10 Easy Steps toward Sustainable Living

[Green PaTroll]

Step Number One..

SUSTAIN YOURSELF....the most important thing is to sustain yourself right? It is how we go about doing this that determines whether or not a person has the feeling and experience of being 'sustained' or supported in life right? Having enough 'energy' to get you through the day is pretty important and learning how to generate our energy from within can help us greatly.

We Trolls begin each day by doing a little dancing and shaking of our bodies to get our energy moving. Try this very easy step and let me know how you feel after a week of waking up and dancing and shaking about. If you need a little encouragement I recommend listening to this interview with Bradford Keeney about "Shaking Medicine" on the Sustain Yourself Show:




Step Number Two coming next week....

Your friend
Green PaTroll

[Green PaTroll]

STEP NUMBER 8 - ECOVILLAGE

So I have given this some thought and although creating an EcoVillage is not easy at this time (but it is getting easier) there is an really easy step you can take to explore and support this new community model.

Simply visit online the Lammas EcoVillage! This website is packed with information about the journey Lammas had to go through in order to get planning permission for the ground up development of the first permitted EcoVillage in the UK. The UK has some of the toughest building guidelines in the world and because Lammas has received approval it will be a cake walk for those who are equally determined - why? Because one a precedent has been set like this one the frameworks and mechanisms can be imported and adjusted to fit your own county/state regulatory requirements. It provides a template and existing structure that officials can examine and take into consideration when you apply for your own permit to build an EcoVillage.

We like to think that if Lammas can do it in the UK then ANYONE can do it ANYWHERE! Learn more about Low Impact Living and development here...

Another easy step besides learning about the EcoVillage model is to buy a share in a developing EcoVillage in your children's name...awesome all around contribution to the future! Many developing EcoVillages list ways that you can support their development on their websites.

Here is an interview with Paul Wimbush from the Lammas EcoVillage that was done before the approval and you can look forward to hearing more when the Interdependent Project Radio resumes broadcasting late fall/early winter.




Johanna...still waiting to hear something easy about Earth Shelters!

Your friend
Green PaTroll

[Green PaTroll]

Okay...back in the matrix here after taking a retreat from the world of humans while they slam dunk their nervous systems through the holiday season. We Trolls take it easy when we have holidays and we cannot understand why humans insist on creating such a ruckus for themselves in the name of 'holiday'. I figured out an 'easy' step for Earth Shelters while I was away...I know for a fact that all humans while they are children have at one time or another built themselves a tree fort or club/play house. I know because it was at this time of your human life that many of us little guys watched and observed your species...So for step number 7 simply go back into your childhood self and build yourself a private little sanctuary that will be created using an alternative building method. It would seem most practical to do a strawbale one but if you have the time cob is really nice. You can also create a little Eco-Dome like in this video:


So if you say, "That's not easy" you are simply making it too complicated in your own mind...think 'small', just enough space for you to fit and be able to lay down or have a friend hide in it with you. The experience of simply allowing yourself to build a small space for yourself will have multiple benefits that I can only say will open many doors that were nailed shut in your four corner box houses.

Have fun!

[Green PaTroll]

STEP NUMBER NINE - LEADERS WHO FOLLOW

The only real leader is a leader who follows the people right? Some humans think that a leader is someone who leads people and because of this belief they actually follow tyrannical dictates of a half baked human on a power trip or give all their power away to an invisible collective called 'them' and never take lead in their own lives.

The Easy Step number 9 is to simply change that belief if you have it and if you don't have that belief then congratulations for being ahead of the curve! Okay...maybe changing that belief is not so easy...

A quick shortcut would be to play a game with a group of friends called "Leader Who Follows". It goes like this: First everyone in the group decides on something they would like to do as a group. For example, go on a picnic. The Leader then assists, facilitates, encourages, and supports everyone in the group to accomplish this goal. Everyone in the group gets to take turns being "leader" and when everyone has had their turn the group then is able to focus on a goal that contributes something beneficial to their larger community. Sound fun and easy? Let me know what you think...

In this interview with Steven Rockefeller he shares with us the process of creating the Earth Charter and how as a 'leader' (Chairman of the drafting committee) he followed the voices of thousands of people to create the very first document written by civil society that puts forth the 'Values & Principles for a Sustainable Future'. Very impressive...




I, the Green PaTroll, pledge and vow to follow your lead into a sustainable future!

[Green PaTroll]

STEP TEN - GLOBALOCALSPHERE

At long-aching-last I am here at the 10th Easy Step...I will tell you what it was not easy coming up with all this easy and I really hope as this network grows these posts will see some great contributions, ideas, and replies from the Matrix Weavers. I was informed today that these posts were actually going to be made into a little ebook and that I was going to become a published author! If I had known that I may have been a bit more long winded and perhaps a little more careful with my words. But hey, nothing like spontaneous chatter from a little green guy right?

So...Globalocalsphere...I am the one that actually coined that term for Dandarius when they were stuck trying to figure out what they could call the 10th branch of the Tree of Sustainability that encompassed all of the global and local initiatives that are happening around sustainability. Just thought I would mention that for this soon to be published posting :-)

The 10th Easy Step is to "Think Global and Act Local" !!

This is from Wikipedia:

This original phrase "Think Global, Act Local" has been attributed to Scots town planner and social activist Patrick Geddes who in 1915 wrote a book called "Cities in Evolution. Although the exact phrase does not appear in the book the idea (as applied to city planning) is clearly evident: " 'Local character' is thus no mere accidental old-world quaintness, as its mimics think and say. It is attained only in course of adequate grasp and treatment of the whole environment, and in active sympathy with the essential and characteristic life of the place concerned."

The first use of the phrase in an environmental context is disputed. Some say it was coined by David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth, as the slogan for FOE when it was founded in 1969, although others have stated it was originated by Rene Dubos as an advisor to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. Canadian "futurist" Frank Feather also chaired a conference called "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally" in 1979 and falsely claims the paternity of the expression. Others suggested that this phrase is coined by French theologian Jacques Ellul. Other possible originators include Buckminster Fuller, Hazel Henderson, and American activist Saul Alinsky.

There are many global and local initiatives happening all over the planet that are focused on transitioning to a healthy and sustainable culture. For the 10th step write down your own involvement with global and local initiatives and share them with us here in the Sustainable Matrix Weaver Network!

It has been an honor walking these steps with you! Please feel free to add your own ideas for 'Easy Steps' towards sustainable living so they can get published with each updated version.

Ryshira Comfeera (Your Servant in Spirit)
Green PaTroll

[johanna parry cougar]

My replies dont seem to be appearing under the comments they are intended for. So I will say this is to respond to the globalocalsphere and how perfect this word is!

I, myself have met and been inspired by David Brower, and I have worked with my team to design Natural Villages to promote exactly this; a local learning living sustainaiblity building model community with a cerification program built into it, with a website that allows local organizers to download forms, promotion materials, contracts, et al, and create local sustainability building camps that then, using our processes become learning centers that emerge into natural villages that continue this process using our guiding sustainaiblity principles.

What I notice groups forgetting most, is how to ground ourselves in the authentic accomplishment of the terms of engagement, such as "we agree to attempt to think using only good thoughts", which means I speak while presenting everything as tho it is a good event, perfect, and our job is to further perfect it so we accomplsih our shared goals, together and without conflict or negative mind dragging any part of our evolution (love moving forward) into the opposite direction from where we intend to go together...

Local building camps working together to certify qualified builders to guide other camps to emerge villages of food production gardens with small adobe freestyle houses. Cost effective community building made legal, using an organization prepared to receive granted lands to protect (every natural village RESTORES landscape to its healthiest regional production condition, wildlife included) Each village hosts natural houses made from the earth and local and recycled materials. Networking these parts and activities through the website. And giveing groups 20% of each individual donation they raise on our behalf, so it goes directly to them, making sure they have an earning component for their community to use to accomplish all this!

Would love to hear from others about how well we can make this reality flow. Check out our progress at www.natural-villages.org and please do strike up a conversation with us!

[johanna parry cougar]

I am commenting here because I love the queen of the forest, mama earth and her villagers so much and I realize that sometimes in an effort to hurry up, we forget some of our basic sustainability principles such as good for the seventh geneation; what I mean by this, is the aspect of the cal earth domes that require stuffing polyurethane tubing with earth, then plastering over this earth for ease and quickness. When the tubes cost around $300 per roll, it is difficult for truly crisis communities to afford this. If we stay focused on what I call "low tech" solutions, we find them requireing more patience, costing less money, with a longer life return at the end; ie we can have a dome or a cob/adobe house structure that perhaps took longer to build, yet we did not bring in polyurethane or other chemicals we wouldnt necessarily want our children to continue using...once the homes actually do begin to require maintenance.

[johanna parry cougar]

Sorry for taking so long, green pa troll, I only saw this today; so busy have the villagers been out here!!! My little yet unpublished book; Cob in a Bucket; earth building projects for one or two does cover the kids playhouse, and, in fact , I may be joining a group of these kind critters in Marin soon, to do just this! Here at Natural Villages we just opened our first doorway into our village: through the ordinary house. Our specialist, Justine Light has just organized our first series that teaches the home owner how to bring that earth into the livingroom in a supportively artformish way that improves our thermal gain and fragrance ...and visuals! Think mosaics and natural colors an plasters for the lovely earth from your back yard even! How cool is that? For those really hardy and willing to travel for this knowlege we will be psoting our schedule in here soon, and our location in February is the Art Center in Ben Lomond, California!

[Green PaTroll]

Yeah! Is your book ready for publication? If so you should get in touch with Dandarius to expedite the process! If you are going to be doing a kids playhouse be sure to video tape it and document it. Love the title: Cob in a Bucket!

These 10 Easy Steps got harder when approaching the Earth Shelters and EcoVillage branches - let's find the 'easy' for sure....

Thank you!
GP