Exploring Roots of Entrepreneurship... (part 1)

Chatting with a group of friends about land, time & economy

In my mother's town every November 19, there is a sunrise ceremony on the banks of the Stann Creek River.  It is a ceremony that commemorates the arrival of the Garifuna People to the safe shores of what is now Belize.  Central to the commemoration are:  song, oratory, canoes and the plants.  Specifically, the food plants that are brought from the distant homelands, to be re-planted, making this new shore "home".

Working our borrowed Minnesota Milpa

Meso-American People have a tradition of economic development that is highly integrated into the concept of community.  Among many Maya communities in Southern Belize, for example, when a new couple formalizes their commitment to move through life as a nuclear family unit, the entire community mobilizes to gather the materials necessary to build their new home together.  A home that is comprised of the natural elements obtainable from their surrounding environment.  A home that is measured using units that are comprised of the male partner's own unique hand and height measurements.  A model that truly demonstrates the harmony that can be achieved between humans, nature and our environment.

Milpa in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, Belize

These types of highly integrated practices - which have sustained thriving, vibrant communities through the rise and fall of more than one empire - are of great importance and relevance to our current human task of regaining balance and equilibrium between each other and our first, natural environment - Mother Nature.

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Clip from a soon to be released documentary on the Indigenous Youth Freedom Project

Happy Autumn!

Here it is:

• the fledgling results of my deepest soul searching
• a summary of the things I really enjoy filling my life with
• an almost shameless effort in self promotion

Your brand new comprehensive guide to services available from yours truly! If you know of anyone who shares our values and has an interest in or need for any of the offerings I can provide, I deeply appreciate connections assistance.  I'm still working on the references and testimonials section - so if we have worked together before, I would love to see your thoughts in the comment section!

Thank you so much for your good thoughts, work and inspiration.  May we all move forward together!

Tara

On the cusp....

Helper, assistant, associate, manager, teacher, driver... for 28 years now, I've advocated - like a good doula or midwife - in the planning, birth, growth and development of the programs and projects of many super-talented, gifted, visionary leaders.

It's been an incredibly fulfilling journey for me - always learning, sharing and receiving endless inspiration from the tenacity, determination and resilience demonstrated by the babies, children, youth, adults and elders of the communities I've had the honor and privilege to live and work among.

In so many ways, this year has been a completion of another one of my life circles... teaching my children to grow roots in the ecosystem that nourished me, through hardship and love... like the indigenous flora of our bioregion... our "roots run deep."  I am happy that my compassion for the well being of my extended nuclear family unit has brought us back home - to the outer rim of the tropical lowland forest.  This heat is in our blood and it feels good learning how to eat with native perennial vegetables.

Today I realized that in my time of relative recluse from the bustle of community building, teaching and organizing, something has formulated itself within me - something I've been without for the major part of my "adulthood:" to my surprise, I suddenly have a new life goal.

It will take as much discipline and determination as I can possibly muster, I'm certain.  And like all goals, will need the coddling and care of anything precious and new - be they seedlings or babies.

I have come to the realization today that after 28 years of helping visions become reality, I wish to gain the skills and support necessary to learn how to see my own vision and bring that into reality.

Simple, maybe even obvious - but it took some major work to get here - and a lot more to get there.

I feel ready to take on the challenge to be true to myself, while building a road to "everything for everyone..."

Watch out, second half of life - here we come!

One year and a day

Why do I?

Why do I care about kids, borders and bombs…?

Why do I keep friends when I don’t even see them…?

Why do I get by when I could be getting down…?

Why do I keep trying when perseverance seems futile…?

Because.

Because to care is to love.

Because to know is to never give up.

Because only values PLUS logic can lead the way.

Because the blood boiling in my veins never lets me rest for very long.

It’s been a year now since my family and I took one giant leap and left the comfy nest of work, friends and community we had made for ourselves over the past 13 years.

I had done this once before, when I was about to start 7^th grade… I’d left for my annual summer sojourn with my grandparents and decided to stay – that year was the hardest and best year of my life – I learned Latin, algebra and how to dance like a Ukrainian.  I even got to mentor a class of first graders and taught them the alphabet in sign language.  That year I turned 13. I cut my hair. I started to wear makeup. And I got a job babysitting two little kids across the street from my aunt and uncle’s house where I spent the weekdays.

This year is very reminiscent of that - leaving one nest - to go find and make another. New roots, new shoots. Still holding fast to the love, teachings and experiences we left behind – not knowing truly if or when we might ever return… it is a journey so many have taken, and yet one others cannot even imagine.

Following one’s life path is not for the feint-hearted – that much is certain! So many guts and books and boxes and things to sort out in endless attempts to organize… Not much glory in finding the many prize items 10 or 20 or 30 years later left wrinkled, weathered and definitely worse for the wear.

Lots of guts to get through as we examine and re-examine what all the baggage is we’ve acquired in these short young lives… and what on earth compels anyone to commit the ludicrous act in this day and age of purchasing a printed ink book, much less three bookshelves full?

Relocating is definitely an act of comparative analysis, more than slightly colored by one’s pre-existing personal preferences.  The first year was all about coming to an understanding of where we’re not. Only from this somewhat dismal realization can we begin to appreciate all the opportunities that abound where we are.

Where am I?

Home because here is where my heart is.

Home because we’ve made a place to hang our hats.

Home because this place needs us and apparently we need it.

Home because the miracles of love and life sprout from everywhere.

Midsummer Dreaming

Photo of daily work in process by Adrienne Chadwick

The road to our individual and collective 'promised land' is not easy by any means. But it is strewn with petals of love, signs of encouragement and signals of inevitability. We must each use our human gifts and free will to accomplish exactly what we envision for ourselves - to do anything otherwise is to jeopardize the interdependent trajectory to our shared desire for a safe, abundant, sustainable future.

TheSecretGarden

Back to the Basics

As a mom of two young boys, I invest a lot in their future.  Today, at the dawn of this 21^st century, I often wonder: what will they truly need in order to live a healthy, happy, fulfilled life to its fullest? (As visions of ad logos dance in my head.) More space, money, cars…? Does more lead to fulfillment? Happiness?

Of course, as a mom, I want my children to always have what they need to live a full and productive life.  And now, more than ever, I think and worry about how our basic building blocks of life – air, water, earth – seem increasingly in peril.  And so, part of the investment I make in my children’s future is feeding them with food that is as safe and nutritious as possible.  But I also think about how far that food has traveled and how much water and energy was used to produce it.

We are hearing much about drought and water shortage these days, I know that we are going to feel that too, before the arrival of rainy season here in South Florida.  Did you know that throughout the US, a good 50% of our national water supply goes into the food we eat? It can take 200 gallons of water to produce a pound of beans.  A pound of beef can take over 2,000 gallons of water to produce.

Another thing that we feel here in South Florida is the real need for clean air that is cooled down to a liveable temperature. In the US almost 50% of our energy use is in heating and cooling homes and buildings.

But we have structures available to us to build our homes, businesses and public buildings in ways that use less than ¼ of that heating/ cooling energy.  And there are farming systems that grow food with minimal inputs of energy, water and chemicals. We just need to utilize them!

Climate change is happening, no matter how many $$$ you put into denying it.  Our temperatures overall are rising, ice sheets are retreating, and we have only one choice: ADAPT.

So that is what I teach my children – creativity, adaptation, and the importance of observing and considering the cycles and patterns of nature in all our actions and decisions.  It is what our ancestors have done, and it is the only way we will successfully navigate the changing times ahead.

We – our whole planet – are an ecosystem.  And yes, we are diverse, competitive, and at times, ruthless.  But we are all interconnected, bound together by our commonality and our dependence on the air, soil and life blood of our first mother – Earth.

Tara Chadwick works as a community outreach consultant for Earth Learning and would like to invite you to the 2014 Local Food Enterprise Summit in Miami May 31-June 2. Registration information is available at www.financialpermaculture.com, spaces are filling quickly.

   

It is time for us ALL to rise!

Climate, drought, floods, storms, damage, rebuilding, resilience, adaptation. It is time for us to rise!

A very
urban
bald
eagle
came
over to
look
for fish
in the
lake
as I
began
to
write
today.

Throughout the years of my teenage-hood, I carried within me a vision of “what I want to be when I grow up.” And despite the fact that I am a born and raised city girl, I knew from a very young age that my life desire was to learn about who I am as a part-Maya woman, and to work toward a time when I would have the skills, capacity and connectedness to sustain my own life using materials and resources that occur naturally on the Earth.

It seems a very practical and noble vision today, but in the progressive days of the 1980’s, a life goal of self-sustainability, self-sovereignty (though I could not describe it that way in those days) was seen as overly humble, too modest, and even today is often regarded as unrealistic.  And yet, one cannot undo one’s vision.  It can be designed, planned and implemented, even tweaked or reformatted, but that underpinning image, the reality with which it is emblazoned in one’s soul, and the memories of recalling it over many years of reflections just simply cannot be undone…

And so, I continue to move along on my life path, carrying memories of learning, experiences of doing, relationships (at least some of them anyways), and I realize, to my surprise, that I am on a journey toward the completion of a great circle!  Watching carefully how the weather patterns are changing, how our food and access to it is being modified, I wonder where the other 99% were when I was sitting in 9^th grade geography class listening to Mr. Thompson teach us about the two possible scenarios that would occur due to the increasing greenhouse effect… I am so confused by climate change skepticism.

But I am also more certain than ever now that my choices to live a humble life in pursuit of happiness, freedom and harmony with Mother Nature are more than responsibilities, these footsteps are my legacy…

April 28, 2014

Pinelands Park

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