This final chapter has activities to reflect on the book and contemplate the journey thus far. We move on to prepare ourselves for the coming adventures.
The end is the beginning of the next part in the story. There is a ‘manifesto for humanity’ poem, woven from many interviews and workshops; the direction we want to move in, the vision of hope for humanity.
The book has been your travelling companion for a while. I wonder what life has thrown your way while you have been reading this and what learning opportunities you have faced. I look forward to hearing stories and meeting some of you.
This is just part of the journey towards being your full self and moving to a positive and abundant future. You are now on a pathway to personal, social and planetary well-being. This is the time to look back on progress, feel a sense of achievement and make plans for the next stage.
You have been reading this book a word at a time, although perhaps jumping around chapters. Essentially words are linear; now at the end is the opportunity to see it holistically, as a complete picture, including the influences and the context of your journey. There is scope for you to revisit things as the relevancy arises. The activities bridge the gap between theory and practice and you may want to carry on with them or go back to ones that you skipped. As you continue to use the book you will start to see more of the details, connections and applications to your own life.
On one level the principles and ideas are relatively easy to understand; however practice on the ground can be more challenging. It is the application to our own lives that provides us with the richest lessons. As our skills and experiences increase so does our ability to see more complexity.
It is the nature of our human brains to start forgetting what we have learnt if we don’t remind ourselves or use the knowledge. Time spent now or soon stops that energy drain and helps to embody the lessons. Taking time to answer the questions will provide you with insights into your own mind and attitudes. It honours the time you took to read the book to now take time to reflect.
There are plenty of new seeds of ideas, too many to all grow at once, and we need to spend time watering and nurturing those we want to flourish. This process of reflection is like giving the whole garden a good soaking, keeping an eye out for the seeds that are sprouting. Perhaps some will take a while to germinate. We can’t know all the effects of our actions; there may well be some unexpected benefits already on their way.
You may be sitting here thinking that you are more confused and overwhelmed than when you started. As your circle of knowledge has increased, so has the edge of what you don’t know.
You are able to see more of what you don’t know and what needs doing. This has a similar pattern to the competence cycle. Stage one of ‘blissful ignorance’ is the vast white space of the unknown and we are unaware of what that might contain. Stage two, ‘the door opens’, is the outside of the fuzzy edge, where we are introduced to something and it comes into our awareness. Stage three, ‘awkward know how’, is the fuzzy edge where it is almost within our knowledge. Stage four, ‘second nature’, is our circle of knowledge.
This is an opportunity for you to take time looking within your expanded circle of knowledge, to take comfort in your growth. The following activity stimulates stage five: ‘reflective competence’, where we are able to see the voyage we have taken.
Firstly look back at your initial entry in your learning journal and your aim and motivations for reading this book.
Now, looking back at the mindmaps at the beginning of each part, take a few minutes to reflect on the stages of the competence cycle you have been through.
What can you appreciate about yourself over the time you have been reading this? Celebrate any changes you have made. What have you enjoyed about the learning process?
What can you appreciate about your interactions with others over this time? Think of the friends you’ve talk to, strangers you’ve observed, people who have confronted you with real life experiences to tackle, people who have nurtured you and ones that have needed support.
Take time to give thanks for the opportunity you have had to read this. Perhaps you have had time on holiday, maybe a friend lent you this book or you borrowed it from a library. Give thanks for the abundance that brought this book to you.
The significant thing is what happens next. Can you use permaculture to enhance the quality of your life?
The most effective learning is through doing, thinking and observing for ourselves and allowing the words to percolate into our actions. Bobbi DePorter1 calls it ‘practising into permanence’. Through repetition and trial and error we can come to own this knowledge as our own experience and wisdom. This deepening knowledge of how to look after ourselves, each other and the planet needs to seep into our bones, our muscles, our thoughts and our actions. When it runs through every fibre of our bodies and communities, humanity and the planet will flourish.
This book is a stepping-stone for more exploration of peoplecare and a sustainable Earth culture. We still have to make that journey, each one of us. There are plenty more skills to develop and share, other books to write. Perhaps you will write a book to share your wisdom and inspire others.
Maddy and Tim Harland of Permanent Publications describe how when they first came across permaculture they discovered how much there is to learn. They went through the observation stage and realised where they didn’t have skills, and areas of life they wanted to understand more. Permaculture has given them the humility to acknowledge that they are on a life long learning pathway and slowly gather skills to live in a more constructive and productive way. There are times when it’s not possible for them to gain a skill and then they have learned to co-operate with someone who has, building community in the process. Maddy says, “Permaculture has put us in an utterly unexpected place in our lives. I could never have predicted we would be doing what we are doing now. We have to be grateful for this, though it’s not always been easy. But when you live life open to a level of creative possibility it can take you to surprising and extraordinary places.”
Now we can think about what lies ahead of us. How, what and when do we want to change?
Moving on means going to your edge and looking beyond, deciding what you need to take with you and what to let go of.
This is a time for conscious decision-making, for moulding the changes using designs, using the principles as reminders and the ethics to guide us. We can make active steps towards the ethics, with reducing our consumption, extending our skills, seeing and assessing the consequences of all of our actions, connecting with people and choosing abundance.
Bill Mollison suggests three steps for your own participation in permaculture:
Anyone can do these and we can start now. With these three steps we become part of a bigger movement that together can make the Great Turning.
Before opening up the time capsule, the envelope that you put away at the beginning of the book, answer the same questions again.
There’s no need to try and remember what you wrote before, just write fluidly and spontaneously in the moment. Write for a good 15 minutes, when you come to a close, take a moment to pause, before opening the envelope.
Comparing these make a note of any feelings, thoughts and emotions that emerge.
After taking this time to look back along the journey taken, we now turn our attention to the next part. As we step along our path the last two questions of the vision support method provide constructive directions.
You can take your vision out in zones: what would you like for yourself, your family, friends, groups, community, society, humanity and the Earth? Think big, think expansively.
What skills would you like to develop? What would you like to know more about? There are many sources of information and inspiration out there; books, courses, internet, other people, website forums, and of course your own self discovery, designing, thinking and experimentation.
Your visions can become real. They can move from dreaming to thinking and planning to doing and into reality and then reflecting and improving.
Take 10 minutes to answer, either writing in your journal or speaking without interruptions to a friend. Ask them to scribe for you. Remember that you don’t need to think about whether these dreams are possible or how they might happen, just open yourself up to the visioning process.
This is your time for commitment to action. Here is the time to say what you are ready, willing and going to do. Give yourself a timescale for these actions. Timescales can vary from one week to one season. Choose one that suits you, not too long so you forget and not too short that there isn’t time to do the actions. You are endeavouring to create a pattern of success, so actions have to be ones that are achievable, and you want to do. Achievable, but not too easy so as to be underselling yourself. The aim is to connect your long-term goals with your everyday reality. Hence your next achievable steps are not just a list of things to do, they are steps you are making towards your vision. It may be a small regular commitment to exercise or a step towards restoring peace in your family. It may be the beginnings of a design or further research. Whatever it is, the idea is to stretch and accomplish, thereby bringing your dreams closer to your reality.
Think of one medium size thing you are committing to. Make sure you are specific about your action: instead of saying ‘I will make our relationship better’, give real examples of how.
Think of the qualities you would like to be blessed with to carry out your commitment: Peace, understanding, self discipline, stamina, companionship... Open yourself up to these coming to you or from within you.
I asked many people for their hope for humanity. What’s your highest vision? If we were free from fear and limitations what is the journey for humanity our hearts would like to participate in? On one of my courses we wrote all of our visions on a big roll of paper, taking time to access those imaginings within each one of us. We then read them out one by one and the energy filled the room, as if we were drawing the vision closer; bringing it into this time and place.
This poem has been woven from interviews, workshops and my own dreaming. Read it, share it and bring this vision closer to reality. Let this be the collective voice declaring what we are willing to manifest.
We have slowed down
Woken up
Come into our power,
Our hearts are filled with joy each morning
We exist in a state of wholeness
We see our place in the whole,
We know life is sacred
Every space is sacred
We feel the heartbeats of our fellow beings
The animals and plants our brothers and sisters,
We are thinking and acting like a global family.
We take pride in our Earth home
This shining jewel that breathes beneath us,
Pride in how we leave it for future generations,
Positively impacting on ecosystems,
We have found our hearts, and learn we are connected
To all life
Our spiritual connection woven into the fabric of our lives.
We have a full understanding of love,
We appreciate what it means to be ecological beings
On an ecological planet.
We celebrate an Earth culture.
We know who we truly are and what we are truly capable of
We recognise our own and one another’s brilliance
Everyone retains their capacity to smile and laugh
We follow our dreams whatever they may be,
Lives where we enjoy the creativity of being human
Time to be and reflect
We are content
We sing our voices of majesty.
We have learned to negotiate
Communicating our needs and respecting others
We value different ways of working,
We have freedom to grow
Honouring each other’s contribution
Allowing people to be without judgement.
Living together in health and happiness
Greater simplicity of life
With strong social bonds,
Nothing and no one outside of society,
Abundant creative expression
Time for art, music and dancing for all
Farmer poets, gardener philosophers
Communities that share, care and connect.
More wisdom, more integrity
More communication, less fighting
More music, more singing
More dancing, more harmony
More colour, more beauty
More thinking, less rashness
More space for each being to fully become themselves
Weaving abundance into our lives of balance.
Diversity and freedom are the roots of our society
Freedom of thought and action
Our leaders fully representative of all our glorious diversity
Honesty and openness from government and management
Decisions made with consultation and listening
Our leaders are full spectrum conscious and heart based,
A sophisticated approach to social action,
The quietest voices are heard.
Every child has access to education
Following their interests and talents
Learning made easy at their own pace
In their own style,
Meditation and yoga in schools
All taught how to lead,
All taught to reflect
To know why we do things
And the effects of our actions.
Children brought up by the whole community
Everyone is teacher and student
Throughout life
Always growing
Always learning.
Respect, honour and learning from our elders
Conscious parenting supported.
Education brings children to a place of their own wisdom
And sense of being.
Cultures diversify and find their own solutions
Following their own paths
Human culture to flourish for many,
Safety for all,
Everyone has access to clean water, food and shelter
Every voice is welcomed
Ever decreasing inequality
Ever increasing biodiversity
The masculine and feminine in balance,
An emergent global consciousness
Of connection and responsibility
A diverse expression of heart centred spirituality
Our journey to this place has been nourishing and rewarding,
A smooth energy descent transition,
We regained the value of non-material things
We ended persecution for beliefs
We stopped the violence towards each other, the Earth,
And ourselves
We evolved to a reawakening of spirit.
We are already here at certain times, certain moments,
Certain communities,
A permanent culture around the corner,
Now enough people paying into the consciousness of goodwill and hope
To create the Great Turning
Where war, murder, rape, vandalism, theft
Are shed like a snake’s skin
Becoming stories of the past.
We used our knowledge and wisdom
To bring healthy changes to all,
The evolution of happiness
Bringing benefit after benefit.
In times of crisis we were resourceful,
With trust and good connections
We weathered the storms
This is the path of heart
This is the path of abundance
This is your call to action
This is the dream to follow
For our children and grandchildren
For the great forests and deep oceans
For mother Earth and life itself
This is the vision
This is the hope
This is the direction we face
Peace – real peace
Sustained peace
We each have our own challenges to face and decisions to make. And our journeys may not be smooth. We have to be kind to ourselves and take the options that are right for us, with no guilt, blame or shame.
Everything is infinitely more complex and interrelated than I have presented here. Change can take time or we can suddenly find ourselves at turning points. Unexpected things can and will happen, which brings me hope. Hope that we will make the journey necessary to create the Great Turning.
Through accessing the deep well of collective wisdom and community spirit we are able to accomplish much in the way of healing. By feeling the rhythm of the Earth beneath our feet we can tune into cycles much greater than ourselves. Through our belonging to the Earth we can find the roots of our shared humanity. From respect friendships, communities, gardens and forests can grow.
We have the opportunity to reconcile the bigger picture with our personal needs. And from this union is a deep sense of connection that motivates us to be our best for the world. We can create a life sustaining Earth culture. We can weave rich tapestries of abundance for ourselves, the planet and future generations.
Begin and the impossible will become possible