Grab a copy of the newspaper each month in Ulster & Dutchess, or subscribe for home delivery.

County Events

Ulster County Events in August 2013

Annandale-on-Hudson Exhibit: "No Borders in a Wok That Can't Be Crossed." Works by Helen Marten and "Once Again the World is Flat," b...

05 Aug 2013 | 0 comments | Read more

Dutchess County Events in August 2013

Exhibit: "No Borders in a Wok That Can't Be Crossed." Works by Helen Marten and "Once Again the World is Flat," by Haim Steinbach. ...

05 Aug 2013 | 0 comments | Read more
Feature Articles

Shadowland Theatre in Ellenville

Major facelift completed in time for new season of shows by Tod Westlake If you haven’t been to Shadowland Theatre in Ellenville for...

11 Jul 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

The Heritage Wheat Revival

Stone ground ancient grains are packed with nutrients by Anne Pyburn Craig Wheat has been grown and domesticated ever since our specie...

02 Jul 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

Walkway Over the Hudson

New records being broken as new developments arise.    When Camoin Associates studied the potential economic impact of the Walk...

02 Apr 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

Radio Uprising by CMP

Local radio continues to inspire and push new boundaries. by Anne Pyburn Craig Mia Chin was a student throughout the progra...

01 Mar 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

Publisher's Editorial

  • 02 Aug 2013 Three Year Anniversary
  • 02 Aug 2013 Red Baron of Rhinebeck
The Yardavore

In the Weeds

by Maria Reidelbach Maybe you've never thought about this, but what is the definition of a weed? A weed is, simply, any type of plan...

11 Jul 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

Trees for Bees

by Maria Reidelbach Last month in my column about bees, Chris Harp, local apiarist, explained that the blossoms of fruit Mulberries...

13 May 2013 | 1 comments| Read more

Deerly Departed

by Maria Reidelbach Last month we talked about the havoc that deer wreak in your garden. We covered how deer are gourmets and like ...

08 Mar 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

Skål!

by Maria Reidelbach If you think we upstaters have it rough in the winter, check out Sweden. It's got the same latitude as Nova Scotia,...

05 Dec 2012 | 0 comments| Read more
Transition Field Notes

Relating with Permaculture: Principle #11

Use Edges and Value the Marginal by Deena Wade Founder of the Transition movement, Rob Hopkins, taught permaculture—design principl...

02 Aug 2013 | 0 comments| Read more

People In Your Neighborhood

Food & Restaurant

Fruit of the valley provides essential goodness.

by Phoenix Trent The Hudson Valley is a bounty of fresh produce throughout the calendar year, but the diverse offerings that the summer...

30 Jul 2013 | Read more
Arts & Music

From the Fisher Center to Lincoln Center:

The Bard Conservatory Orchestra and its well-rounded education. by Philip Ehrensaft Of all the Bard College success stories,...

28 May 2013 | Read more
Horoscopes

Inner Space for August 2013

by Eric Francis The Leo New Moon is Tuesday, August 6 at 5:50pm. This event is synchronous with the midsummer festival Lunesa, also kn...

02 Aug 2013 | Read more
Local Economy

Farming Risks and Rewards

Increase in local farmers and markets a sign of the times.   by Anne Pyburn Craig Besides being backbreaking, farming is a ...

16 Oct 2012 | Read more
Bread & Roses

It’s All Here

by Sherill Hatch “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.” This century-old labor slogan bears repeating today. Beau...

02 Aug 2013 | Read more
New Economics

Buddhist Economics 2.0

By David McCarthy E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, first published in 1973 and still in print, is arguably the cornerstone of w...

02 Aug 2013 | Read more
Re>think Local

TEDxLongDock:

This is What Community Looks Like by Scott Tillitt The Dalai Lama visited NYC in 2003 for a week of events culminating in a public t...

02 Aug 2013 | Read more
Culture Features

New York Theater's Industrial Incubator

Vassar's Powerhouse Festival kicks off its 29th edition by Philip Ehrensaft Chloe Sevigny in Abigail/1702. © Vassar & ...

10 Jun 2013 | Read more

Daily Video

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. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0

0 comments for Relating with Permaculture:

Leave comment

Biz Reviews

©2009-2013 Country Wisdom News. Theme styling created by Ortner Graphics based on the Simplex News template by Solaranlagen.