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Absorb permaculture wisdom from an elder who encourages us to look up to the sky and then act out across the earth, in unison with others and with dirt beneath our bare feet. Su Dennett lives at Meliodora a 2.25 acre, 35 year old permaculture demonstration property she has established with her partner David Holmgren. She is a force - as strong as she is soothing. This conversation pushes us to connect with self, place & community & to create a life that is small, localised, abundantly rich and with community shared responsibility for the village.
Summary
Women being in their power
Growing up just after the war more or less self sufficient as her life foundation
The value of learning through adversity
Her journey to living a ‘feeling’ ‘human’ life
Lessons learnt while living in Europe - growing food and connecting to the earth
Going lateral rather than climbing to the top which is futile and disconnecting
Buying marginal land in the country rather than a city block to avoid a mortgage
Letting kids learn by ‘osmosis’ through doing rather than ‘teaching’
The limitations of the school system
learning about nature and the patterns of life before we learn about everything else
While there are limits to a seasonal life, this does not have to be limiting
Our focus needs to be on the limitless growth areas of community
Learning to be alongside those who think differently
Being alienated from nature requires a pathway to get back in - family and household economies are the baseline for that
Even the village fool had a role to play
The intellectual is only one part of us
Avoiding a sanitised world for the sake of a diverse gut health
Living expansively
Begin with bare feet - stop isolating ourselves from the earth
Lockdown silver linings
Removing the back fence to create community
Sharing your excess as a stepping stone to relationships
Looking for the positives in what otherwise felt like negatives - bikes over cars, simple peasant foods, seed sharing,
Discovering a happier state with simplicity
Exploring ONE thing at a time
A lateral existence
Respecting earth, water, air by actively considering them and slowing down
Womens place is in the home but so is mens and childrens
How much is enough? Why don't we sit on the floor more, live in smaller spaces,
White mans burden of ownership - but how we transition away from it is the challenge
Learning about our own cultural heritage in order to understand our first nations heritage
Respecting elder wisdom
Reintroducing rites of passage to honour all stages of life
Building support networks for our youth
Avoiding sanitisation from food to ideas
You cannot become a well grounded individual if you don't suffer adversity - endless happiness is farcical
Fulfilment is about being valued, thinking laterally, be an individual.
References
Melliodora
Transition towns movement
Retrosuburbia
Artists as Family
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