Forest Gardening meets Deep and Personal Ecology

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.

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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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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Love,

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.