I had been going through Holmgren’s Permaculture Principles book. Going through one principle at a time, figuring out what questions and problems the Principles are designed to answer or solve.  But it was kind of annoying me because while the principles are good, and even some of the different permaculture principles found in other places on the net are all good…none of them really help a beginner actually apply them.  It’s all great for theory, and tossing ideas around, which I love to do.  But in this case, I also need to be able to apply the stuff.  I think that that frustration, that chaos, helped lead to the overwhelming and frustrated feelings.  (not the only cause, mind)

So last night I went through my more recent notes and started setting aside the portions that were more theory and less ‘how-to’ or ‘next-step’.  The following is what I was left with.  The portions that seemed like they’d actually let me know what to do next so that I’m less scattered (than normal).  It’s four short sections.  I’ll list what’s on my working note page, and then describe any part of it that might need some more info to make it clear to others.

Design Ethics

• Design for the Earth
• Design for the People
• Design for the Future

Explanation: Permaculture has their ethics “Earth Care”, “People Care”, and “Fair Share/Surplus Share/Future Share”.  That last one goes by different names, but it was only recently that I came across the Care for the Future version.  While I can see the Fair Share one being preferred in some situations, it’s also one that might turn a lot of people off from delving further into anything dealing with Permaculture.  And frankly, the first two pretty much cover Sharing the Surplus already.  But a significant part of the focus of permaculture principles is regenerative, rebuilding soil and providing resources for the next generations.  So I found that I prefer the Future focus for that third ethic.  Plus, it fits in well with the 3rd basic need of co-evolve, which also puts the next generations into mind.

I woke up in the middle of last night with the realization that permaculture is about the designing process, not the actual how-to’s.  A permaculture song had helped put that in mind before, and helped my daughter understand what we were going to be learning and working on.  But the ethics as normally written didn’t really give that thought.  Which is probably why I kept ignoring the ethics and principles when I first started looking into permaculture.  And, it’s possibly one reason why quite a few people think that permaculture is a religion or a cult, and don’t get that it’s a design process.  But with a slight rewording, changing “care of” to “design for”…it makes that a little more clear while also providing a “this is what you are designing towards”.  And frankly, that also makes a number of the tossed around principles superfluous in stating, imo.  Oh, and I felt much clearer headed after the change and promptly fell back asleep after writing it down. This morning’s wake up didn’t alter that feeling, either.

Physical Systems

• soil
• food
• water
• energy
• material resources, ?value adding?, and “waste”
• shelter and built environment

Explanation: Holmgren’s Principles book has a set of domains that permaculture can be applied to.  I had come across a couple of places online that narrowed the physical systems down to the above.  There are other groups that are working towards the social, economic, etc domains.  But my personal primary area of influence is my home, my family, and my friends.  As such, I feel I could best ‘serve’ and ‘be served’ by putting my initial focus onto the physical systems.  And, well, frankly, this is the area I’ll get to save money through…instead of waiting around for someone else to change things to fit another ideal.  It would take years and years to even get the education system here to reconsider their methods, at which point my daughter has already graduated from high school.  But by learning how to design the physical systems in her own home, she’ll get the benefits for a lifetime, and may even be able to help others redesign their own homes as needed.

“Value adding” is surrounded by question marks because I’m not sure if it is important enough to be included here.

“Waste” is in quotations because in permaculture, a waste is an unused resource.

Core Design Process

• Cycle: Observe -> Integrate -> Apply -> Observe …
• Observe the elements and interactions in a system
• Integrate an understanding of the interrelationships observed, with the core ethics and principles
• Apply the understanding towards redesigning the system to better reflect the core ethics and principles
• Observe the changes created, both within the system itself, as well as the influences it has outside of that particular system.
• Repeat as a cycle of redesigning

Explanation: The very first permaculture principle most places list is “observe and interact”.  If you don’t spend time observing the elements, interactions, or system you’re working on, you risk wasting a lot of energy, time, and resources that could be used elsewhere.

The way most principles are listed isn’t very user friendly, imo.  One has to jump around from this to that to another and back again and then to another, etc.  In some situations this level of flexibility is great.  But for me, when I’ve got to actually apply the ideas to something concrete, it leaves too many options to sort through, with little idea of how to figure out which one to focus on now or next.  I had come across the Observe, Integrate, Apply sequence on a site somewhere.  It’s such an obvious sequence when worded that way.  But it’s simple and doesn’t send my head spinning into all sorts of directions.  And it’ll be a lot easier to show my daughter as we go through it step by step for a given Physical System.  Meaning, instead of spending a few more weeks going over all the principles without being able to link them to something concrete for her, we can just jump in and get to observing and integrating.

Core Design Principles

• Multiple Functions (per Element)
• Multiple Elements (per Function)
• Self-Regulation (of the System)
• Relative Location (with zones and sectors)

Explanation:  These core design principles are worded in a variety of ways on various sites.  Often there will be a list of principles with 2 or 3 that basically mean the same thing as one of the above.  A guy named Ethan Roland of Appleseed Permaculture spent time mindmapping various permaculture principles that he’d come across.   This mindmap can be found at

http://appleseedpermaculture.com/all-permaculture-principles/

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That ‘s it.  Those are my guidelines.  Things may change, but I think it’s basic enough and clear enough that I’ve minimalized chances of muddling my head with too many ideas and options to choose from.  It’s simple enough that my daughter will greatly appreciate it.  And it fits neatly on half a page.

Next step?  Restarting our observation attempts regarding our water inflow, usage, and outflow in this house (our Zone 0).  But instead of just observing, we’ve now got a way of developing and integrating our observations with the design principles and design ethics.  So we’ll have a clearer idea of what to change, and how to change it.

Despite the calculators, however, there’s nothing there to really help you figure out HOW to simplify the things you want to.  What I, personally, got out of it was a way of categorizing and evaluating my activities and money spending.

This morning I started a list, writing down the activities I do during the day.  Currently I’m writing them as/before/after I do them.  I then have 6 categories to choose from for each activity:  survival/health, comfort/luxury, connect, earthcare, peoplecare, return surplus.

For example, getting dressed and hopping onto the PC both counted as comfort/luxury activities.  Clarifying some butter and eating a breakfast of veggies + cheese counted as survival/health activities.  Handwashing my clothes and hanging them up to dry counted as earthcare activities because I used human power, minimal water, and air for drying instead of electricity, thus reducing my ecological footprint and costs.

Then, for each activity, under their category, I evaluate if the activity fulfilled me and if it aligned with my values/goals.  The evaluations are increase it, decrease it, improve the method, and ok as is.

So, for example, putting on a sweater this morning instead of turning up the heater I evaluated as ok on fulfillment (i got warmer), ok on alignment (not using more electricity fits with my goal of trying to reduce costs and footprint).

Another example, the handwashing and drying of my clothes got ‘improve it’ on each part, as it’s a process that I need to refine to better suit feeling fulfilled by doing it, and better alignment with my values.  I do feel that I need to streamline the process better.  And eventually figure out how to reuse the dirty water.

Using the PC decreases my fulfillment and doesn’t align well with my values.  I’d like to improve how I use it and decrease how often I use it.

Yes, after reading that, it all seems so complex.  But it’s more complex to write it out than to actually do it. Basically, the evaluations help me easily see which activities I’d be happier cutting back on, and which I’d be happier continuing or improving on.

I figure this is a good start on simplifying my life, and start working towards aligning myself with my values.

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Do Your activities fulfill you? Do they align with your values?  What purpose do they serve in your life?  Would you prefer to increase them? decrease them? or find ways of improving some of them?

After reading through this, and mulling it over in my mind this morning, I realized that the Permaculture Ethics correspond with the 3 Basic Needs which I’d written of earlier.

Permaculture Ethic #1 (Care for Earth) fits quite well with Basic Need #1 (to survive)

• The Earth is our sole provider of all the essentials that keeps us alive – air, water, food, shelter.  We cannot get these essentials met from anywhere else.
• As such, we depend upon the Earth, and all its living systems, for our survival.
• So, if we want to meet the survival need, it behooves us to

1. not pollute the air we breathe, nor the water we drink,
2. not poison the plants and animals we eat,
3. not destroy the land which provides our sustenance.

• Survival means caring for the soil on which plant life depends, and therefore is our source of food.
• Survival means caring for the forests that supply us with clean air and plays a key role in rain formation and thus fresh water supplies.
• Survival means caring for the waters, rivers, oceans, streams, etc which circulate nourishment from which all life depends on.
• Survival means recognizing the difference between a need….and a luxury.
• Survival also means taking responsibility for our selves and our actions.

Permaculture Ethic #2 (Care for People) fits a combo of Basic Needs #2,3 (to connect, to co-evolve)

• No man is an island.
• Humans, as a species are generalists, but individuals are not.
• By  nature, humans are social and cooperative animals.
• One person cannot do everything by him/her self, except in the most primitive of lifestyle.  This is why economy developed.  To trade services and skills.  To trade specializations.
• When people collaborate to support each other, and to meet both physical and nonphysical needs, a sense of community prospers.
• However, in order to collaborate with others, we must first take responsibility for our own selves and our own actions.  (depending on others is not the same as collaborating with them)
• We must also have something worth collaborating with, be it information, skill, ability, or other resource, which can be used to help others meet their own basic needs.

Permaculture Ethic #3 (Return of Surplus to Earth & People) fits with Basic Needs #3,1 (to co-evolve, to survive)

• The Earth’s resources are finite.  As such, there are only a finite share of resources available to each person to gain sustenance from.
• If we take more than our share, we reduce someone else’s ability to gain sustenance from the earth.
• If we use finite resources to make things other than for sustenance, we reduce someone’s ability to gain sustenance from the earth…perhaps even our own.
• If we share any surplus of resources, we help someone else gain sustenance.
• When we hoard/destroy resources, we create deficiency.
• When we accumulate unused resources, we create pollution.
• When we share any surpluses of resources, we create bounty.
• When we share our surplus produce, our skills, knowledge, and experience, we build bonds between people and foster a sense of collaborative community.

Permaculture stresses inter-connectivity and cooperation.
How can we best meet the 3 Basic Needs of surviving, connecting, and co-evolving?  Not by accumulation and competition, but by inter-connectivity and cooperation.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs made the error of viewing the self as an island, ultimately separate from others and separate from one’s environment.  If we remove that bias, his Hierarchy can be summarized into three basic needs:  to Survive, to Connect, to Co-Evolve.

Survival includes physiological and safety needs.  These needs are met by the environment and/or by our connections.  Without a healthy environment to meet our needs, we can not survive.  Without our connections, we would be too busy re-inventing the wheel of survival to ever move beyond survival.

Connecting includes affiliation and esteem needs.  It also includes connecting with our environment.  If we rely on a healthy environment to survive, it helps to remember that we are connected to that environment; that what we do to the environment will cycle back and influence our survival abilities.

Co-Evolve includes creative, cognitive, aesthetics, and actualization needs.  These are the cultural and personal memes.  We are influenced by the memes of past generations, as well as the memes developed in the present.  This reduces our need to constantly re-invent the wheel of survival.  We also co-evolve with our environment.  Changes we (and others) make to the environment influence changes we have to make within ourselves.

We are NOT islands.  If we want to reach our potential, as individuals and/or as a species, we have no choice but to work with each other, and/or with our environment.

Humans wouldn’t have survived, nor grown to what we’ve become without our minds and bodies.  Such an obvious statement, yes?  But take that to a more personal level.  You wouldn’t have survived, nor grown to what you’ve become without your mind and your body.

I wouldn’t have.  It was my body that got me out of the messes that my mind had gotten me into.  And my mind that got me out of the messes that my body had gotten me into, lol.  Stuff may have helped, but if it weren’t for my mind knowing how to use the stuff, or my body’s ability to manipulate the stuff, I wouldn’t have survived, nor grown to who I am now.

Stuff will come and go.  It will break, burn, get lost, get stolen, etc.  Regardless of what happens to the stuff, my mind and body are my greatest resources.  Stuff can be replaced.  My mind and body can’t.  (Not for me, at least.)

Have you ever refused to loan some thing to someone, because they aren’t the kind of person to take care of it?  Have you ever gotten annoyed with someone who wastes or damages a precious resource of yours?  At people who don’t take care of theirs, nor others’, Stuff?

Yet, how many of us don’t take care of our own most precious personal resources: our minds and our bodies?

I’ve spent too damned many years, trying to salvage a mind that I had considered damaged.  Mostly I had viewed it that way because other people had wanted to use it for their own personal gain, regardless of the damage they caused by using it in a way it wasn’t suited for.  I had lost trust and confidence in my own mind.  Yet it was this same mind that has kept me going, has kept me fighting, and has found creative solutions and options for myself and others.  My mind may not be a resources for a certain group of people/organizations.  But it’s certainly one of my own, personal, greatest resources.

I’m taking back my mind.

Some people may not agree with it.  Some may say that I’m being selfish, or lazy, or living off the work of others.  Yet, by taking back my mind, I’ll actually be able to give back to the community.  Not by making someone else richer, nor by letting them drain me of my resource, but by making the community itself richer, and helping others to find their own resources.  And thus, this resource of mine becomes ever renewable.

In similar token, I’ll be renewing my body as a precious resource of mine.  I have come to rely on Stuff, rather than my body and mind.  I have allowed my body to become weakened and sickened.  Part of this comes from our cultural habits/expectations.  Part from our natural incline towards conserving energy.  We want to conserve our own energy for survival, and by doing so we come to rely on using the energy of others, even of Earth’s non-renewable resources.

Over the next month I will work towards relying on my body more, for meeting physical needs, rather than relying on Stuff or non-renewable resources.  Why do I need an electric rechargeable toothbrush when I can use my own muscle power?  Why do I need an electric dishwasher, when I’ve got two hands of my own, and a good cloth?  Why do I need a car to get me to a grocery store, when I can have a garden?…

Oh wait, see, there are some things I’m not yet ready to rely on my body for, not just yet.  If I lived in town, I wouldn’t need a car to get me around.  But I don’t live in town.  And the nearest bus stop is just over 5 miles away.  AND…my back isn’t at the point that I can walk 5 miles each day like I used to.  I get excited when I can last half a mile without overwhelming pain.  And the road to get to the bus stop?  Not safe for bicyclists.

However, I have a mind that can help me find a solution.  One that follows the Guiding Principle of using my Mind and my Body as my Greatest Resources.  And while I may not be able to find a perfect solution for everything in my life, at least the combined solutions will be an improvement.

And I can’t help but imagine how our culture, and the world, might improve, if each person relied more on our minds and bodies, rather than on Stuff.

btw, the blog mentioned above is:  http://artofgreatthings.com/2009/10/a-guide-to-self-reliance-minimalism/

I don’t have a fully developed idea in mind.  The following is what pops up now, when I’m thinking of that phrase.

As a young child, when first learning about our body organs, systems, and cells, I’d wondered if perhaps each of us weren’t an organ (or cell) of something greater than us.  I’d also wondered if my cells had some kind of consciousness, and if so, what might it be like for them.  Would they recognize that their working and living together led to ‘me’?  Probably not.  I think they’d have no concept of ‘me’, only of their own needs, and their ‘neighborhood’.

I’d sometimes look at the highways, and imagine that the highway is similar to our blood supply system, with little mini trucks transporting requested goods and nutrients.

I’d look at the electric and phone poles, and imagine that as yet another part similar to our brain and nervous system, transporting messages across great distances, one part of our body in contact with another part.

I’d sometimes look at diseases and geographical thrashings as akin to an immune system…trying to fight against a disease that’s ravishing the earth’s body/mind.

Are we, as humans spread across the globe, a group of cells? or are we a cancer, a ‘bacteria’, or ‘virus’?

As I got older, I began imagining businesses and organizations as being similar to our body systems, each having a purpose that alone is useless, but when combined creates something bigger.

And then, as I got even older, I wondered what kind of ‘being’ we’ve created?  Is this a conscious being, yet?  Is it a schizophrenic being, unsure of what direction to take?  Are the little wars and arguments and conflicting ideologies similar to it, as my internal arguments and conflicts are to me?

Into adulthood, as I struggled to gain some resemblance of sanity, I wondered if the greater being that we create..if we’d given it the ability to fight it’s own ‘sanity’ fight.  Am I, like it, merely a product of whatever’s going on inside me?  Or do I have a say.  I believe, now, that I have a say.  It’s a struggle to get that say, yes, but I do have a say.  I can use one ‘part’ of me, support it, encourage it to grow stronger than another ‘part’ of me.  And thus win whatever war/battle that I’m fighting.  But..what would it feel like to be the little neurons in my brain, those who are knee-deep in the battles I’m waging in my own mind?  Would they see what was happening as being an earthquake? a typhoon? a random act of “god”?  Would they feel empowered by purpose, fighting the good fight?  Or would they be focused more on their own personal survival, grabbing at whatever pathways they can to help ensure their own survival?

I recall laughing when I first heard the phrase “As above, so below”.  Something about it seems to miss a mark, but I’ve never been sure how to rephrase it.

A few years ago I heard the term “Gaia”, used to reference the earth as a living system.  It clicked in for me.

Then, recently, I’ve heard the term “emergence” being used. And system “levels”.  And now we’re starting to get closer to where my mind has wandered since I was a young girl.  I still don’t know how to rephrase it, but it’s along the lines of … My conscious level (me), is one systems level, which is an emergent property of my body’s systems levels, while I am also a subsystem of a systems level higher than me.

And then I ask myself:  What emergent properties of a supra-system am I contributing to?

Are my actions and thoughts the kind that I would want another ‘being’ to develop?  Would that ‘being’ survive long term on the actions/thoughts of it’s subsystems/organs/cells (us)?

What emergent properties do I contribute to? . . .

And that is where I am at, regarding the second most important thing in my life.  Making conscious decisions and actions aimed towards creating some of the emergent properties of a supra-system ‘being’, aka ‘Towards a Gaian Mind’.

This is requiring a ‘rewiring’ of how I usually think/act.  I’ll be learning to think in terms of systems and connections of influences, rather than of just the parts involved.  I’ll need to consider how supportive I am of my own subsystems and their livelihood.  I’ll need to consider the supra-system of my home environment.  And as those become easier, I’ll be ready to encourage actions at a community type level.  Still, always, focusing on my own circle of influence, rather than worrying too much about everyone else’s.

I want to BE the change I’d like to see.  And that by doing so, I will connect with others who are, or seek to BE, that change.

And so, under this important area of my life, I’ll be working on the goals of

• Ecology of the Mind (new ways of thinking and deciding)
• Ecology of the Body (supporting the viable health of my subsystems)
• Ecology of the Home (initial steps in positively influencing emergent properties of a supra-system one level above me)  This will include things such as consciously attending to which supra-systems I contribute to, and which not to contribute to.  It will also include local support, sustainable living, and eventually a sustainable garden.
• Ecology of the Community (this will be a long term goal, and will likely be along the lines of encouraging others at my systems level to consider their own contributions to ‘emergency’.  I’d love for it to include helping others create sustainable gardens, such as permaculture and forest gardens, and a focus on the local community.)

Hopefully this now describes the second most important area of my life, “Towards a Gaian Mind”.  While also describing what this blog will primarily be about.

Have you ever asked yourself what emergent properties do you contribute to?

If you looked at your actions and thoughts now, what would the answer to that question be now?

Do they match the emergent properties you’d WANT to contribute to?

…would they immediately recognize your priorities in life?

…what would your home say about how you spend your time? your energy? your focus? your life?

Why 4?  Well, 4 is an arbitrary number.  The idea, however, is to see which areas are the most important, and which are…extras or superfluous.  As individual humans, we have only so much time/energy within ourselves.  Are we using that time/energy towards things that are important to us?  or are we using it up elsewhere, leaving little for what is more important to us?

So I sat down and listed the areas that were important to me.  I then went through each one and compared it to another asking:  If I could have (A) but not (B), or (B) but not (A), which would I choose?    The winner got a point.  And then the areas were ordered according to how many points they got.  The most points was obviously more important to me than those with lower points.  Then I went down the list (higher to lower) and asked myself if this area was something I could be happy without.  Surprisingly, I wound up with 4 areas in life that are important to me, the rest wasn’t that important to me.

The 4 areas I wound up with are:

• Richard (attached to him are playing board/card/rpg games, and a personal aspect of our relationship)
• something I refer to as “Toward a Gaian Mind”, which will be something I’ll post plenty about on this blog
• raising my daughter
• connecting and spending time with friends

Those are the most important areas of my life.  They are, in essence, what the ‘rest of my life’ will be about.

What would YOUR most important areas of life be?

Which areas of life are important enough to you to spend your time/energy on? and which are adding little to your life while using up your valuable resources?

Worse, is that whatever is available seems geared towards business stuff or sustainability preaching, with very little aimed towards the common wo/man.  Yet it’s claimed to be usable in various aspects of life.

Anyways, my idea is to be able to figure out how to encourage thinking in terms of systems throughout our daily lives.  Whether when figuring out solutions to certain types of problems, figuring out some of our relationships, helping us with our goals, and/or for spirituality. I’d like to find some basic principles, and meditate on how those principles are reflected in my day-to-day life.

I don’t ask for much.

What is a mid-life crisis but a recognition that it’s time to let some dreams go, and figure out which dreams are worth hanging on to..or create.  This is what I’ve been doing recently.

In the spirit of changing things in my life, and clearing the clutter, I will be deleting many of the past posts from this blog.  It’s time for a clean up, and a better focus.

Wish me well on my new journey.