Yes, I am changing the vision once again. I got caught up in wanting to save children and people from being slaves, but then I realized that by getting involved with helping child victims, there was probably going to be a lot of red tape and bureaucracy involved. I am allergic to both! A friend suggested that I focus on trafficked victims that were young, but now adults and able to make their own decisions. So they can come because they want a fresh start and might be drawn to a community where animals are not enslaved, and where the whole vision is for residents and eventually all people and animals to get away from slavery of all kinds.
With some people, it is obvious that they are slaves, controlled by others. Yet those of us who are working at jobs we don’t like to earn money that is quickly losing its value, and needing to be dependent on outside forces for our food and shelter–we are in a form of slavery as well.
But freedom is what I realize we all need, and I want to demonstrate in the community I am envisioning a way to live so that all of life could duplicate this way of living and we all can thrive as free beings. Helping the victims of modern day slave trafficking will be one of the ways we can serve. But first we need to create a healthy community with members who have the capacity to work together to serve all of life in the best ways we can discern are possible.
And maybe victims of slave trafficking would be ideal people to help start the community–people who have had much experience in healing their wounds.
Along with most people feeling as if they are slaves because of the lack of control they have over their destinies. we have also experienced trauma. Even the healthiest of upbringings probably involved some kind of trauma. Most people I know had pretty intense childhoods, and even if they appreciate their parents and siblings, they still have hurts that need healing. I have a feeling I will be healing my past for the rest of my life–yet I am at a point where I have experienced a critical mass of emotional release sessions with Jesus (something I plan on writing about soon) so that I have made peace with my past, and forgiveness, empathy and love for those her hurt me are the norm. Wisdom as to how to set boundaries and prevent more abuse is also a part of this healing journey. I was inspired by Karl Lehman who created the Immanuel Approach to do my simplified method of emotional release with Jesus, and for his personal support as well as his general dedication to helping others heal trauma with Jesus help, I will be always grateful. Check out his website here: https://www.immanuelapproach.com/
I started out the article writing about passion fruit and then it evolved into what I have been wanting to write about and kept feeling blocked. This morning as I worked in harmony with my former husband and dear friend, Robert, I felt a sense of joy and hope. Working outside, digging up the wild edibles to transplant to the community land, has been energizing. Communicating with a new friend who has so many shared values and who even visited Wilberforce a week ago, has given me hope that I can find others who resonate with this vision which at last seems to have come into focus after 5 decades of learning.
This is quite the ramble–yet I hope you enjoy it! I’d love to know what you think.
Passion fruit is one of the tastiest of all the fruits I have ever experienced, and it is growing wild on the property I was caretaking. I have been given permission to dig up any plants I want, and I will be digging up the passion flower plants for sure. There will be plenty of seeds to sprout and I will, of course, be leaving some passion fruit for the next person who lives here.
I found this information about passion fruit to be helpful but I am going to do a lot more research. I am growing a lot of plants in pots because I then can move them once I decide where the best gardening spots are going to be on the land.
I am going to start lining plastic buckets and pots with cloth so that I can pull the root system out without disturbing the plant so when I find the permanent location, I can easily transplant. This winter I will be busy creating hugelkultur type mounds where I will be planting things in the spring.
I will also be figuring out how to both grow things for the deer and other animals that like to eat greens that I want to eat–or bushes–as well as how to protect the plants. Right now the deer do not come close to the common house (I am the only human community member, but I still call it the common house), so I am putting a lot of pots all around that area.
I know I am going to be making a nursery of the easiest to grow plants, including wild edibles. I believe that growing these plants will be a source of health and possibly survival. I heard about a woman who lived an entire year on greens. If a person could supplement such a diet with acorns, black walnuts, hickory nuts and Jerusalem artichokes, it seems like a very good diet could be had without too much trouble.
Protecting the greens with leaves, plastic, and cloth will help them to grow in the winter. I am going to figure out the easiest way to do this. Low tunnels are very easy to make, but they do require buying materials. I am trying to re-purpose materials with everything I do. Being a professional organizer is very helpful since people have given me so many things they just want to get rid of, including green house materials which a friend is going to build on a deck outside my tiny room which I will super insulate. The passive solar energy plus being able to grow my longevity spinach will be a wonderful help to me living without needing to have a wood stove.
I am willing to have a woodstove, but the expense is prohibitive. It is amazing how much a stove and the piping itself cost. My room is about 10 x 16 and I am insulating it with cardboard and some left over insulation I have from building projects.
I can see about 6 people using the room for the kitchen and for working on writing projects, or other handwork like sewing/mending, repairing things. For hanging out and having conversations and community meetings especially when the weather is too cold or rainy or snowy to have campfires.
When I went to a communities conference at Twin Oaks back in 2000, I remember an older woman saying, “Dwellings should be mainly for using in the worst weather, and people are better off being outside most of the time.”
That really resonated with me, but I forgot about that for a long time. I have a new friend who reached out to me because he resonated with many of my beliefs and values. He is inspiring me to remember all the things I have forgotten, mainly due to the fact that very few people who I come into contact with practice these things or even know about them. I think when I talk about such things, there is very little positive response from people, so subconsciously I have given up on thinking they are a reality.
Radical simplicity is what is what I want to practice, and teach others to do. I want the land I own to be a 19 acre school. If people want to stay and live in community with the security of knowing they are creating equity with the investment of their time and energy, I will have things in place legally so that they can have that knowledge. Thinking about people’s children and parents’ needs to leave something to their children, grandchildren, and so on, inspires me to create a community based on the Native American philosophy of planning for the next 7 generations.
It’s not like I have completely forgotten things–it’s just that I realize that I need to remind myself of all that I have learned over the past 5 decades since I met my former husband and dear friend, Cliff Mikkelson. He is also my closest neighbor. I want to give Cliff credit for helping me wake up to conspiracy facts and how to live in harmony with nature. Together we discovered the concept of intentional communities and I was the most passionate about pursuing this way of living.
I will list some of the key things that I think will be helpful for living a radically simple life which will then free us all from having to work as slaves for the system and be dependent on the infrastructure including internet and all of the grid. Being free in this way will then allow us to focus on being a think tank where we can focus on all the problems that the world faces and implement ways of solving them. We will build our ideas on time tested practices along with adding our own unique contributions.
Thriving is the goal–not surviving. People seem to want to survive and have all the comforts of the civilization that in so many ways has been beneficial, yet in many ways very destructive to all of life. Learning what to let go of, what to keep, and what to add will be our goal in order to have a thriving life which anyone could have. Teaching others what we learn will be the beautiful service we will offer, and helping people to live in healthy thriving communities.
Freedom is important yet the agreements made between the members of communities will be such that all of life is protected from harm. Laws don’t make people behave is one belief that I hold. Thus, helping people develop virtues and heal their past trauma will be an essential part of designing the holistic environment that makes it easy for people to be good.
Teaching people parenting skills and providing support because even single people and childless couples will want to help parents to create a wonderfully nurturing life for the children. Families cooperating along with childless folks, will create an intergenerational school where every imaginable skill will be taught by anyone who has a helpful skill. Really. our planet is a school where we learn lessons which lead us to become the people that we all are destined to become. My belief is that either in this life or another, we all will learn how to live in such away that every action, including our thoughts, will contribute to the highest good of all of life.
All of life is one of my repeated phrases because all of life is what we want to focus on helping. I envision a world where we somehow teach even the mosquitos and ticks and chiggers to behave in such a way that they perform some helpful service. Sometimes, for example, I think when a wasp stings me, they may have tuned into an acupuncture point that needs some stimulation. Or the copperhead snake that big me over a year ago may have been telling me to stop going in a certain direction, and also take a rest.
I have written articles about many of the topics below, and some day I hope to provide links to those articles. But since my time is limited, I will list the things that I think are essential to learn so we can participate in healthy communities based on radical simplicity and radical virtuousness. I just made up that term–radical virtuousness. Maybe someone else has used it. We shall see.
Vegan Permaculture: Using every bit of knowledge that permaculture practitioners have gained over the past decades based on current and ancient knowledge
Communication with animals, insects, and plants.
Mushrooms: they are such a source of healing body, mind, soul and the earth–we must learn and practice all that we can to work in harmony with them.
Return to Nature. Yes, this is what I believe we need to do! But it is also the name of a book that I read in hard copy when I first met Cliff in the “Garden of Eden” at San Diego State University. Practicing these principles will really contribute to our health. THis book has been one of the most influential books in my life. Read for free https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25390139M/Return_to_nature!
Braver Angels is the name of an organization dedicated to helping people who hold very differing values and viewpoints to be able to get along.
Christian Universalism: All do not have to embrace this theology but the idea that in the end all will be reconciled to a good, loving Creator of all of life–and we will all be healed and live in the Garden of Eden-like environment–is a hope that can contribute to us having lots of energy and idealism. Even if you don’t believe this reconciliation is possible (including healing between all people no matter what happened between them) just hoping doesn’t hurt anyone, does it? I think Christian Universalists would be open to concepts like Christ Consciousness, Co-Creating with Creator, veganism and reincarnation.
Living in alignment with universal values–see the values I have articulated so far on the blog. This is extremely important.
Finding alternatives to money system like Time Banking https://timebanks.org/
Healing: exploring all the best, cheapest, most natural ways to heal our bodies minds and souls
Breatharianism: We can aim towards this goal as we learn to live on energy other than food energy. We can have a retreat where people can do a 21 day program to make the transition to being a breatharianism.
Fasting: on water, on liquids, on no water, intermittent fasting
Learn about every great way of living in community including reading all my books about intentional communities, and this one is great: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232438.Creating_a_Life_Together
Sun gazing
Achieving Christ Consciousness–where we truly can love, even our enemies.
Share love: Wanting the highest good for all of life and having the wisdom and discernment to to know how to do that.
Dancing. Making music. Drumming.
Clay/earth
Grounding: walking barefoot
Exercise naturally–gardening, lifting rocks, all things associated with just creating the physcial infrastructure of community
Eating wild greens and other wild edibles.
Veganism/plant based eating
Cold therapy–cold showers, walking in the snow, acclimating yourself to the cold. Jumping in cold bodies of water like the lake near by.
Wim hoff breathing and other sorts of healing breath work
Stretching
Sweating–sweat lodge style or building a sauna (I have a place I plan to do that)
Laughing
Healing, affectionate, non-sexual touch
Dry brushing
Sleeping with fresh air and in the cold (in the winter)
Sleeping on the earth
Healing all sorts of ailments with clay, comfrey and other herbs
Living without furniture–squatting instead of sitting in chairs. Or standing.
Protection against EMF rays, and not using Wi-Fi.
Governance
Sociocracy 3.0
Healing Trauma
Adapted Immanuel Approach for Christians (I need to describe this at length)
Something similar for non-Christians (I want to experiment with this)
Using a revised method of re-evaluation counseling without the cult-like or leftist type approach.
Non-violent communication–empathic listening
Just living in healthy environment close to nature is healing of trauma–when people are consistently loving and nurturing
Singing
Telling stories around the campfire or elsewhere.
Showering each other with delight and appreciation
Playing with each other and with children
Hug a tree
Forest therapy
Learning how to cry constructively
Intermittent fasting, ideally one meal a day.
Do everything to achieve good sleep
Journal and share dreams with others
Learn how to communicate telepathically
Foot and hand massage–acupressure all over the body.
Playing cooperative games
Practicing the presence of the higher power whatever we conceive that higher power to be
Praying and learning how to pray–what is prayer?
Urine therapy
Healing our teeth through every method possible including wadging–chewing up greens and spitting out
Eating as much raw as possible, chewing well, eating mindfully
Respecting plants, and asking permission to dig up and cut down.
Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude
Parts therapy–helping all the parts of ourselves to get along and love each other.
Wisdom circles–passing the talking stick, checking in with feelings and needs and stories
Conflict prevention and resolution–learning every possible skill so disagreements do not develop into ugly angry interactions, but rather are dealt with constructively and lovingly.
Discerning the universal values–I have described some in the values section, but we will always be writing more about what these values mean, adding more, figuring out how we are meant to live.
Service–to each other and all of life. Finding that balance between giving to others and taking care of ourselves, yet finding that more and more we feel such a oneness–because no one is taking advantage of others–abundance is the norm, not scarcity.
