LIFE IS PROCESS and PERMACULTURE IS LIFE-SUSTAINING PROCESS

by Dawn Shiner

PERMACULTURE IS A DESIGN PROCESS OF MANAGEMENT BASED ON SCIENCE AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE.

The management process guides people in understanding, observing and arranging that-which-is-all-about-us in ways that work to conserve energy.  Permaculture systems can even generate more energy than is consumed and take us beyond sustaining to genuine abundance.  Guiding us in addressing all our needs--clean air, pure water, nourishing food, comfortable shelter and earth/human-friendly energy--permaculture systems are respectful of the whole community of life and hold to the ethics of (1) caring for the planet, (2) caring for the people, and (3) sharing fairly while accumulating.  A science of whole design, permaculture includes the wisdom of traditional elders. the best of science, and three decades of on-the-ground practical research and experience.

What we individually do in our own lives affects families, our regional communities and ripples world-wide. Permaculture system implementation can release us from our bondage to the profound disrespect that currently pollutes our air, water, land and lives. Guided by permaculture's scientifically-based ethics, principles, strategies and techniques, every individual can manifest conscious choices daily, one step at a time.

Our decentralized power to individually and collaboratively manifest life-supporting, functionally-connected patterns will fundamentally lessen our need for outside resources, create more regional self- and inter-reliance, deepen our sense of place within community, and release our nation's need for imperialistic genocide to gain external resources.

In applying the design science of Permaculture, we are evolving peace. We begin the process by sorting our real needs from the "needs" our culture has imposed upon us. Understanding our real needs, we can design our lives to nurture us and all we are in relationship with. Real needs nurtured and met in an energy-efficient manner will take us to sustainability. Beyond sustaining, we are educating ourselves for the next step: to live a life of genuine prosperity filled with authentic pride in meeting our needs and living amidst an attitude of cooperation and harmony with others.

We are de-schooling ourselves from the competitive dominant patterns. Tools such as non-violent communication and peer counseling help us see those patterns more clearly. We are committed to releasing the dominant mode of scarcity. By staging our evolving process and choosing collaboration, we activate to surround ourselves with integrated gardens and orchards that nourish themselves as well as us, opening our minds, soils and souls to abundance and re-creating the give away.

Simple acts, like participating in eating healthy foods, connect us to what is real and nurturing. Buying natural or organic at farmers' markets and becoming members of farms that are community supported (CSA's) gets you meeting your food makers and others on the safe food journey. Buying local, you can be safe from GMO's, pesticides, herbicides, petrochemical fertilizers and genetic manipulation. Best yet, eating whole foods, especially genuinely organic or biodynamic foods, gives your body surplus energy! Did you know, digesting foods devoid of enzymes and minerals robs your body of nutrients? Not too sustainable to expend energy attempting to gain needed nourishment and not be able to gain sufficient nourishment to replace even the energy expended in the attempt! Like growing a high-nutrient-needing annual crop of corn for fuel instead of food, the yield is really a loss.

When we allow genuine nourishment to occur, our bodies and minds and our day-to-day activities all reflect a deeper appreciation of what is natural. Understanding nature's collaborative patterns, we welcome the feedback that comes from our actions. Nature gives us the opportunity to live with and see what systems are working, the lessons to be learned from the systems not working, the physical health from monitoring and maintaining the systems we establish, and the trust we build in our ability to act for the well-being of all. As a culture, we are in the process of establishing and living sustainable values. Know your options to do more than sustain. It is common sense that we can all become great humanitarians and lessen the need for leaders.

"Perhaps we cannot raise the winds.

But each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes, we can catch it."

-- E. F. Schumacher