Here in California we are grappling with how to continue to garden when the rain is not falling from the sky in adequate quantities--i.e., barely ever, and certainly not enough to sustain all the human and other life in our vast state. Here's some tips for gardening in dry times and dry climates:When facing serious drought, we can be water-wise and successful growing a food garden. Here are … [Read more...] about Gardening in Drought Times
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Resilience Thinking
I have been thinking a great deal about resilience--it is the nexus point between my two most salient studies: healing and ecology. Both psychotherapy and ecology talk about resilience as our capacity to bounce back, to recover after change, shock or trauma. This happens for people, and this happens for the earth, in lots of different ways. While certain people appear to have more "resilience" … [Read more...] about Resilience Thinking
The Art of Bouncing Back
If there’s one simple lesson I could download into hearts and minds of people everywhere, it’s this: Happiness and success depend on our ability to bounce back from set-backs, quickly and efficiently. There are a few givens in life--we all will be tested, both by forces outside our control and by internal forces that break us before putting us back together. We all have to upgrade our mental … [Read more...] about The Art of Bouncing Back
Who’s Got the Time?
A dear friend of mine just wrote a spontaneous meditation on time entitled “A Curious Loss of Time”, which is all about how life is speeding up, how we are run by a linear, clockwork kind of time which colonizes our minds and our bodies and makes us inward slaves to an outward illusory master. It’s been a provocative read which, quite honestly, I haven’t had the time to finish… So when the alarm … [Read more...] about Who’s Got the Time?
Paradise Lot, Book review
Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre and The Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City I’ve been aware of Eric Toenmeier’s work for some time – he authored a compendium on perennial vegetables (http://perennialvegetables.org/about/) as well as co-authored, with Dave Jacke, a simply gigantic book called Edible Forest Gardens (http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/) which is the … [Read more...] about Paradise Lot, Book review
Living with Roses
I had the opportunity to write an article for Taproot Magazine www.taproot.com, a beautiful, full color, ad-free, paper magazine put out by homesteaders living in the Northeast. This magazine has no significant on-line presence: they really want you to get the object, live with it, read it, love it. I suggested one piece about water and one about "eco-somatics", my personal blend of ecological … [Read more...] about Living with Roses
Root Simple podcast
I had the chance to talk with Erik Knutsen, co-author of The Urban Homestead and co-steward of the dynamic blog site Root Simple, about the work we're up to with the 13Moon CoLab, Permaculture from the Inside Out. Our permaculture course privileges the voices and expertise of women in a(nother) overwhelmingly male-dominated field, and we focus on the third, and perhaps most difficult permaculture … [Read more...] about Root Simple podcast
Permaculture from the Inside Out Podcast
I got the opportunity to talk with Scott Mann, host of the Permaculture Podcast, about Permaculture from the Inside Out, the connections between somatics and permaculture (inner repair/outer repair) and the work of accepting who we are and what our unique offering is in this time of the Great Turning. I am always psyched when a host says, "Wow, this conversation went in a direction I never would … [Read more...] about Permaculture from the Inside Out Podcast