Forest Gardening meets Deep and Personal Ecology

Forest Gardening is to become really deep and personal for us. We are about to move out of town to dwell permanently in the forest. Our house in town has just been sold and ceases to be my second home away from home on June 20th.

The comforts of city life are about to be replaced by very carefully considered solar power. My minimum needs have become the starting point for maintaining connection to the world and having simple conveniences at Harmony.

Just before the house sold our purple Vanny moved with Lorraine to the northern east cape of this one land and I've really enjoyed taking to the peddles. My muscles have rediscovered their memories of my biking as a youth. I was about 27 when I got my first petrol powered vehicle, and I'm "younger" than 27 again.

I've been building a wash-house which you can read about in the Harmony Farm Newsletter. The exciting pertinent point here is that in order to get more time building it, my inner nudges, said don't wait for the bus, ride your bike at least some of the way. So I hopped on and peddled, telling myself, I could also stop at the north end of town and hitch; or that if I rode past there, I could stop and walk up the steep parts. Well those inner nudges kept saying I had more energy, and I only walked about a hundred metres of the whole trip. I passed other cyclists and got to Harmony only about 20 minutes slower than coming the other way. Then I put up more framing for the roof, and biked back. You too can be liberated fr a time from fossil fuels ... and fit.

Biking has given me a different sense of my strength, and of my ability to consume energy - in order to feed it to the peddles. I'm learning lots about bikes so that I can get them rolling along more easily.

The uppermost corner of the wash-house roof stands 4m high and is just half a meter from several Tree Fuchsia branches, so in building it, I've had the good fortune to be up with the birds. I said to one little fellow "Here I am up high like you, but you've got wings, and I cannot fly". I wondered how I looked to that little bird perched up there - being careful of my footing least I fall rapidly to the ground - without my wings.

That same uppermost northeast corner is also the first part of any building at Harmony to catch the rays of the morning Sun. As they filter through the tree tops, and before the earth turns and lets Sunlight dance along the far west side of Connection Clearing it arrives up here on the East, tickling the leaves of the trees, and sliding on by to light up the sleeping loft on top of the Wash-House. I'm wondering whether to put in a special little window right up there under the eave to bring in those first rays of hope early in every day.

I have windows planned to let the visitors to the loft also connect with Vision Quest Hill on the right and Rustler's Ridge on the left. I like high views out over the tree tops and was going to build the wash-house roof even higher to see even more until Alan and I thought it might blow over. Its foundation had not been built with such heights in mind and we did not want to see the building staggering on its feet in the stronger winds that race across the clearing. Now instead we ahve the spiral, the twist, the morphing roof, as described in the link to Harmony Farm News above.

The Wash-House has been dynamically designed "on the fly" as it builds itself. This approach links the design to the site, to the environment, and to the builder. I decided to place a stud to support a roof, then see what window I might have that fits the space defined by that stud. I find one that has been waiting for years in the pile because it just fits. I watch the sun, and see how high to place it. Discussing it with Spirit, All Beings, I ask how does it fit with the bigger picture, and the height of the framing for all windows on that side of the building is adjusted so that they Harmonise.

I don't know how well they will Harmonise, because they're not in place yet, but in the rise and fall of the sills and window tops I sense the aspiring shape of the roof will be reflected. The shapes and patterns will create space that stretches beyond that which they immediately occupy. All will reflect the whole.


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David


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Raindrops are like magic you do not see them until they appear. On water laced with detergent they hit the water safe and reappear. Myriads of shapes they may take. From a large bubble if they hit right on and the water is quietly waiting. Landing in more chaos their patterns are more diverse. Multiple bubbles race off from one centre. Small and amenable they impact on others and merge, or fade out as they race to edges of their creations.

You know not, though the water does, whether there will be two, three, four, or more. Maybe they will race in opposite directions, maybe bursting foward in an explosion of bubbles, releasing life born from chaos, connected by the creative energy of their drop.

Like Vishnu some appear and like Shiva some disappear hit by others; yet others last a long journey across the surface of water.

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David

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It is simply the law of the curve, of respect for all things, from which I create a space for myself among others. I refrain from the straight line barriers that dominate and control space within the cities.

How far dare I go to make life easy? When I make a path I move more easily between activities I thus connect. Do I need to get straight across quickly or can I put in curves and make it gentle?

I wish to follow the rises and falls so that it speaks of the land, to give way to branches in its space, and let is width vary as it passes by rock and root. Yet if I build many paths I make the space I share more human-defined, and it becomes the citified existence in which I may well wake to find myself petrified.

Click here to volunteer and study forest gardening, earth building, and permaculture at Harmony.

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David


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"I'm going to get rid of all that grass!"

It took me days to see that I had sucumbed to the very thing I had thought to end. Not doing is still doing and I was not doing big time. I did not like grass at Harmony Forest.

Cities get rid of forest and hold it back from the unseen edges of their lives with grass and concrete. These two favourites define boundaries over which cityfolk definitely do not cross, except on get-fit ocassions and pecial holidays.

Succoured into the control that is normally expected of a concrete human I was worshiping it backwards. I was eliminating grass to allow forest to merge with the people.

Grass had become the symbol of what I feared most, the city, and I was out to destroy it. I was no less a grass control freak than those who ritualistically mowed their lawns to a fine patina weekly.

Domesticated grasses make acceptable company to those whose kerbs and lawnmowers spread their way into the remaining forests of the world and whose own seed increases the human population to unprecedented levels. Yet more humans, replace yet more native habitats with pervasive grass, as grains, and as feed source for the animals, that feed the gaping mouths of yet more humans ... and I wanted none of it.

The fortnightly requirement to apply lawnmower and line-trimmer to the pristine patina was not going to control me.

I was "pure". I was putting back bark and twig mulches. I was building cabins, gardens, paths, and driveways over grass. I was killing thousands and thousands of grass plants. In the city as a professional gardener I was ripping grass out and cutting it down from places it ought not to be. In other places I was mowing it down for customers who risked the disapproval of neighbours if they left it to grow too long.

It was fine for the seed of humans to disseminate widely for it is God's (not my God's) request that we go "forth and multiply" and have dominion over the grasses. The seed heads of long grass were not to make seed as humans do. They owed it to God. Humans and not grass were to dominate.

So how could I give grass itself a place in my living space?

Grass knows one key difference. Its habitat is not the entire world, it will not grow in the forest, and will not chop down and deny the forest its place in the world simply to give itself more space to dominate alone with its own seed-children.

I acknowledge its purpose, accept its place, and give it space.

I have kept my little lawn for now. I call it "Play".

For more special experiences and insights on living with respect for grass and all other Beings Subscribe here for Harmony's free quarterly e-zine sharing enchanting personal experiences not published elsewhere.

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Love,

David


Forward, distribute, and publish every article in this blog anywhere you wish, as long as the ENTIRE article, footnotes, and any banners, are left as is, and all links remain active. Exceptions: BlogTopList and Photos may be left out, though we prefer they stay. If you want to publish the article in edited form please contact us at Harmony Forest.

Kinesiology is amazing. With it we can muscle-test and determine which brain hemisphere is dominant, and give the brain little exercises to integrate right-left, front-back, and top-down (cerebrum-cerebellum) function. In both learning and performing this testing I have been amazed at how dysfunctional I and others brains can become when afraid and stressed; and there can be little outward sign of how each individual brain is overcoming its difficulties to achieve it functioning state.

Each brain learns which thinking to do on which side - left or right and develops appropriate communications between the sides via the bridge of connecting nerve fibres known as the corpus callosum. Under the special training it receives, which we know as childhood, about 95% of brains in current western society choose left side dominance, with their left side handling assessment of risk, comparing past with present events, determining possible future outcomes and deciding each step that needs to be taken to remain safe.

The right side sees the big picture, lives entirely in the present moment, and sees the harmony in everything. In the current age more people everywhere are learning the value of listening to their wholistic brain, which is so in touch with the messages of the heart (feelings) and Soul (intuition). Most tasks require both hemispheres to contribute their special skills. Harmonious left-right brain interaction greatly assist us in living together in the natural environment, as we do at Harmony Farm, within Harmony Forest.

Recently we have even learned that some of those with no corpus callosum are functioning as if they are accessing both hemispheres. The brain is very adaptable (plastic) and it may be that in these cases each hemisphere (which operates opposite sides of the body) learns to be both right and left in function.

Another incredible illustration of brain function occurred when Jill Bolte Taylor, and anatomist, had the amazing opportunity to study her own left-right brain function as she switched completely back and forth during a stroke. As stroke shut down her left for periods of time, she experienced the bliss of living on the right side of life. Her story is available at ted.com. You can read it below or listen to here:

Jill Bolte Taylor:

I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia. And as a sister and as a scientist, I wanted to understand, why is it that I can take my dreams, I can connect them to my reality, and I can make my dreams come true -- what is it about my brother's brain and his schizophrenia that he cannot connect his dreams to a common, shared reality, so they instead become delusions?

So I dedicated my career to research into the severe mental illnesses. And I moved from my home state of Indiana to Boston where I was working in the lab of Dr. Francine Benes, in the Harvard Department of Psychiatry. And in the lab, we were asking the question, What are the biological differences between the brains of individuals who would be diagnosed as normal control, as compared to the brains of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorder?

So we were essentially mapping the microcircuitry of the brain, which cells are communicating with which cells, with which chemicals, and then with what quantities of those chemicals. So there was a lot of meaning in my life because I was performing this kind of research during the day. But then in the evenings and on the weekends I traveled as an advocate for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

But on the morning of December 10 1996 I woke up to discover that I had a brain disorder of my own. A blood vessel exploded in the left half of my brain. And in the course of four hours I watched my brain completely deteriorate in its ability to process all information. On the morning of the hemorrhage I could not walk, talk, read, write or recall any of my life. I essentially became an infant in a woman's body.

If you've ever seen a human brain, it's obvious that the two hemispheres are completely separate from one another. And I have brought for you a real human brain. [Thanks.] So, this is a real human brain. This is the front of the brain, the back of the brain with a spinal cord hanging down, and this is how it would be positioned inside of my head. And when you look at the brain, it's obvious that the two cerebral cortices are completely separate from one another. For those of you who understand computers, our right hemisphere functions like a parallel processor. While our left hemisphere functions like a serial processor. The two hemispheres do communicate with one another through the corpus collosum, which is made up of some 300 million axonal fibers. But other than that, the two hemispheres are completely separate. Because they process information differently, each hemisphere thinks about different things, they care about different things, and dare I say, they have very different personalities. [Excuse me. Thank you. It's been a joy.]

Our right hemisphere is all about this present moment. It's all about right here right now. Our right hemisphere, it thinks in pictures and it learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies. Information in the form of energy streams in simultaneously through all of our sensory systems. And then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like. What this present moment smells like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like. I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the consciousness of my right hemisphere. We are energy beings connected to one another through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family. And right here, right now, all we are brothers and sisters on this planet, here to make the world a better place. And in this moment we are perfect. We are whole. And we are beautiful.

My left hemisphere is a very different place. Our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically. Our left hemisphere is all about the past, and it's all about the future. Our left hemisphere is designed to take that enormous collage of the present moment. And start picking details and more details and more details about those details. It then categorizes and organizes all that information. Associates it with everything in the past we've ever learned and projects into the future all of our possibilities. And our left hemisphere thinks in language. It's that ongoing brain chatter that connects me and my internal world to my external world. It's that little voice that says to me, "Hey, you gotta remember to pick up bananas on your way home, and eat 'em in the morning." It's that calculating intelligence that reminds me when I have to do my laundry. But perhaps most important, it's that little voice that says to me, "I am. I am." And as soon as my left hemisphere says to me "I am," I become separate. I become a single solid individual separate from the energy flow around me and separate from you.

And this was the portion of my brain that I lost on the morning of my stroke.

On the morning of the stroke, I woke up to a pounding pain behind my left eye. And it was the kind of pain, caustic pain, that you get when you bite into ice cream. And it just gripped me and then it released me. Then it just gripped me and then released me. And it was very unusual for me to experience any kind of pain, so I thought OK, I'll just start my normal routine. So I got up and I jumped onto my cardio glider, which is a full-body exercise machine. And I'm jamming away on this thing, and I'm realizing that my hands looked like primitive claws grasping onto the bar. I thought "that's very peculiar" and I looked down at my body and I thought, "whoa, I'm a weird-looking thing." And it was as though my consciousness had shifted away from my normal perception of reality, where I'm the person on the machine having the experience, to some esoteric space where I'm witnessing myself having this experience.

And it was all every peculiar and my headache was just getting worse, so I get off the machine, and I'm walking across my living room floor, and I realize that everything inside of my body has slowed way down. And every step is very rigid and very deliberate. There's no fluidity to my pace, and there's this constriction in my area of perceptions so I'm just focused on internal systems. And I'm standing in my bathroom getting ready to step into the shower and I could actually hear the dialog inside of my body. I heard a little voice saying, "OK, you muscles, you gotta contract, you muscles you relax."

And I lost my balance and I'm propped up against the wall. And I look down at my arm and I realize that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can't define where I begin and where I end. Because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall. And all I could detect was this energy. Energy. And I'm asking myself, "What is wrong with me, what is going on?" And in that moment, my brain chatter, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent. Just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button and -- total silence.

And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there.

Then all of a sudden my left hemisphere comes back online and it says to me, "Hey! we got a problem, we got a problem, we gotta get some help." So it's like, OK, OK, I got a problem, but then I immediately drifted right back out into the consciousness, and I affectionately referred to this space as La La Land. But it was beautiful there. Imagine what it would be like to be totally disconnected from your brain chatter that connects you to the external world. So here I am in this space and any stress related to my, to my job, it was gone. And I felt lighter in my body. And imagine all of the relationships in the external world and the many stressors related to any of those, they were gone. I felt a sense of peacefulness. And imagine what it would feel like to lose 37 years of emotional baggage! I felt euphoria. Euphoria was beautiful -- and then my left hemisphere comes online and it says "Hey! you've got to pay attention, we've got to get help," and I'm thinking, "I got to get help, I gotta focus." So I get out of the shower and I mechanically dress and I'm walking around my apartment, and I'm thinking, "I gotta get to work, I gotta get to work, can I drive? can I drive?"

And in that moment my right arm went totally paralyzed by my side. And I realized, "Oh my gosh! I'm having a stroke! I'm having a stroke!" And the next thing my brain says to me is, "Wow! This is so cool. This is so cool. How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?"

And then it crosses my mind: "But I'm a very busy woman. I don't have time for a stroke!" So I'm like, "OK, I can't stop the stroke from happening so I'll do this for a week or two, and then I'll get back to my routine, OK."

So I gotta call help, I gotta call work. I couldn't remember the number at work, so I remembered, in my office I had a business card with my number on it. So I go in my business room, I pull out a 3-inch stack of business cards. And I'm looking at the card on top, and even though I could see clearly in my mind's eye what my business card looked like, I couldn't tell if this was my card or not, because all I could see were pixels. And the pixels of the words blended with the pixels of the background and the pixels of the symbols, and I just couldn't tell. And I would wait for what I call a wave of clarity. And in that moment, I would be able to reattach to normal reality and I could tell, that's not the card, that's not the card, that's not the card. It took me 45 minutes to get one inch down inside of that stack of cards.

In the meantime, for 45 minutes the hemorrhage is getting bigger in my left hemisphere. I do not understand numbers, I do not understand the telephone, but it's the only plan I have. So I take the phone pad and I put it right here, I'd take the business card, I'd put it right here, and I'm matching the shape of the squiggles on the card to the shape of the squiggles on the phone pad. But then I would drift back out into La La Land, and not remember when I come back if I'd already dialed those numbers.

So I had to wield my paralyzed arm like a stump, and cover the numbers as I went along and pushed them, so that as I would come back to normal reality I'd be able to tell, yes, I've already dialed that number. Eventually the whole number gets dialed, and I'm listening to the phone, and my colleague picks up the phone and he says to me, "Whoo woo wooo woo woo." [laughter] And I think to myself, "Oh my gosh, he sounds like a golden retriever!" And so I say to him, clear in my mind I say to him. "This is Jill! I need help!" And what comes out of my voice is, "Whoo woo wooo woo woo." I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, I sound like a golden retriever." So I couldn't know, I didn't know that I couldn't speak or understand language until I tried.

So he recognizes that I need help, and he gets me help. And a little while later, I am riding in an ambulance from one hospital across Boston to Mass General Hospital. And I curl up into a little fetal ball. And just like a balloon with the last bit of air just, just right out of the balloon I felt my energy lift and I felt my spirit surrender. And in that moment I knew that I was no longer the choreographer of my life. And either the doctors rescue my body and give me a second chance at life or this was perhaps my moment of transition.

When I awoke later that afternoon I was shocked to discover that I was still alive. When I felt my spirit surrender, I said goodbye to my life, and my mind is now suspended between two very opposite planes of reality. Stimulation coming in through my sensory systems felt like pure pain. Light burned my brain like wildfire and sounds were so loud and chaotic that I could not pick a voice out from the background noise and I just wanted to escape. Because I could not identify the position of my body in space, I felt enormous and expensive, like a genie just liberated from her bottle. And my spirit soared free like a great whale gliding through the sea of silent euphoria. Harmonic. I remember thinking there's no way I would ever be able to squeeze the enormousness of myself back inside this tiny little body.

But I realized "But I'm still alive! I'm still alive and I have found Nirvana. And if I have found Nirvana and I'm still alive, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana." I picture a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time. And that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres and find this peace. And then I realized what a tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives. And it motivated my to recover.

Two and a half weeks after the hemorrhage, the surgeons went in and they removed a blood clot the size of a golf ball that was pushing on my language centers. Here I am with my mama, who's a true angel in my life. It took me eight years to completely recover.

So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere. where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.

Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when? I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading.

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If you would like to learn more about why you personally find some tasks more difficult that other people do learn how your brain works and what fears stop you living on the right side of life. Find kinesiology workshops, and kinesiologists in your area. EDuK, One Brain (Three In One Concepts, and Touch For Health are especially helpful. For local help in Dunedin, I am happy to be your kinesiologist. I am trained in Naturopathy, Rebirthing, and many of the kinesiologies including EduK, Human Ecology Balancing Sciences, One-Brain, and Touch For Health.


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David Baillie
Naturopath


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Please forward, distribute, and publish every article in this blog anywhere you wish, as long as the ENTIRE article, footnotes, and any banners, are left as is, and all links remain active. Exception: Photos may be left out, though we prefer they stay.

What is it that drives people apart to find themselves alone and what is it that drives people to be together?

Together with someone I want to be able to decide all I do and when I do it. Alone I wish for the insights, help, and love of another of my species.

When living with others (humans, plant, and animal) my old habits often disturb their peace and solitude, and disturbed they give voice to their discontent. Reminded by them that I don't like my old habits either I want to change them, but not necessarily right in the middle of what I am already doing, and when I am planning to be doing something else. But if not now, when will there ever be a better time?

Apart from other beings a part of my self is missing and I wonder how others are. Are all those loved ones close to me and OK? Do they need help? Will they like what I am doing and how I have left things when they get back?

After years of relationship any of my behaviours can become annoying to a person who is not been able to accept me as I am. As I am a reflection of them, and they been hoping all along, that I, will change. If I change then they will not need to.

Without the responsibility to change within myself I grow tired of each relationship and look for someone different. Unless I know that whatever I dislike in another being mirrors part of myself and I want to discover the core truth of who and what I am.

It takes confidence on my part to keep accepting and loving myself as I learn more of the truth of who I am, and it takes even more love and confidence to be prepared to change to what the other person recommends I become, and more still to accept their observations that I still haven't changed much, when my changing isn't instantaneous. It takes time.

At least when a person gives me their opinion of me they are telling me how they feel and am gifting me the chance to work this out with them; rather than saying that I never listen, I don't like them, and that they can't live with me and it's all over.

Holidays are possibly the greatest gift to relationship. Before holiday I earn my money, pay my bills, organise all my needs, and on holiday I take a break from such responsibilities. However, if I take my partner, family, or friends along both what I like and what I don't like about that person/those people intensifies without the distractions of my job and financial responsibility.

On holiday with people I am responsible to I start thinking about bills and how I can earn money to pay them.

My relationships can wait for holidays as an opportunity to find and save themselves, only to find that the holiday was so much more intense than everyday living, that there is no way they are going to live that way with me any more.

New resolutions are made and perhaps we return to living together in the tame, domestic, situation, and this frustrates us further.

I give it yet another chance, but focus on just the little changes because responsibility takes over, and I need to fulfil my everyday responsibilities without falling in an emotional heap on the job. I have other things to do. Always more important things. Anything that is preferable to facing my own behaviours, now so full in my face when they tell me about them, now that I have returned to domestic "bliss".

Two powerful relationship healing tools are for men to wear green tourmaline and for women to wear pink tourmaline necklaces of therapeutic quality. If the help of wearing therapeutic quality gemstone necklaces fascinates you, as it does us, check out Gemstonetherapy.info. For help deciding which gemstones are best for you check out our Gemstone Comparator.


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Love,

David

Click here for the opportunity to volunteer and study forest gardening, earth building, and peramculture at Harmony.

For more special experiences and insights on living with respect for All Beings Subscribe here for Harmony's free quarterly e-zine sharing enchanting personal experiences not published elsewhere.

Please forward, distribute, and publish every article in this blog anywhere you wish, as long as the ENTIRE article, footnotes, and any banners, are left as is, and all links remain active. Exception: Photos may be left out, though we prefer they stay.

Spiritual ecology can be the dynamic design of a building where I walk with Spirit, posing questions of trees, building materials, animals, and my intentions and needs; and letting the answers which come guide my interpretation of the needs of the neighbouring plants and animals, the building, and my use of that building. This creates the design and the design constantly changes. Sometimes the change is quick: I just see or hear something and know the solution. Sometimes it receives much deliberation and trust in Spirit as the me that does not yet know how, finds How.

Spiritual Ecology Dialogue

Immersed in the dynamic design-build of a washhouse among trees at Harmony the following is an excerpt from this dialogue Soul (Me) and Spirit.

Me: I like the trees, want them close, and don't won't to disturb them more than necessary. What is necessary? If I lay rocks between tree roots to be foundations and steps into the building there will be less damage to tree roots beneath. How stable will my building be with one of its end wired to rocks that just sitting on the surface?
Spirit: When the trees are conscious of their purpose their roots can stabilise the ground under the rocks so they sit as well as if they had been partly buried?

Me: How can I preserve the timbers of the foundation just a few centimetres above the soil surface because I don't want to cut into more tree roots, and didn't know where else wants the soil I would need to shift?
Spirit: It is OK to use H4 and H5 materials in the soil because this was a dry area, and with you building on top of it, and with roots sucking up all that is available it will be even drier so their will be no significant leaching of preservatives.

Me: Would the tree trunk just a few centimetres from the wall hit the wall and weaken it, Spirit: And will it face the wind so that the wall is protected and need not be so strong?

Me: If I built in a mezzanine loft would the costs of delay be offset by extra space at little extra material cost?
Then if I was to install a dormer window over the mezzanine floor rather than a simple, flat roof would the sunlight and view be worth it.
Then if I were to raise the roof height to contain a more comfortable bed would there be enough head height? Then if I were to raise the roof height higher so that the window did not cut off the top of the Vision Quest peak and Rustler's Ridge would the building become illegally high? How when it is so high would it stand against the westerly winds?

Then when after weeks of discovering these questions each step along the way I decided I was as high as I wanted to go and cut an angled notch to hold a ceiling joist at just the right angle for the slope of the roof. Then I went to the other end of the mezzanine roof and:

Spirit: See the existing beam at the other is already almost exactly the same height as the roof-supporting stud you've just done.
Me: The "roof" wants to be level. Oh Dear - What do I do? Let Go - Let God, and What do I do! Oh I see if I slope the roof the other way it will slope into the wind and the wind will not lift it up so much. Also the length of the roof in that direction is less so its slope will not take away so much head space below.

Me: Or if the roof is asking to be flat so that on calm days we can stand up there and see really amazing views from higher up. If so can I waterproof it?
Spirit: A search of the Internet showed me materials were available.
Me: How toxic and expensive might they be? Would the flat roof drip on all edges if I don't install a least a 1/40 slope and have spouting (guttering).

Me: I shake water off the temporary tarps protecting it and a rat runs from beneath and into the treetops.
Spirit: The rat is my divine messenger. Building close to trees I might want to consider how I can keep rats from climbing across trees and under eaves and into open windows. You have 12mm wire chicken netting protecting the foundations but these brown rats are comfortable 3 maybe 4m up, and possums climb trees too.

Me: OK enough is enough. I'm giving the roof a rest. How can I strengthen the tall walls so the whole thing doesn't blow over or simply shake so much in a wind that nobody is comfortable inside. I know I'll buy some ply as external cladding. It braces well. After one hour look around the store studying options and prices I don't know so I self-muscle testing (kinesiology) asking what is the best for all concerned.
Spirit: The Divine answerer (the Mahanta - my Inner Master) says for the good of all get H3 12mm eco-ply.

Me: OK. I ask the sales attendant for H3 12mm eco-ply and as we start to pull it off the shelf
Spirit: See it has stripes on it from when the preservative was dried off with slats between the sheets. Straight stained strips won't look natural!
Me: OK I see what you mean. I'll ask the sales attendant for untreated grade and treat it myself with money that will come from somewhere to buy the CD50 I'm just about out of.
DD grade looks good to me I'll have that.
Spirit: In the person of the Sales attendant: The CD grade would be much better for you.
Me: You mean it would last longer?
Spirit: In the person of the Sales attendant: Yes the finer grade will not crack so much and there will be few cracks and knots to absorb water and crack and decay further.
Me: To Spirit not Sales attendant. I didn't ask this guy, they don't normally offer such opinion, but I waited 15 minutes for an attendant and its not sales pitch so he's speaking for you. I'll pay more for the CD grade. Besides it will look gorgeous in a brown stain.
Sales attendant: Is that all?
Me: Yes for out here. I'm also going to get some small bits and pieces from the store inside.

Bits and pieces in hand Spirit nudges me to check the prices of those big heavy awkward sheets of ply I already have in my Van.
Me: Good idea. Then I can spend the change of about $30 on what I have in my hands.
Spirit: Look at the prices.
Me: Oh! I've added up the DD grade ply prices and what's in the Van leaves me with about $5 in my wallet. Thankyou for adding up the prices so carefully. OK the $2.45 drill bit is essential I'll get just that, and let go of buying a loaf of bread. Wait ... I have about 2.50 left - enough for biscuits instead of bread keep me going. Thanks Spirit for giving me everything I need. Other things I wanted were not absolutely essential.

Useful Questions

The questions I am now about to share are my constant companions in dynamic design. They help me see the design solutions while building in active interaction with the environment, the building, and myself.

What is my purpose?
What structures could fulfil that purpose?
What other structures could fulfil that purpose?
What design could shape that purpose?
What materials could mould that design?
How durable can the materials be, of which it might be made?
What is the environmental cost of the materials?
Will the materials be available again after the building is gone?
What impact will they have on the environment?
How will they change the environment?

Which will materials are best used?

Does this space invite my presence and purpose?
Is my purpose worthy of changing the busyness of this place?
How do I respect all life in claiming this space as my own?
Given that where I choose to life other animals can no longer live -
Is my purpose noble (for the greater good)?
Do I give way to a tree or does it give way to me?
If I accommodate another being, such as a tree, what else changes?
How does that change alter the structure?
How does different structure alter function?
Will rock, tree, earth, or pile be my foundation?
Where can I utilise that shape, that individual form in my design?
What design would incorporate that shape, that form?
What design reflects the shape of the space, which it will occupy?


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We are enjoying our Latitude (formerly "Woolbloc) brand pure wool insulation made locally in Nelson, New Zealand.

Before we lined Lorraine's Sacred Space cabin with it there was an odour that didn’t feel quite right. Lorraine felt it is was the CCA preservatives used in the H3 eco-ply cladding the outside walls and I thought it was also the wool itself which is treated with boron to discourage animals from nesting in it.

Latitude were easily able to supply 50mm thickness to fit into our thinner wall spaces. The sheep wool batts come in a standard width of 1200mm and by cutting them with ordinary scissors 5mm wider than the wall cavity we found they hold themselves in place in sizes up to 700mm wide x 1100mm high.

Once installed and lined with untreated ply covered in eco-friendly varnishes and paints the smell immediatley dissappeared. The wool has absorbed the formaldehyde, glues and heavy metals; and we feel safer.

Our 50mm thick walls saved a lot of wood, and this made the pre-fabricated walls lighter to carry to the building site, but the walls benefited from lining with 7mm 3-ply on the inside to further brace and strengthen the light-weight building. For use this balanced the waste off wood inherent in the manufacture of plywood.

Where the H3 eco-ply used in the outside walls is exposed to weather we water-proofed both the outside and inside surfaces of that ply with CD50 from Churton Pacific which is natural oils and copper-8-quinolinolate, which is a non-toxic preservative contain small traces of copper that you can eat off. Though we don't eat off the wood it feels very safe, and natural on my unprotected hands. We added a green "Verdigris" stain to the outer CD50 oil to harmonise the sacred space with its surroundings.

I am also testing the longevity of "untreated" macrocarpa timber with two coats of CD50 applied four or more weeks apart (as recommended by the manufacturer, when used in permanent ground contact, water-wet for weeks at a time, as in trail edges, within the forest.

I love to see the timbers absorb the oils in CD50 and look and feel more alive again. It may be the fungal moulds which cause decay but I feel a timber lives longer with oil in it too. The longest lived timbers, like matai and yellow and pink bog pines, have natural high levels of oils or waxes.

Many Dunedin gardens are currently being covered with pink bog pine chips at a cheap price because the bog pine roots being extracted from bogs in which they stay preserved for thousands of years, are first being distilled and their oils extracted for use in perfume. They will no longer last so long in contact with ground and moisture!

For Australian hardwood sleepers ex-railway use visit OnTrack, in Strathallen St, Dunedin for sleepers direct from the supplier for just $22.50 2.1m length, as at 18/4/2008.

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Love,

David

To help with eco-building at Harmony and to learn more about eco-friendly building materials visit Harmony Farms Volunteer Page.

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Tuesday 25th March
Glenorchy walked around township in evening.

Wednesday 26th
Rees River track through beech forest is lovely but seemed dry and sparse and its pretty well only beech saplings that form the understory. Lovely views of snow covered cap of Mt Earnslaw to the left as we walked.

Thurs 27th
My step was light and my joy of the bush great as we discovered the lovely luscious green undergrowth going up the Caples after the sparseness of the Dart River Track yesterday.

Staying the night on the foreshore at the Department of Conservation's (DOC) Kinloch Foreshore Recreation Reserve brought back old memories of how much the fish jumped most places that I visited with my Dad in the 70's. Its stillness, star lit sky, and its warm Lodge reminded us of the beauty and warmth of living well away from town.

Friday 28th
From Kinloch we drove south to road end and walked up to the Greenstone Track to Greenstone Hut, and came back via the Lake Rere loop track. Silver, red and mountain beech in profusion, but now it is much drier again and they form their own exclusive understory without the diversity of plants in the understory, so much loved. Prickly shield ferns are almost the only ground fern amongst the thin beech saplings and PiuPiu, crown ferns are conspicuous in ther absence after so many sharing equal space with the shield ferns at Harmony.

The highlight was the arrival and chatter of a flock of the rare Mohua's (Yellowheads) beside us while sheltering under the porch of Greenstone Hut.

With the possibility of heavy rain we turned back from crossing fords on the way to Paradise and instead stayed the night at the start of the Diamond River walkway. We didn't do the walk though as it looked very wet walking through long grass. Next morning we saw Diamond Lake though from the road on the way in and out of Paradise.

Saturday 29th
From Paradise our Van took the road that almost all the way to Chinaman's Bluff at the start of the Dart River track.

The Dart Valley was beautiful and moist with profusion of understorey plants spreading widely the lush green colours we love so much.

Chinaman's Bluff turned out to be a very long and tall overhanging cliff dripping over the trail close to the Dart river edge. The wider delta on the otherside of the river afforded much better real estate for the clearance of the bush and the grazing of stock. On this side the mature silver beech trees remained, and to our delight a vivid green blanket of moss covered the ground again, with greater variety of ground ferns, and in the gaps where trees had fallen, the natives we were familiar with. Horopito, marbleleaf, wineberry, some broadleafs, and even a very few Tree Fuchsias were back.

The tiny South Island Rifleman came close to look at us with their quick glances of their small black eyes and their ability to quickly turn sideways and pluck an insect or worm from the leaf litter. We hether it was their sharp hearing, keen vision, or their sensitive feet we did not know, but

The Mohua, brothers and sisters of which we had met so intimately at the Greenstone Hut chattered away in a tree like canaries but we could not see them. Other elusive birds made delightful calls we could not identify nor see.

A pair of the little Rifleman gathered about. One pecked at my shoelace and would have hopped onto my left shoulder if I hadn't flinched slightly when I heard its wings flutter close to my ear.

The larger South Island Bush Robin's also delighted us close up with their curiosity.

We stayed night at Arrowtown camping ground.

Sun 30th
From Arrowtown township we walked through beech forest up the irrigation pipeline to trail end at a dam where Arrowtown's water was taken from at one stage. Derelict pipeline must have been a great feat of engineering with the pipe laid along a cliff. I spent the afternoon writing.

Monday 31st
We walked a track around the hill near Arrowtown, a bit of bush and much pasture.

Tuesday 1st April
The next morning in Arrowtown it rained so visited shops and I found the book "The Room Planner" which has great architectural ideas for living in smaller spaces and on design your own spaces. Lorraine found wool at a very reasonable price and with such a lovely feel and colour. I looked for pole working tools in second hand shop at Omarama and saw my first irons and decided to buy neither the stove-top model at $45 or the one you put a wood or coal fire in to heat at $95.

Wednesday 2nd
Having moved onto DOCs large camping ground at Mt Cook the previous night today we walked up the tarn an absorbed views of Hooker Glacier, Mt Cook, Tasman Glacier, rivers, and lakes for an hour or so in fantastic sunshine with hardly a cloud to obscure the great Aorangi, Mt Cook, tallest in the land. A DOC brochure "Aoraki/Mount Cook - the ancestor of Ngai Tahu" and I share insights from that and Waitaha publications in NZ's Tallest Peak Falls. Time for Us to Stand Tall Together posted 3rd of April, 2008.

On the way to Geraldine we stopped at the Lake Pukaki Visitor Information Centre were I read about Meridian Energies eight Waitaki river hydro-dams at Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki, Ohau, Aviemore, Benmore and all the canals connecting them up. The beautiful clear weather allowed a panorama of views of the mountains we had just been to across the head of Pukaki. At the Visitor Centre the Maori myth of Aoraki, said he was the first born. Stayed at Geraldine Holiday Park.

Thurs 3rd
Walked Geraldine township's River Trail and saw a tiny spider climb 2m up its silk strand rolling it into a ball until it got to a join in its web whereby it shifted the ball, and started reeling in the second line while walking up the first. It would have a rest and have to pay out more silk in a breath of wind, after which it had even higher to climb with a heavier ball of silk than before. We wondered at its decisions on how much energy to put into getting to the top in one run without resting. But it rested at times and still made it. Lorraine theorised that it could tell how far from the attachment point it was on a strand from the tension/springiness in the thread.

In town we found a Budlea (Butterfly bush) with Monarch butterflies, Yellow Admirals, white and other butterflies. We marvelled at the way the Monarch with its large wings spread wide fluttered like a leaf in the sunny breeze.

At the museum I read about the Cabbage Tree being a source of sugar for the Maori who had no bees or honey, and a totara tree planted in the 1860's by the first settler, the Surveyor of Geraldine, who built a bark house, and planted the tree to mark the birth of his first child. Of six only one of his children lived. It seems it was the first as they left the tree standing to this day. The museum also said that the mill was the first industry in the 1860's and it cleared 5,000 acres or hectares and ran out of timber in the 1880s.

At Barkers Jam and Chutney shop we enjoyed real fruit milkshades and learned that blackcurrants, are in fashion as having more proanthocyanidins, than cranberries - meaning the would be just as effective in treating cystitis! I picked up the brochure of medicinal benefits.


Friday 4th, 5th and 6th
We stayed at Living Springs enjoying an Eckankar Campout with views of the Akaroa Harbour from up above Governor's Bay.

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The following is gathered from several sources (see Appendix: Oral Forms of the Internet).

Aoraki/Mount Cook - the ancestor of Ngai Tahu, a brochure published by the Department of Conservation (DOC) in 1999 says that "in the beginning all was darkness (Te Po). Out of the first glimmer of light (Te Ao), long-standing light (Te Aoturoa) emerged until it stood in all quarters. Encompassing everything was a womb of emptiness, and intangible void (Te Kore). This void was intense in its search for procreation. Finally it reached its ultimate boundaries and became a parent-less void (Te Korematua) but with the potential for life. And so Te Maku, moisture, emerged and coupled with Mahoranuiatea, a cloud that grew from the dawn. From this union came Raki, the heavens, who coupled with Poharua Te Po, the breath of life, found in the womb of darkness." Their first child was Aoraki.

Raki's second wife was Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother. After the forced separation of Raki and Papatuanuku created space between heaven and earth for human beings to dwell Papatuanuku lay as one single, large land mass, known as Hawaiiki. Aoraki and his three brothers set out in Aoraki's waka to explore the ocean about Papatuanuku (Hawaiiki), but however far they went they could find no land. The waters of Kiwa were everywhere.

When deciding to go home to the heavenly world of their father the karakia they sung to take them back failed and instead their waka (canoe) overturned. They climbed onto its west side and were turned to stone and earth. Aoraki became Mt Cook, and his brothers the next three highest mountains, Rakiroa becoming Mount Dampier, Rakirua Mt Teichelmann, and Rarakiro Mt Tasman. The waka is the land mass of the South Island and its anchor is Rakiura, Stewart Island.

The waka is still in existence. The stern pieces of the waka of the ancestral waka was physically laid in the north end of the South Island and the prow piece was laid at the south end. Carved into each of these were the details that connected the waka during its travels to the stars and to the countries to be visited, so that the star and land helmsmen could guide the wakas in their journeys. By placing them in the land, the land itself became spiritually connected in the same manner as the waka was to its crew, and their homeland, old and new.

After the four sons created the mountains and the land Tu Te Rakiwhanoa used his magical axe to hew the Waka (South Island) into shapes fit for humans to live in. He slayed the sitting giant whose body formed Lake Wakatipu with head at Glenorchy, knees at Queenstown, and feet at Kingston. The giant's heart sank to the bottom of the lake where it still beats creating the tide of Wakatipu.

From the stern of the waka, Maui, fished up the stingray, bringing the North Island into creation.

The anchor hold the prow of the island into the strong southerly winds that would turn her from her course, and capsize her.

In "Song of the Waitaha" Barry Brailsford says that Waitaha spanning several generations walked the trail of every high peak and sung more karakia to link the islands to the stars. This included a promise that the people's of this land would always honour the land, its forests, its waters, and its other inhabitants.

The aforementioned DOC brochure says that the "Ngai Tahu seek to encourage respect in their association with Aoraki by providing educational material to climbers and guides, explaining that standing on the very top of this mountain denigrates its tapu status".

A display at the DOC Visitor Centre at Mount Cook says that after the collapse of the very top of the peak in December 1999 Aoraki is 10m shorter and much more challenging to climb to the top.

This extra challenge increases the respect the pakehas give to the mountain, increasing its mana, in this time of great change, when the old ways are becoming known again, and all who live under the mountain (which is the whole country) learn how to love and accept each other. According to ancient prophecy the degree to which we follow the heart together, in this way, will soon determine whether the Waka (South Island) stays above the ocean, or if much of it again returns to the depths. Whatever the future we choose this is a key turning point for us.

These ways of life are taught in the Five Chronicles of the Stone: Song of the Circle, Song of the Whale, Song of the Eagle, Song of the Silence, and Song of the Sacred Wind by Barry Brailsford. The stone chronicled is the stone of peace, love, and of all are one. It is Pounamu that was gifted by the Waitaha to the peoples of the world in their extensive travels over the centuries, in preparation for this moment. "The Whispers of the Waitaha", written by Waitaha elders, speaks further of the life of compassion, in touch with inner wisdom, elders, and the greater environment.

The Mt Cook DOC Visitor Centre also has an anchor stone carried across the country to the Tasman Glacier December 1998 and I wonder if this was in preparation for events to come. As the Waitaha are said to have held the oral tradition since around the end of the age of Pisces that in the age of Aquarius, when the constellations were in certain positions, the top would fall off Aoraki, and the Waitaha were to once again walk openly upon the land sharing the knowledge supressed, but kept alive by the woman and children, after the disintegration of their society by later conquerors to this land. Perhaps this anchor was preparation for this opening of the heart, and trust again of the knowledge of the ways of Waitaha, that was to come.

The Mt Cook cafe we stopped at had Tibetan Prayer flags hung above the window view of Aoraki. We wondered at the link between Aoraki, the peaceful Tibetans who emigrated to this country and whose descendants the Dalai Lama is known to have visited when in New Zealand. When the Waitaha did move to New Zealand some 2,000 years ago (some 77 generations - as I remember it) it is said that they already knew where it was, how to ride the sea currents to get there, and found the fires of people already present on the land.

The specialists of rock and mountain exploration that lived as a race within the Waitaha family, were of the Mongoloid race, so well adapted to moving rock and to living in that environment. Two others were the Star People who supplied the navigators, and those who knew of the foods and herbs.


Appendix - Oral Forms of the Internet

Oral traditions known as myths are maps to the reality of creation as experienced by the ancestors and taught by the grandparents to the grandchildren.

The Waitaha were observational scientists who recorded information within their oral traditions in the same way we have with computers and the internet. Thousands of years of knowledge became so vast much of it was taught by the ancestors and grandparents during sleep and held in the subconscious minds of the specialists of each branch of the knowledge until elicited to the conscious by key words, events, or places. The information was cross-indexed in the same way the internet has popular search words. Key words known to different specialists would open doorways into areas of information of relevance to each others areas of research.

The information recorded included the complete known geography of this country, trail maps within New Zealand, star charts and sea charts for travel overseas, geology, water science, food, cooking, herbal and medical, and geneology.

Specialists were capable of continuous speech of the information for weeks at a time in the order without repetition, but this was not usually necessary or practical so key words and events were imbedded in the unconscious mind to bring relevant sections of the information to the conscious when needed.

After the killing of the peaceful Waitaha the most important kernals of their knowledge were kept alive in secret by the woman and children kept alive as concubines, wifes, and slaves. This scattered the knowledge among the Maori tribes where parts of it became part of the culture of the conquerors, as later it became part of the pakeha culture today.

The pieces of the old knowledge are spread in many places, not every Waitaha is ready to trust the release of this information after so many centuries, and there is not common agreement on what that knowledge is, but it is being gathered and published. Anyone who gathers up such knowledge and shares it again can be accused of violating ancient traditions, of plaigarism, unreferenced, and of being uninformed. The old information has also been added to by ongoing research into our relationship to our creators, herbal medicine, and other topics. My story above is such a one.


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David

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All Beings at Harmony asked for respect born of communication, of meeting at the crossroads and getting to know each other. For their part they often stopped what they were doing, and went out of the way to communicate. For our part they often ask us to lead the way for other humans, and naturally they ask us to pause in what we were doing to get to know them.

Birds have played key roles as their song heralds the morning, the evening, and their visits during the day. Kereru have become great company when I am there alone. They swoosh of their wings as they fly low by buildings and the noises of leaves and branches rustling as they feed in nearby trees. Bellbird have often sung to us, looked at us, and honoured the sacred space about our buildings by circling that space before we build. Tomtits have come by for chats occasionally, Tuis have reminded us that it is important to keep focus and to get on with our responsibilities, Fantails have gifted me their company when I have wondered how I can do things without help, have heralded the ending of special projects, the opening of new pathways, and coming in groups of four, that I call the bachelor's club, taught me more of the importance of keeping the company of your own age group. Paradise ducks have called in to teach me that Harmony is a sacred, contemplative space in which it is a blessing to be present in solitude.

Ruru has called in the night to remind us we are not alone, that we are always in the hands of friends who know the light and are experienced in the ways within the dark

One brown frog and the occasional croaks of other frogs have inspired us to think that Harmony is a relatively clean environment. Native cockabullies have shown me that if water is clean enough to live in, it is clean enough to drink, which is to have it live within you, and give you its life.

Mice have taught me my purpose is worth dying for, that death is an ordinary consequence of life that can occur as a result of procuring one's food. Possums have taught me that fear faced is not fear, do not be afraid, look all fear in the eye and do not fear it. Death is nothing to be afraid of. Their death rattling cries of this is my territory have often been met by my "This is My Space" as mice and possum have taught me to respect and claim my own home as the space I am entitled to live in.

Old long, fat, bush worms have in their hundreds taught me the value of life that can so quickly end. That there is nowhere so deep that is away from live and death.

Small native cockroaches, which I can relate to without the need to make them seem big and scary (like other species I've seen).

Wild goats have reminded me that has a goat I am stubborn, that I too am prepared to butt heads on important matters, while being prudent enough to run away.

Wild pigs that both they and I make trails for all creatures, and trail making is something I do not do alone. That when I think something is not, something else will think that it is, and that something often is a pig.

Spiders that I can feel in three dimensions, thought is creative - hold the big picture and make it, that no structure is so fine it cannot be broken, that no matter is so sticky that it cannot be fixed, that a single thread is all I need to connect to my source, that if I stay stuck in one place I will sometimes starve, and if I let a spider live out is full and natural life it will leave that life with a nest of many more of its kind.

Rabbits that I must walk within the group mind of every creature, to understand that animal, to communicate it, and earn its respect.

Trees have spoken of the common cause, that life is part of a cycle, and that each stage of that cycle can be long or short. The light is worth seeking, and patience means gratitude for all that I have. I never know the age of a tree in the forest and those that look young may be old and ever so patient. How do I know when the last crash of old tree inspired the growth of new trees into the light, which one's made it, which ones lapsed again into the patience of suspended adolescence. How mature does a tree become growing imperceptibly through the decades, studying how to live for hundreds of years before becoming a young adult, older than any animal, younger than trees possibly thousands of years mature.

I have watched trees seemingly mature and happy with the status quo, to be surprised by growth spurts, changes in shape, I am amazed at how plants see other plants and depending on their personality perhaps, respect that space, or dominate it. How some trees will drop their leaves to smother their neighbours while another tree grows so close its trunk merges with its own. How some trees can be pruned, cut, bent or broken and will grow again anew, and how others are happy to end life when disturbed rather than carry on. How some will stand the winds of change and grow stronger while others will accept support and hold on to it so long they become the weaker for it.

I appreciate all the plants that gift their lives that others may walk in their company, that accept the touch of animals upon the trails, that hid from sight that they may be special and wild.

I appreciate the forest that keeps me warm in the cold, cools me on hot summers day, keeps me dry when it starts to rain, provides the wood for my fire, wood for my shelter, and green symmetry for my delight.

I love the creek as it hums the rhythm of life itself, speaking the source of all things, and reminding me the way home is to follow the sound of God to the source of life itself.

Yet still the wind disturbs me, roughs me up, teaches me that I dwell within the harmony of life itself by keeping my calm centre within. Serenity is carried to me in the buffeting of winds that destroy what I am attached to, that I may let go and let God.

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The Arrow River, after which Arrowtwon, New Zealand, is named, is rich in Gold, and in the 1860s a Chinese community sprung up with buildings made from the schist rock and native timbers abundant in the area. Many of the schist buildings have been preserved in an historic Chinese village near the centre of town, that visitors walk through in self-guided tours with information displays by each building. Many of the white goldminer's buildings are also preserved in the township.

As I entered the Chinese Village the first information stand showed a floor plan of the old Chinese Store, ad it appeared large enough at a distance. Looking at the numbers of the room, and what took place in them, I imagined a building from the context of European life the late 1900s, when I was young.

I didn't know my mind was imagining far greater expanses than I was about to see, and it still seemed large enough as I got closer. Then I walked in and found it small. How did a general store, bank, kitchen, bedroom, and hotel all fit into this one space during the gold rush. Cetainly Chinese goldminers were usually shorter than me, but was the building really that small?

Placing my hand above my head I measured the ceiling at 15cm above my head, that is at about 1.9m and when my hands spanned the doorways I found them to be about 55cm wide. Wide enough for me to see as I got close that I would get through easily enough and narrow enough to brush both shoulders as I walked through.

The store owners bedroom at about 7 feet (2.1m) square was barely big enough to lie in.

Really this was just like a building I was constructing back home. Mine was a wash-house, store-room, bedroom, wardrobes, clothes drying, food and flax preparation room in 2.65m square with a 1.5m verandah housing a shower, and handbasin.

Like the Chinese Store mine was to also have a mezzanine floor. At 2m above the floor, mine will have an extra 10cm of head height, and just as little space above the eaves for a sleeping person to tuck the feet into. Every function compact. Like the store I am having just one external door to minimise loss of floor space. Mine being on the north side has the advantage of in-built window glass that they did not have back in the 1860s and 70s. It will open outwards to the west to block any cooler westerly winds blowing by.

The Chinese Store was built on schist flagstones with stone walls. I had probably taken equal care laying the rocks, I had found onsite, to create foundations over roots near to trees on the building's edge. I wonder what trees has surrounded the buildings and gardens that the miner's had built.

Like the Chinese about to lift every stone, I an conscious of the energy it takes to build everything by hand. I had considered my height standing (1.75m) and sitting (90cm), and the clearances necessary above and forward of my head to feel like there was some space to move. I also wanted to fully utilise any space that was using a lot of my stores of energy and money to build.

That night we stayed in Glenorchy's Caravan Park and I found a old shower and toilet block, where the ceilings were certainly high but each shower and toilet was only three and a half handspans (70cm) wide; again very minimalist, but sufficient.

All quite a contrast to the current trend in housing to make as big a house as you can. Big rather than efficient, and sustainable.

Click here for the opportunity to volunteer and study forest gardening, earth building, eco-building, and sustainable living at Harmony.

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David


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This world has two intriguing qualities which mean so much to us. So many of our ideas are black and white.

Black in which every colour has been absorbed.
White in which all colours of the rainbow are reflected back to us.

Black is the dark in which light in all its colours has been taken from us and held by dark forces, unseen because they reflect no light, and seen only by their outlines when their is light. It is here we feel cold, separated from the warmth of the sun, surrounded by objects absorbing all they can of the available heat.

We imagine our eyes deceive us, for in the dark we cannot make out the edges of objects, cannot tell how far away objects are, and cannot see if something is moving slow or fast. The dark leaves a lot to the imagination, and we imagine our fears are present before us. Once we have faced our fears we feel at home in the dark and find we feel, hear, and know - more so than in the light.

White is light because each and every colour our eye sees is gifted back to us. Now the things we know define themselves again and we know what is around us. Now our mind steps in and interpretes what our eye sees, and tells us what we are seeing. Light is dominated by the mind. It is the world of information, in which, again, the senses are bombarded. Now our fears come to us in visible form, but they are seen and are unseen fears lie hidden in the dark, awaiting those darker moments when we journey within our imaginations again.

White light in the true heart of the spiritual gives freely and we receive it gratefully. When we receive we trust that we are supported. We allow the light to nourish us; we feel warm in its cloak of many colours. we enjoy the colour in plants.

Green in the middle of the spectrum is the colour of the green heart of this our planet.

In our lust and greed we love to receive, and thus do not always feel comfortable giving everything, every colour, we have. The light gives its all and gives it freely. Looking only to the light we feel we must have light. True, to live, we must have light, but we need not hold it so tightly that we never have enough, and always want more.

For if we do not give out the very light we receive those around us are denied, and without light they will hold it tightly. They will be dark as we are light. Dark they will take the light.
Our lives then darken from our our own lust and greed. We will see them as dark, and rarely note the dark, cold image, of our own unsharing selves.

We enter the dark days of hell (dark night of Soul), receiving nothing back, we cannot see ourselves in the light of other objects, our identity is lost to us.

In truth our inner radiance shines brightly from its own true source, and if we allow this energy to radiate out, to be absorbed, and to be reflected, as it will, without concern for our identity or its return, we find ourselves as Soul, stripped of greed and lust, clearly connected to the Loving Source of All Being.

It is in this space that we can trust the void of the dark. It is here that we can let go of our mind and operate as Soul. It is here that we find ourselves as spiritual ecologists, unafraid of the dark, and accepting of ourselves as who we are.

We have crossed the void, with the help of the spiritual master, faced ourselves, received the divine gift of self-realisation, the knowing of ourselves as dark and light.

This freedom of Soul is however taken from us, as being the dangerous, untamed wilderness in which we come to harm. To know our wild side is to recognise our divinity. Our own divine power to work with the spiritual helping other beings. Here we are no longer manipulated by the seduction of advertising to take what we can from others. Instead we give freely of the love, which is light, following the dictates of heart, in which the world is sustainable, our neighbour being fed feeds us, and we face the challenges of living, the fears of life together.

In gifting the light we find ourselves surrounding by the bright light flame of love and we do indeed become free. Now in the space of the dark, in which we find the light stronger than ever, we see the unknown as an adventure, we follow the beat of our own drum, and give freely to others. Others freed from the struggle of never being able to grab enough to look after their own ever increasing needs, and again follow instead the dictates of their own heart.

This is not to be encouraged of course, because this sort of (self-responsible) behaviour feeds the rich the riches of the heart, and on the grab all you can, rich diet of gluttony and greed - the inflationary economy - love is worth no thing.

Thus the rules of beings in power would say "Don't enter the dark" Stay here with us in the light, money make heaven on earth, and all ... eventually ... goes dark.

Light remains in the dark wilderness of the discovery of self as Soul.

My greatest teacher of ecology has been my guide across the void, the Mahanta, the living ECK Master. Eckankar.org. Ecology is truly my spiritual adventure.

For more special experiences and insights on living with respect for All Beings subscribe here for Harmony's free quarterly e-zine sharing enchanting personal experiences not published elsewhere.

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Love,

David

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Increasing numbers of the human citizen's of this planet appear to believe food comes from the supermarket, water from the council or utility company, and that electricity is a divine right that results from them paying last months' bill.

They are happy as long as they have sunny weather and their supermarket is open 24 hours a day with the products they want on its shelves.

To such people money is the only resource of consequence. The environment is sustainable as long as they have some and hire purchase and credit cards are fully sustainable as long as they can re-finance.

Positive economic growth, inflation, an economy built on ever more population growth, tourist numbers, and sales dollars is desired. There is a feeling of being worth more now the house is worth a million dollars, the car is worth tens of thousands, and the fact that everyone else is worth just the same can be ignored. Their food bill has moved from tens of dollars to hundreds, and everything is being replaced quicker and quicker because it is out of date, and everyone (except the readers of this article) thinks runner faster and faster on the treadmill to keep up with life is worth it.

Stopping to think where each thing in our lives comes from is a great reality check. It is amazing to discover how little the farmer and Asian production worker are paid for their work, how little we pay for our fuel when so much of it is used to transport each item, and how big the pile of rubbish grows, while finite resources dwindle despite developed countries convincing more and more people around the world to take what we don't want and give us what they themselves need, for less than what it's worth.

The result is a much simpler, and environmentally responsible life. A sustainable life in which we have children to pass this world on to, rather than as additional consumers to keep the economy "growing".

For more special experiences and insights on living with respect for All Beings Subscribe here for Harmony's free quarterly e-zine sharing enchanting personal experiences not published elsewhere.

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Love,

David

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We are looking for someone to be our next-door neighbour living in the most beautiful native forest close to a major city in New Zealand (just 13km for Dunedin). If you are that person Harmony would like you to help look after her, to build a dwelling for your family, and to be a part of building a clinic and meeting space.

When we discovered Harmony Farm in 2001 it had already had a high energy level, which has continually increased! It appears the 15ha of land (being subdivided by the neighbour on our south side) has this same harmonic energy signature. In fact it feels so much like Harmony I believe it already considers itself part of the family.

Its availability is a indication that Harmony forest, as it has said for several years, wants to grow as entity, and is finding its own way across and around Waitati Valley, re-connecting from Woodhaugh Gardens to Swampy Ridge to Mt Cargill Ridge, Volco Forest, and the Eco-Sanctuary at Orokonui.

It appears this new 15ha will have a North-South dimension 205-235m with its north boundary being about 640m long to Waitati Valley Rd, or 730m long if it includes a small parcel on the other side of the road.
The south fence of the paddock at present is approx. 262m from N boundary with Harmony Farm.

The new 15ha would bring a more sustainable unit of forest under single management, in the following ways:

1. Including forest that is often indistinguishable from Harmony Farm forest. It has many steep slopes and it appears there are no human tracks in this forest. It, and connected parts of existing Harmony, would easily remain a bio-diverse wild-zone just for plants and animals.
2. The above combined wild-zone, could be covenanted to reduce rate payments, so that rates payments are small.
3. The fencing between the two titles is already down in places and could be reduced or, as has been done for all Harmony's internal fences, removed.
4. The only practical track would appear to be from the grassed area alongside Waitati Valley Road through to Arrival" – alongside Gateway Creek and just inside Harmony's front entrance.
5. Including much of Gateway Creek's catchment Harmony hydroelectricity generation would become possible close to Connection Clearing without a feedpipe being visible right at the entrance to Harmony. Of Harmony's three permanent creeks Gateway Creek provides the most reliable safe, clean water source in drought conditions.
6. The above catchment includes a swamp marsh and Harmony at present only has very small such areas. Frogs were heard in the swamp one year, and we want them back!
7. Bringing in the rest of the north-east facing slope that feeds Wisdom Creek would help maintain its quality, and bring the whole Wisdom Creek Valley into the Forest as far (west) as the DCC Water Catchment Reserve and Department of Conservation land.
8. It would boundary the Pipeline track as far south as about Rustler's Ridge Trail (part of the Burns-Rustler's circuit), providing further eco-tourist opportunities.
9. Easy access to Waitati Valley Road and a larger cleared area provide a site, with views of BlueSkin Bay, and Mt Cargill, on separate title on which a large, permitted meeting room and visitor space could be built. Lorraine sees these still being relatively small buildings on tops of the many hillocks, interconnected by the orchard trees lacing through the swales and hollows.
10. If a pre-sale geo-physiology report determines it is a safe building site, title exists for someone to build himself or herself a home on a prime site. This person(s) may then have considerable interest in making a substantial financial contribution to the forest.
11. Harmony with its very small cabins and service buildings will remain a forest gardening and eco-building volunteer training centre.
12. The orchard mentioned in 9. above would be of a more sustainable size, and in close proximity to feed the team (all human and animal volunteers). Lorraine and I believe this is why Harmony's top paddock has had its early fruit trees eaten by animals, despite our repeated negotiations. It appears they have been teaching us to be open to the above possibility!
13. About 90% forested land, which is not suitable for conversion to grass, as it is steep with wet gullies, and mostly south facing. This reduces its purchase value.
14. The grassed area has a profusion of much loved lichen covered rocks. Some of these have important roles right were they are. Others are keen to waltz (roll) into new positions further enhancing the visual appeal and energy of Harmony.
15. Near its western edge aerial photographs indicate that the new 15ha includes more remnant podocarps in addition to the existing 15 or so, at Harmony.

I have an option on purchase of the property, and expect it to sell for between $160 and $220,000 depending on the final nature of the subdivision, whether building is permitted on site, and market price at the time.

Contact me for more information, and help Harmony Forest become an asset to future generations! Or click here for the opportunity to visit, volunteer and study forest gardening, earth building, and peramculture at Harmony.

Thanks for telling you like this article by clicking:

Love,

David

For more special experiences and insights on living with respect for All Beings Subscribe here for Harmony's free quarterly e-zine sharing enchanting personal experiences not published elsewhere.

Help: Please forward, distribute, and publish every article in this blog anywhere you wish, as long as the ENTIRE article, footnotes, and any banners, are left as is, and all links remain active. Exception: Photos may be left out, though we prefer they stay.