Outside of my love for camping as a child and thinking it would be nice to be able to camp forever I do not know if I had many connections to sustainable attitudes until I became much older. I am not even completely certain what lead me to having such a deep passion for the environment and for the sustainability of all life and not just human life. At some point I realized that the capitalistic western culture that I live in is threatening the sustainability of the planet and many organisms in its vast ecosystems and that something different needs to be done.
I suppose even in my own behavior I have not been radical enough- as an aware human should. I still see myself doing things that are in their own way absurd- at least they would be if there was not this capitalistic web in which I have entangled myself.
It seems like a step in the direction of sustainability and then one can start to point to numerous influences they come in contact. Once the desire is seeded there is much to fertilize it with. There too are many weeds to challenge things along the way. I cannot even guess how many times I have heard “Oh yeah, and what difference can one person make”? Well- I think Gandhi and many others have been asked that. The thing is for me it still matters, even if its impact is only in my immediate life and as we explore various topics we will start to see what difference it does make – starting with the individual life.
In the quest for sustainability I have found myself engaging in many unsustainable practices and needing to rework or change myself along the way. Western civilization is truly something to recover from- but first you have to become aware of what it is and what it does. It’s not easy to see just how deeply it affects us. It is ingrained into our very being. It challenges us at more turns than we can imagine. (Some things are multi-layered I have different web sites to express different interests and aspects of my being. Some things have links to my external sites which provides insights or thoughts in unrelated directions. With that said, depending on the level of understanding you wish to reach, I encourage you to follow the links to that end or to stay focused at the place you are.
My husband and I have built (well we still are building) a strawbale home in the Painted Desert/Petrified National Forest region of Northeastern Arizona. We live on the High Colorado Plateau at about 5800 feet- yes higher than Denver but not much. Denver doesn’t seem all that high when you live in the mountains. Perspective is a funny thing, but that really is a topic for elsewhere even if it serves us as we seek to gain larger perspectives that are more inclusive of the world around us.
When we first moved onto the mountain we lived east of Snowflake and started the first five years of our building experience there. We bought a “farm” in need of much work, even to be truly livable, we had animals (goats, horses, donkeys, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, dogs, and cats). We had very little gardening we were able to do. In the end most of our money went to supporting animals we were really not ready to have.
Our location had many challenges including roads that were basically not drivable once they were wet. The fire department put one of their engines in the ditch at the end of the driveway in the middle of one storm trying to come get my husband to take him to the hospital. That was the beginning of the end of our adventure there, when I realized in all likelihood conditions could develop where one of us would need medical care and would not be able to get out without the aid of a helicopter.
It’s not long after that we move to where we are now. We live on Ashram/Monastery property though it is yet to be fully developed as such due to various circumstances. Our animals are limited to dogs and cats as we are still building and are garden is slowly developing into something that can feed us. I have various different things I am trying in my gardening adventure. Our home is powered one hundred percent by energy we produce. It’s a different lifestyle and not for everyone. We live twenty miles to a gas station and it does not offer much. To find anywhere as large as a grocery store you need to go more like thirty and if you want more than that plan on driving around fifty miles. You want a mall then you are looking at closer to a hundred miles. Neighbors are few. Running to town on a whim is a fool’s task. Its not sustainable, that’s hard for many- especially those who are new and fresh out of the city. Most have no idea just how much running they really like to do and most also fail to consider just how unsustainable that running is.
This topic here is about sharing in regards to all things sustainable- successes and failures. Good ideas and bad ones. Thoughts, considerations… if it’s related to sustainability this is what I have created this site for. It may be a philosophical discussion to consider awareness, or it may be about upcycling, building, green energy or any other sustainable practice. I invite you to join me on this journey- look around take in what is here, share your own thoughts and journey.
I am a naturalist, mystic, medicine woman, healer, high priestess, ordained minister, the range of topics and views on this site will show these influences. Topics are subject to being a bit esoteric and philosophical.