comments.

My PechaKucha Talk About Life, Liberty + Happiness.

PechaKucha is a concise presentation format made simply of 20 images held for 20 seconds. It started in 2003 among architects in Tokyo, but has grown beyond its original host industry + city.

Last month I presented at Chicago's Vol. 32 at Martyr's. (Big thanks, again, to Cousin Carolyn, Peter, Sharon + Thorsten). Speakers are encouraged to talk about what they're currently working on, or something they care passionately about. I tried to do both, with a bit of backstory...

PLEASE ALSO SEE:
*  Vote Hemp
*  Moseley Putney's excellent PechaKucha talk on industrial hemp

021: Being supple, being yourself. Plus a mini-meditation!

12TH PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLE: Creatively uSE + respond to change.

Complacency is second only to gravity for effectiveness in holding things down. It may be our survival instinct to be so fixated on feeling anchored and secure. Rooted and safe.

As exciting as change can be, it interrupts stability. So we tend to resist and avoid things that knock us off our center... unfamiliar things that make us feel vulnerable, ill-prepared or out of control.

"The only people who like change, are wet babies!" they say.

Life gives -- and sometimes forces -- lots of change into our days. Which requires a response from us... we have something new to figure out... to possibly fail at, or look foolish trying.

But this 12th, and final, permaculture principle tells us to accept the inevitability of change, and creatively use it. Don't be such a control-freak. Be agile, like a cat. Be so fully present in every moment, that you exist your way into a needed solution or upgraded circumstance.

 A lot of people underestimate themselves, and were it not for change -- even dreaded ones like divorce, job loss, bankruptcy, illness, etc. -- they may have never accessed certain strengths or abilities within themselves that had been their all along. Dormant. Until change came and shook them awake.

That concludes the 12-part series of the Permaculture Principles, but permaculture as a methodology -- as a way of viewing + doing things -- will always be a core part of my posts and purpose.

My Wish. My Work.

When our inner world is strong in love, truth, joy and wholeness, our relationships + actions reflect those qualities, too. And beauty and harmony show up more and more in our outer reality. To support that vision, I write and publish the things I do to enrich our inner world and, ultimately, inspire more heartful living on Earth:
Trust Love's duty to make you whole + complete. Trust Love's ability to touch you where warm assurance arises. Let your shoulders drop, as they are kissed by Plenty + Peace. Now, from this solid place of trust, you are calm enough to detect YOUR best next steps to heal or have exactly what you need for your particular journey... in which, you must BE YOU. All the way. Find your truth. Give it your voice. Then give it your life. Be valiant on your own behalf. In all your dealings, be your real self, and allow others the space to be their real self, too. No judging. No meanness. To yourself or others. Trust love. Be you.
Song Credit: "Pas de Deux" by Bird Creek.

020: A Christmas Blessing for you.

First, a head-nod of respect to people all over the world with diverse beliefs + practices.

There are a lot of spiritual and cultural celebrations happening, and the generic "Happy Holidays!" greeting is, to me, a way to acknowledge that more happens in the winter season than Christmas -- like Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa and others. So, Happy Holidays everyone!

My spiritual roots were planted in Christianity, so this post is a celebration of Christmas from that perspective (which actually includes many blended, but usually unacknowledged, traditions like Saturnalia and Yule, but that's another post.) 

Second, a quick look at "tradition."

A "tradition" is a transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. It is an inherited, established, customary pattern of thought, action and behavior. Christmas is one of the most tradition-rich times of year.

Maybe it's because I'm not a big fan of repetition, or because I need to understand why I am doing something over and over, but I had to ask "WHY?" If Christ is so central to Christmas that the name is inherent in the word, WHY do so many non-related activities exist -- and often take over?  

One year -- in my late-20's -- I baked a spice cake and wrote in icing, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" Oh, yes I did. And people thought it was weird. But I thought all that dissonance was weird! Calling a celebration one thing, and then doing things that have nothing to do with the essence of that celebration (like indoctrinating children with a big, fat lie, and a high-dose of materialistic expectations via "The List.")

All the automatically-accepted traditions of doing certain things, with no more compelling reason for doing it other than, "Well, that's just how we've always done it." was leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Hence the moist and tasty birthday cake. I was trying to re-center and revive the event with real meaning.

Retailers co-opted Christmas, and most folks and families in the modern world play along. If for no other reason than that the meme is just too great to go against. So, if you can't beat 'em, bake a cake ;-)

And now, Your Christmas Blessing.

The point and purpose of Christmas is to celebrate Christ, Who was and is The Anointed One, and Who gave and gives a fresh anointing to all who desire it. An anointing is spiritual power that enables. Empowers. It is independent of your mood and your money. It transcends the petty rules of institutions. It is an intimate endowment -- divine and sublime. The anointing of This Time is hot fire-blaze for ho-hum dreariness. It's what your soul looks and longs for, but will never find on Amazon.com. It patches pot-holes in your heart. It oils the crust and rust of daily life. All this, and the anointing of Christ is as easy to experience as saying, "Okay."

Don't make it tedious or technical. Engineered or elite. It's graceful. Though It is the power of God, it glides down like butter on a hot biscuit. Let it slide right inside you, and add strength to your ways and your days.

If you've been a bitter scallywag, a trifle or general A-hole in your dealings with people... if you've renounced every rite and ritual this side of the Moon... if you're hung up on how to relate to mysteries... if you're unsure of what to anchor yourself in, or what to have your kids anchor in... if you're skeptical about everything I've written and said just now... Come! You. Sit and feast. Right where you are. Looking at this screen, or listening to my voice... it is absolutely sane to want to feel the great, anointed love that heralds this renewing time of year. Say, "Okay." Mean it. And let the unconquerable Sun enlighten your next step. And the one after that. And on and on...

This Christmas, may all twinkling lights and stars, remind us of the deeper truth, wisdom and consciousness intended for our paths and hearts.

This Christmas, may every decorated tree in every living-room and front yard, remind us of the magic and life that fills all forests, and may every decorated tree remind us of our duty to protect old forests, and start new ones.

This Christmas, may every present -- given and received -- remind us that our real presence can never be bagged or boxed. And that's the thing we want most: to be all-the-way here, with someone else who is all-the-way here, too.

May you experience lots of light and trees and presence in the coming days. May you find yourself dedicated and consecrated to a special purpose. Merry, blessed Christmas to you, and all dear to you. 

11TH PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLE: USE edges + vALUE the marginal.

Two distinct and neighboring realities create an edge. Like a child in your adult workplace. Hallways and elevators in heavily-peopled buildings. A difficult but necessary conversation. Shedding an outgrown belief, and walking into larger fields of life. Edges are often considered scary because they are less crowded, and they are the furthest away from the center of something. The reward that comes with this risk is that these edges also increase diversity and, therefore, productivity. There is great value in exploring the edges of your life and dreams. What's at the edge of your relationship with your partner or a family member? What's at the outermost edge of your career or your parenting? What's at the furthest edge of your health... your creative expression? For a moment, leave the crowded noisy center of things, and explore all your edges. Expect a new and robust yield of surprises that sustain. It's a fun and remediating way to live.

For a stellar ecological explanation of edges and "edge effect," please click the link to a Deep Green Permaculture article here. 

019: Oasis is not a place. Oasis is a choice.

Kisses + a seasonal reminder.

When you see or hear the word "mistletoe," what comes to your mind? We typically associate it with winter, festivity and kissing. But did you know that mistletoe is a parasitic plant? It exists by attaching itself to a host tree, and then absorbing water and nutrients from it. It's a leech. I think this is a very timely and appropriate reminder during this time of year when people get even more consumptive than usual, to not behave as parasites, sucking the life out of the planet we indwell as though the Earth was nothing more than material resources for our decadent, unconscious pleasure.

I know... that message isn't sweet like a sugar cookie, but I only share it 'cause I love you, and our shared home. Which brings me to...

An important resource for urban regenerative designers. Lovin' the big metro cities we're in.

In permaculture circles, there's an unfortunate tendency to regard cities as inferior places to be. Congestion, pollution, senseless zoning restrictions, too much concrete and artificiality, not enough natural and living landscapes... these combined traits have rendered countless caricatures of a zombie apocalypse that should be avoided or fled, if you have the means to do so.

I'm guilty of having had that stinking-thinking, too. My love of forests and solitude had grown into a passive resentment of my current reality, which includes apartment dwelling in the heart of a big city. An interstate highway, Redline subway station and shopping center are 50-feet from my front door. I used to consider these things conveniences, but they had now become annoyances. Much like the pulsing blue lights of cop cars that shine on my bedroom walls every night.

I used to live by Rumi's challenge that said, "Wherever you are, be the soul of that place." I put those words aside to romanticize a peaceful heavily-treed plot of land that was anywhere other than where I presently am.

Thankfully, a dear online friend -- Jill Lanier of Permie Peeks -- shared with me a pivotal interview that has helped me shift and lift my ideas about place. Listen to it here. Jill, a New Yorker, earned her PDC with the interviewee, Andrew Faust.

Big, public thanks also goes to Scott Mann, of the Permaculture Podcast, who hosted the recorded conversation that helped me renew my love for Chicago in particular, and cities, in general.

It is unwise to despise
where you lay your head.
If you want "different" or "better"
first, yourself, BE different or better.
Escapism is cowardly (and ineffective!)
Bloom where you are planted, beloved.
And as you do, ironically,
your roots strengthen enough 
to shake free + dance themselves
to a new vista. At which point,
it won't even matter anymore,
because you will have learned
oasis is not a place.
Oasis is a choice.
So, choose.

10TH PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLE: USE + VALUE DIVERSITY.

Begging heroin addicts, ambitious University of Chicago students, good-hearted ministers and hard-working entrepreneurs are all my immediate neighbors. Intellectually, morally and economically, I live in a very diverse setting, and I have humbly learned to value it all. I am no better, and no worse, than anyone I walk beside. That is true in Englewood, and everywhere.

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.

017: How to create paradise, better the world, or carry out any other utopian-sounding, desperately-needed solution.

I've been swooning over dome homes for 15 years. Here's an article I wrote about them five years ago: "Live outside the box. Literally." It's shocking, how quickly those years add up... the ones you spend doing something OTHER than what you really want to be doing. Those "safe" years roll around and before you know it -- POOF! -- it's been a life.

Life is not to be saved.  Life is to be spent.

And we can spend it on days that are delicious and daring... months and years that are satisfying and sustainable. We can DISRUPT the current cultural story of tolerating work we dislike, to buy wrecklessly designed things, to console ourselves about a constantly repressed and restrained life.

Like many sensitive, empathic people, I walk around with a strongly felt sense of the needs and pains of the world. And with that empathic awareness also came a desire to respond... to use my life in a helpful, improving, relieving way. All the approaches I have tried -- (such as environmental activism, spiritual caregiving, grant-writing for nonprofits and other attempts to "do good" in the world) -- these were all simple one-dimensional solutions, for complex multi-dimensional problems.

Knowing better, is doing better.

So when I was introduced to an ethical, regenerative design science that, to quote Geoff Lawton, "provides all the needs of humanity in a way that benefits the environment" I LITERALLY have been unable to think about anything else. I am obsessed with creating and finding effective ways to SHARE THE SOLUTIONS offered by this design science, and systems thinking, in general.

Design expresses and arranges energy in physical form. Regenerative design -- permaculture -- does that in a way that leaves the earth better than we found it. I simply do not know of a worthier pursuit. I commit:
  1. to use my hands to create edible, habitable Paradises as often as possible, including a regeneratively designed homestead paradise for my household commencing Summer 2015 ; and

  2. to use my communication skills to share the solutions, methods and techniques that make it possible to take your life -- your shelter, your food and your work -- into your own hands, and in the most deeply pleasing and fruitful way.

My first order of business is earning certifications in both Superadobe Earth Architecture from Cal-Earth, and in Permaculture Design from Midwest Permaculture. This joint training is happening in Hesperia, California in the Mojave Desert. I'll be there, camping on their grounds, from October 5th through 19th. I'll celebrate a birthday there. And most importantly, I'll step more fully into my role as an advocate for biophilia, lifestyle sanity, personal authority, ecological and emotional literacy, and regenerative design for all of Life's systems.

Permaculture proves that Heaven on Earth is feasible. Flourishing life for ALL is possible. It is doable. Achievable. A desert has been turned into a garden oasis, for goodness sake. This is not hippie-dippie-new-age-brew-ha-ha. (Even though I have a lot of love for such brew.) This is empirically, measurably, verifiably REAL solution-rich science that we have had an embarrassingly underwhelming response to. It is a sad commentary of our "sapient" species that we have not stopped and dropped everything, to simply implement better, smarter designs.

I've been studying and writing about this topic to increase awareness about permaculture and earth architecture. They are not mainstream knowledge, and they absolutely should be. As long as we are in need of shelter and true food for our survival, these wise methodologies should have much greater influence in our civic and private lives. Despite the strangeness of the word. Despite culture's current separation from nature and wilderness. Despite the popular tendency to avoid deep, solitary or revolutionary thought, in favor of bread and circuses.

When you dislike the idiocy or harmfulness of things around you, YOU CAN OBJECT WITH YOUR LIFE. You can withdraw your money, attention and energy from things that shrink your soul. Rather quickly, the objection morphs into the most meaningful, engaging and well-provided existence you could have ever hoped for.   

8th Permaculture principle: Integrate, rather than separate.

There are 12 permaculture principles -- distilled by David Holmgren, and listed in totality here -- that serve as wonderful filters and guides to use in decision-making and life-shaping. We've been going through each one individually, taking our time considering how they apply not just to the creation of food, fiber and fuel, but also to the support of our emotional and spiritual well-being.

This 8th principle is no different. "Integrate rather than separate."

Culture clings to a Cartesian legacy we have long outgrown: reductionistic thinking. On wide and massive scales, we reduce learning, healing, creating and even loving to the mechanized sum of its parts. We treat minds, bodies and relationships as if they were lifeless machines. But a breast is not a bumper. And a mind was not intended to be bridled and sedated.

Reduction is easy. Integration is work. 

It took me a good, long while to fully INTEGRATE my loves of curved, earth architecture + sacred geometry, deep ecology, voluntary simplicity, personal freedom + time sovereignty, and figuring out how to live IN HARMONY with my rhythms, my values and my very beloved current home planet, Earth. Choosing to integrate my life, rather than maintain the previously separated one, has been the most frightening and liberating thing I've ever done. And am continuing to do.

This post is a butterfly bush!

I planted it to attract strategic partnerships in the following 4 ways with:
  • INDIVIDUALS + FAMILIES who feel dignified and encouraged by what you've read, and you ache to live an alternative to congested, comatose wage-ensnarement, but you don't know how or where to start. 
  • GROUPS, BUSINESSES + ORGANIZATIONS who are bright, brave or broken enough to realize that your systems and protocols would benefit from a consultative and actionable analysis created through the lucid lens of permaculture and systems thinking.
  • DEVELOPERS, DESIGNERS + ARCHITECTS who want to learn more about the added, regenerative, multi-tiered benefits (from efficiency to yields) that permaculture can bring to each of your commercial and residential designs.
  • AGENTS + PUBLISHERS who liked Susan Cain's Quiet, and would be interested in hearing about something yummy I have to bring to that party.
So if you have read anything in this post with which you strongly resonated, we should connect. And we should intend to make something amazing happen as a result of our connection!

Oh, and to fulfill the implied promise made in the title of this post podcast:

Q: How do you create paradise, better the world, or carry out any other utopian-sounding, desperately-needed solution?

A: You DECIDE that you will.

Big thanks to Cheryl Ann Williamson for mentoring me this Summer
in the beautiful World Garden, where I took the pictures below.
Share your dreams + ideas with me!
Thanks for reading mine.

016:  A chat with Patricia Bon.

"The process was more important than the plan itself."

We are (finally) completing La Huerta's 3-part Series.

Part 1 with Imogene Ellis is here.  Part 2 with Sara Ellis is here.  And here we have Patricia Bon, who has returned home to Brazil since we recorded this conversation several months ago.

Have you ever thought about how many people there are between your mouth, and your meals?  There are growers, harvesters, packagers, shippers, sellers and, finally, the eater.

In this episode, the first part of my conversation with Pat gives a global glimpse into a primal and culinary connection to food.  The journey curves to pick up knowledge in agroforestry, and then a paradigm-shifting permaculture design certification.  Pat then brought all of that experience to her Master's level studies in urban planning, and in The Remediation Project that she led at La Huerta Roots and Rays Community Garden.  Our conversation voices the potential, and challenges, of the community planning process.  Pat is a tireless inspiration whose life and leadership reminds us that, "We can do it.  We just need to work."

This project transformed contaminated land, it created multiple food systems,  and it stimulated a number of close-knit communities.  I trust it inspires in us a beautiful sense of what's possible. 

The 7th Permaculture Design Principle.

The 7th Permaculture Design Principle advises us to "Design from patterns to details."  A pattern is a repeated form or design.  Slice an orange in half.  That starburst design that radiates outward is its pattern:
Your first response when you are angered or hurt, is a pattern.  The flow of traffic on weekday mornings, the increase of crime in Chicago when it's hot, birds migrating in the autumn, people getting the shopping crazies every November and December... these are all repeated forms.  Patterns.  Some, like migration, occur naturally.  Others, like spiked crime, occur because of bad design.

To some degree, we are each the designer of our own life.  So pay attention to the patterns that emerge in your relationships with others, your finances, your health and your happiness, and consider how you can design more ease, beauty or efficiency into the details.

What's a pattern in your life you'd like to redesign?