Conscious design - present, past, future!

History - Rage - Creativity - Design - Future

Knowledge - Awareness - Understanding

Working to educate not incarcerate

Consolidate not incinerate

Learning how to listen

for OURstories in hisSTORY

Through the recycled

building materials

of life

Carbon

Hydrogen

Oxygen

Iron

We renew our commitment

to being human

every time we raise our

question

who are we

what have we come through

and where are we headed...

Each time we ask

why, how or what...

on every occasion when we feel the desire

to act, heal or change...

there is a spark

of creativity

of potential

that we all have

to return

to our true

sane

original

selves

and to go together

through

endless work

of being

of becoming

human

together

through smoke - fire - water and drought

We have that spark

of hope

that will burn

into a fire of

accountability

of truth

resting on a foundation

of justice

that is not the

weapon of war

but the bedrock

of our mother

earth

A short spring photo journal poem: The conflicted life of a parent... Artist...

Sometimes I feel so supported and surrounded by the beauty and encouragement of family, friends, and of life herself...

And sometimes I feel forgotten, forsaken by all that walk and breathe and live...

 That is, I suppose part of the dance of life, revolving with the seasons....

Ever thankful for each moment of joy and freedom.

 Life... birth... death...

Let us see what mischief we can find while we can

What beauty and justice lies in wait....

Earn to Learn

Miramar monarch

Bromeliad ecosystem

Beautiful banana

In my current relationship with the world in which we live, I haven't quite disentangled the basic elements of my life: food, shelter, clothing - from the overarching socio-economic system that permeates and dominates every aspect of life here in the good ol' USA.

Garden lizard

Try as I might to liberate my mind and body, and those of my family, to develop a healthy spirit of in- & inter- dependence, autonomy and self reliance...

Pineland cocoplum

Tiny beauty

The road to recovering and reclaiming our ancestral indigenous systems of economics, governance, health, education, housing and food distribution seems as difficult today as a journey to mars... and yet we know there are many among us who are choosing and treading that path.

Valentines 4 change

"The Distribution of Food"

What would it mean were we all to follow our dream?

In the free market economy 

will we truly succeed

through

the

test

of

time

?

In this buying power system where everything is bought and sold 

- from food to body image, hair to headgear, makeup to multivitamins - 

We are losing our intrinsic systems of accountability, apprenticeship 

and appreciation for the learning journey.

With everything in the world available at our fingertips,

the process and discipline of earning the right 

to acquire knowledge, skill or materials is quickly becoming a lost art.

Earning to learn is a values based approach to traditional knowledge acquisition that has transcended millenia of wars, genocide and systematic targeting and elimination of knowledge keepers.

As we move toward solving the perennial question of how best to ensure inter-generational transfer of knowledge, we would do well to bear in mind that our process is at least as important as our outcomes.  In fact, a little self-paced sweat equity may be just the infusion of sanity that our US public education system is lacking here in the 21st century.

Just another sunset

Ecology IS our Economy!

Like all of LIFE, I am in a transition... in a state of invisible change, measured only by the wisdom of reflection and analysis which will happen AFTER the time of the present has passed.

Our gift is this moment - exactly where we are right now.  From here, we can observe, understand, learn, choose, acquire, release, assess and project our future past.

From right here, we can see our parents, and theirs.  We can watch our children and theirs emerge. This space and time that we occupy together is our place of power and joy.


Here is where I am learning that my life is connected to everything everywhere. Right here we can see the cycle of life on Earth - birth, death, human impact, restoration... a closed system with open minds, not withstanding the bottomless pockets and excess waste that only we humans can produce.

Here we begin again every day - living, reliving our life and the lives of all those who have lived, breathed before us. Here we begin again every day - the human search for knowledge, understanding, meaning, love, life...

We begin to ask questions, find answers. We begin to assess what is needed in our system - individual, family, community.

We begin again to understand that I am because you are.

"We are one and yet not the same"

That in diversity exists

the ingredients for life

And that with

each life lost

our system

dims and

must be

ignited

with the

hope

that

our

bio

diver

sity

will

flourish

once more!

Ecology IS our Economy!
Entrepreneurship is building our COMMUNITY!

Like a fetus in harmony with our Mother's body

We ARE the environment
our environment is US

We are the children of our Mother the Earth
We are connected to all of life

Yes, it's a simple concept - let's apply it!

Standing firmly for our future

When you look at me…
What do you see?

Do you form boxes or pyramids or spheres
Around your experience of my existence?

Do you label, tag and file
Your perception of my experience?

Do you interact intending to
Listen and learn, hear and teach to or with me?

When you look at me…
Do you see my endless transformations,
Translations of time, space and place?

Do you see my endless imperfections,
Perfectly timed choices to bridge the next leap?

Do you see me changing?
Because life and time are motion!

Do you see me listening, hearing and learning
With you?

We are
Inside and out – outside and in

We are
WE ARE
Together & Apart

We are
Wrong and Right

WE ARE
I am because WE ARE
WE ARE
WE ARE Finding a Path
To the Future
In Balance
Together

We ARE exploring the
Basics of life
In Balance

We ARE asking the critical questions
Of why and how and what and who

We are
Together
Finding our way
Through the chaos
Of uncertainty
To the firm footing in the bedrock of
Our unshakeable foundation of
Core values

We belong to the Earth and Sky
Our duty here, on our brief stay, is to remember
And act accordingly.

The Earth is our Mother
We must each learn again
How to live a life
Of Respect
And Integrity

We begin NOW
(And again every day)

Let us respect our Mother
(and each other)

We begin from within our hearts and homes
Cleaning, clearing, cutting loose and letting go
Of those thoughts and patterns that no longer need
Space in our surroundings…

Within that most sacred of spaces we call “home”
Is where the truth of our existence dwells…

Our struggles there reflect those of our family,
Community and nation.
Our battles won and lost is the stuff of our life journey.

The love that is shared – or absent – here is our best answer
To how to survive, to live, to thrive and to restore
The health and balance between us humans
And the rest of the plant, animal, animate and inanimate beings
On this water drop spark in the universe…

Exploring Roots of Entrepreneurship... (part 2)

Now, in the midst of this head on collision I feel between past - future, right - wrong, ideal - real… Regardless what analysts, bankers, or my high school civics instructor Brian Flaherty say, economy to me is the ability of a person, a family, a community, a nation, and an ecosystem to maintain long term relationships of symbiosis where all survive, thrive, flourish and replenish the resources they used during their lifetime; death giving rise to the renewal of energy that will fuel the next generation.

A strong economy to me means that the renewable resources available from the land support the total number of its inhabitants (plant, animal and otherwise). So, what are the elements that encourage each part of the system to grow, perform and produce at maximum levels of sustainable capacity?  And are there current or historic models that help to inspire creative problem solving?

Our solutions are many and varied and are likely not appearing in the textbooks that guide our teachers and students gently into a tiered caste future run by the existing corporate oligarchy.  Our humanity will not be preserved and maintained by drones or robotics or by militarizing everything…. But rather by seeking to restore our ever fleeting compassion – by seeking to instill in our children the fearlessness required to stand up and share our own stories… by building in each other the determination and discipline needed to chart our own strategic initiatives, laying a course to a future of our own varied design and vision.

To me economy is food (local), housing (green), health (lifestyle) and a quality of life that is shared with everyone - where our individual, community and collective happiness takes root to motivate, guide and inspire us to survive, thrive and set a path to a future where equality and liberty are real and lasting.

Check out weekly tweets at

Mother Nature Chronicles

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