Relating with Permaculture:
Principle #12 – Creatively Use and Respond to Change
Founder
of the Transition movement, Rob Hopkins, taught permaculture—design
principles in agriculture that mimic sustainable patterns found in
natural systems—when he and his students decided to apply these
same principles to social culture. Out of this experiment, Transition
Towns went viral across the world as a model for building thriving
local communities. Permaculture is guided by 12 principles and
several slogans, or maxims. This is the twelfth in a series of
articles exploring the principles of permaculture within the
landscape of relationship, both personal and community.
This
month’s permaculture principle #12, Creatively Use and Respond to
Change, couldn’t be more timely. You see, this is the last in my
12-part series exploring social permaculture. This may also be the
last article I’ll write for Country
Wisdom News,
and this just may be my last summer as a resident of Ulster County.
You could say I’m standing on the cusp of a lot of change but let’s
face it, this whole human experience is nothing but change, one big
experiment in impermanence. We just pay attention to some changes
more than others but if we tell the truth, life is an unfolding,
unfurling, endless flow that is always simultaneously weaving
together and unraveling everything.
We
all have different conditioned responses to change. Some people try
to deny it, others make a drama out of it, and still others use it as
an excuse. And maybe we all do a little of everything depending on
the occasion. But almost everyone likes to think they have some
control over change—that we are in charge of the waves of the
ocean. We busy ourselves with plans and then feel betrayed or guilty
for not trying hard enough when it doesn’t turn out like we thought
it should. We try to get out ahead of change, as if that were really
possible. We even try to take ownership of change, especially the
changes we like, the ones that bolster our sense of identity.
In
David Holmgren’s book Permaculture:
Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability,
he writes, “Be flexible, adaptable; allow the process to emerge
rather than rigidly adhering to a plan.” By relaxing and simply
recognizing that change happens, we can experience the fluidity of
which we are made. A lot of our suffering comes from the belief that
we are one thing separate from this other thing called Life and we
have to manage it somehow. However, we are not separate from the
ocean of life; we are the very water itself. When we fully realize
this, then there is no need to try to be flexible or adaptable
because those qualities come naturally. And in this relaxation, life
gets so much simpler, even in the face of change.
And
when did rigidly adhering to a plan really work anyway? Life goes the
way it goes. Sometimes it appears to follow our plan, and most times
it doesn’t. More often than not, we are mentally adjusting our idea
of a plan to adhere to life. Yet when we recognize that our true
nature is the flow of life in all its unexpected detours and
divergences, our ability to respond to change is naturally enhanced.
The creativity that we are becomes more accessible and detours become
doorways leading us to something unexpected and full of wonder. On
the other hand, try to insist that life should follow our ideas, and
we suffer. It’s pretty simple.
I’m
not saying that change always feels good. Sometimes it brings
exhilaration and sometimes it brings grief; sometimes it brings love
and sometimes pain. Sometimes change seems to take everything from
us, emptying our hands and our pockets of what we thought we could
save. Sometimes change leads us into dark alleys and sometimes to
high peaks, but it never leaves us there because that is the nature
of change, to keep flowing and moving and unfolding. And even in
confusion and grief, there is an ongoing invitation to open to the
fluid poignant beauty of being.
It’s
been a privilege to write this column for Country
Wisdom News
and to be part of such a visionary community paper. Thank you, Chris
Hewitt. This little drop of water called Deena in this vast
uncontainable ocean called Life is grateful to you and to all of the
readers. Peace be to all.
Deena
Wade is a local massage therapist, freelance writer, Living Inquiries
Facilitator, and dog mom. Her websites are sensiblebliss.com,
theradicalinvestigation.org, and her blog is easeofbeing.org. She is
moving to the beautiful barrier island of Beaufort, South Carolina
sometime after the summer—that is, unless life changes course
again.
Posted by lil' Liza
on 10:31 AM.
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Transition Field Notes
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