Fasting for Funds

"Meaning is a side effect of the transcendence that we experience through selfless acts of creative engagement and contribution." - David C. Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

Today is our first day back on solid food after a 7-day liquid fast. Ginger tea for breakfasts, fruit juices/smoothies for lunch and liquid veggie soups for supper. And water, of course. (Oh and a few liquid cacao ceremonies were sprinkled in too.) I will also start by saying that I can't remember a time in my life when I felt any healthier, happier and more vibrant!

We were inspired to participate in this local fundraiser by fasting and collecting donations from friends and family. The funds raised will all go toward an organization in San Marcos la Laguna called Konojel. Konojel means "all together" in the local Mayan language. The name really says it all. 

We went to Konojel this afternoon for a great tour of the facility, which is housed in a former school building. Climbing up the steep cobbled street, you would see this beautiful rainbow mural adorning the front of the center.   

We arrived at lunch time to see dozens of Mayan children (and some adults) enjoying fresh vegetarian meals, most of them with big smiles on their faces. 

A team of local Mayan women, some of them mothers of the children enjoying lunches, were working away in the bright kitchen preparing about 60 meals of rice, potatoes, eggs and salad. Some children take meals home with them to share with their hungry siblings. About 400 meals are prepared each week to feed the 60 people in this community who are determined to be in the greatest need of nutritional support. Ages of the participants range from infant to elderly. This community has one of the higher  levels of malnutrition around Lake Atitlán, and Guatemala as a country ranks in the top five in the world. Many of the people here are much smaller than average Mayans and the children appear to be much younger than they are because of this. The adults are often in the opposite situation, some smaller but appearing much older than they are from poor nutrition and chronic dehydration. In this community, most families spend the bulk of their income purchasing firewood (or collecting it by hand from the mountain forests) to make tortillas and on the corn to make tortillas with. They don't have the means to grow fresh fruits and vegetables themselves and can't afford the prices at the local mercados. Sadly, they also rely on cheap, packaged snack foods that are stomach fillers, but void of any real useful ingredients. This has also led to the modern issue of lots of litter. Foil chip bags and plastic pop bottles line the rain gutters. 

We were taken out back of the main building to one of their five community garden plots that have been cooperatively built by local volunteers and permaculture students. A medicinal herb spiral grows lush and green next to two rocket stoves and a traditional plancha stove, which is much less fuel efficient and much higher in smoke pollution. The implementation of the rocket stoves has cut the consumption of firewood dramatically. Deforestation and smoke pollution, as well as respiratory troubles are common environmental and health concerns in this region. The other wonderful contraptions on the property are a solar oven and a solar dehydrator. Both solar designs are used to support Sabor del Sol, or Taste of the Sun, which is a retail food branch of Konojel. The ladies create sun-kissed snack foods such as seasoned squash seeds, banana chips, sun-dried tomatoes and beef jerky. They also bake vegan cookies in their solar oven. Yum. 

We learned that many of the local people don't have access to fresh, clean drinking water. So instead they put a pot of water on the already hot wood stove and boil it, add instant coffee and some panela, raw cane sugar. Every member of the family has this as their "hydration" for the day. It was confirmed when I went to sit with some of the children who were coloring at a table. They were telling me the names of each color of crayon. Instead of the typical word for brown, moreno, they call anything from beige to dark brown "cafe". Everything close to brown in color is coffee. 

The children snapped quite a few photos of the staff and of other children with my old trusty iPhone. The group has a handful of tablets that the kids use to learn about new and exciting things. Today they learned about animals, volcanoes and inequality. Seems quite appropriate. After lunchtime each day, the children "pay back" to the community by staying to learn. They have made agreements with Konojel that they will promise to stay and broaden their education through art, songs, games and participating in the production of veggies and medicinal herbs in the community gardens. I was asked not to use photos of the children, so I have tried to capture their essence in a few of these images. 

The staff is so dedicated to the people and projects that are developing each year. It's so inspiring. The Mayan staff are paid for their skills and many receive basic work skills training for a month and then are placed in stable, long-term jobs in the community. The foreign staff are mostly volunteers, with just a couple of staff getting small stipends for their time and knowledge. 

At the wrap-up party for the week-long fast, the organizers (and myself) were brought to tears by the hard work and generosity of the fasters, volunteers and donors who have helped to fund another year of healthy meals for these people who are greatly in need. Their ultimate goal is to empower local people to grow their own backyard garden plots and to help people to take their health back into to their own hands. 

Most of us can't imagine what it might be like to live a life of malnourishment. Chronic digestive trouble, hair loss, stunted growth and premature aging to name a few side effects. These people do not currently have the means to help themselves. In time, with the support of a global community, we can make little changes into huge ones

If you feel that you can open your heart to helping out, just click on the link below to donate whatever you can spare. All together we will make the world a brighter and healthier place to be.

http://www.razoo.com/story/Kristin-Allan-Fundraising-For-Konojel-1-Week-For-1-Year-Fasting-For-Funds-2?referral_code=share

www.konojel.org

Note: donation collections will remain open through May 22, 2015. Thank you!

It Starts with ONE

A revolution begins when one person stands up for what they believe is right and true, then others join in to stand up together for change.  There has been a major revolution happening over the last few decades and it's growing exponentially.  It's called....permaculture. 

"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single production system." - Bill Mollison

The green thumbs are joining forces to save the world, one garden at a time. I took my permaculture design course (PDC) in 2009, on Orcas Island, Washington, when some good friends were more or less reborn after learning the permaculture ways. I wanted to know what all the excitement was about. For a whole month, I was immersed in permaculture living, breathing, speaking and eating. My way of existing in everyday life was changed forever. In a very good way.

I recently completed the book The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. It was written in the 1970's in Japan. This man was way ahead (some might arguably say behind) of the times. I believe that Mr. Fukuoka was the father of the permaculture movement, before it was even called permaculture.  His philosophy was simple: Do less to nature and it will take care of itself. He believed that once humans disturb nature to try to control its functions, it starts a cycle of destruction that is very difficult to repair. 

My favorite parts of this book were the philosophies that he had on life in general, not just the parts about growing food. I closed the book feeling refreshed and inspired and more aware. I want to share a few of my favorite excerpts instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.

"The path that leads to right awareness involves living each day straightforwardly and growing and eating wholesome, natural food."

"Produce grown in an unnatural way satisfies people's fleeting desires but weakens the human body and alters the body chemistry so that it is dependant upon such foods. When this happens, vitamin supplements and medicines become necessary. This situation only creates hardships for the farmer and suffering for the consumer."

"Human life is not sustained by its own power. Nature gives birth to human beings and keeps them alive. This is the relation in which people stand to nature. Food is a gift from Heaven. People do not create foods from nature; Heaven bestows them."

"When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."

"If economic growth rises from 5% to 10%, is happiness going to double? What's wrong with a growth rate of 0%? Isn't this a rather stable kind of economics? Could there be anything better than living simply and taking it easy?"

"Originally human beings had no purpose. Now, dreaming up some purpose or other, they struggle away trying to find the meaning of life. It is a one-man wrestling match....From the time they enter nursery school, people's sorrows begin. The human being was a happy creature, but he created a hard world and now struggles trying to break out of it."

"Other animals fight but do not make war. If you say that making war, which depends upon ideas of strong and weak, is humanity's special "privilege," then life is a farce. Not knowing this farce to be a farce- there lies the human tragedy."

"Let us say that the key to peace lies close to the earth." - Masanobu Fukuoka 1913-2008

Nature: The Original Internet

This morning I was feeling a little out of sorts. Low energy and very little motivation to do anything before I had to be at work. I had noticed that some excess moisture had built up on the windows of our cabin over the winter months, due to drying laundry inside and also from all of the moist seedling trays we have in there at night. So I made a tub of natural cleaning solution and scrubbed away for over an hour. While I scrubbed the mold, I felt an intense sadness, but I didn't know why. Then I climbed onto a chair to clean the top of one window and was startled by a snake skin that a former tenant must have placed up there. Interesting find. Shedding old skin?

When I finished the cleaning, I opened up all of the windows to the sunny spring air and lit some Nag Champa incense to clear the house. Ahhhhh. Much better. 

I decided to go sit in the morning sunshine on a log in the garden.  As I sat and felt the warm sun on my face and the gentle breeze in my hair and on my neck, I closed my eyes and I soaked in all of the sounds around me. I heard a woodpecker loudly knocking in the distance. I heard a pair of frogs down in the creek calling to each other. I heard the bees buzzing in the patch of heather flowers on my right. I could hear the neighbors flock of geese and some wild geese playing in the pond just over a small hillside. I heard a hummingbird squeak. I opened my eyes and saw him in a fruit tree nearby. He zoomed away. Then i noticed a pretty orange butterfly amongst the bees and purple and white heather. 

I heard another tiny clicking sound and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked to my left and it was a very cute, round, brown mouse. He was trotting happily along the bright green garden hose that was stretched along through the garden.  I sat very still watching him. He stopped periodically to nibble things. Then to my surprise, he made a bee line ...straight toward me. He came right to me, as if he had heard me calling his name. He came closer and closer and then jumped right up onto the toe of my boot. He seemed to say hello. Then he hopped down between my boots, and sat for a minute chewing on some clover. Next to him in the grass sat a small bumble bee warming himself in the heat of the sun enough to be able to take off on a mission. The mouse looked up at me and made his clicking sound, then made his way to the heather patch to join the bees and butterfly. I sat there smiling and enjoying the sun and the magic of nature. Then I thanked everything that was present around me and realized that the sadness and angst had disappeared. Nature IS the best therapy. The information contained within the wilds of Mother Nature is endless. 

Here is something interesting that I read:

http://spirit-animals.com/mouse/

Not so long ago, we came from nature. We are nature at our core. Eckhart Tolle says that birds, crystals and flowers are the three most enlightened forms of matter on the planet. They are the things that we humans adore and the things that we aspire to be. Light, flight and beauty. Its so true. As I typed that last line, a hummingbird buzzed around me garden chirping up a storm. She landed in the top of a cherry and tree and is watching me as much as I am watching her.  When I was little, I found a lifeless hummingbird in my father's airplane hangar. I picked him up and admired his rainbow of feathers. I said a few words for him and buried him in the forest underneath a flap of moss that covered a huge rock that we neighborhood kids had a secret fort at. We dubbed it "hummingbird rock" after that. Hummingbirds have always fascinated me. So tiny and so fast and so quick to appear and disappear. They are abundant on this property. Sipping nectar from the peach blossoms and playing tag in the sun. 

Hmmmmm....

http://spirit-animals.com/hummingbird/

Mother Nature is the origin of every single one of us. As children, many of us spent the majority of our time getting down and dirty outdoors. It was hard to tear us away from the endless wonders that nature supplied us with. Nature, not electronics, used to be the best babysitter. We were one with the wildness. Yet, as we age and "grow up", many of us humans disregard her and treat her like a moody teenager treats their parents. Eye rolls at the weather, disrespect, attitude, lack of gratitude, entitlement of her resources. Sound familiar? We all know folks that have this view of the planet. Then, one day they feel guilty, so they go visit her because they feel like it's what they are supposed to do every once in a while. An obligation. This is family disfuction at its finest. Respect your mother (earth). 

Spending time with her is what we ALL need more of. Hands down. She holds the secrets and answers to everything, and many of us have forgotten how to ask with our hearts because the e-version of the worldwide web is at our fingertips. What about the original World Wide Web of Life? The one that is engrained in all of us? So many have forgotten how to access it. No wifi required. No electricity even! Time to shake off the dust and relearn to connect with your true roots.

Get into the wild. Into the forest. Into the sun and rain and mud. Into the garden. Get into the rhythms of the sun a moon and the seasons and the plants and animals. Plug yourself into the original source. Make. the. time. Even 15 minutes each day. For you. Notice how you feel. Really notice.... 

Taking a Stand for Farmland

This quote sums up the number one mistake of many ancient civilizations that thought they had it all figured out, until one day...their resources were gone. Forever. This resulted in their eventual demise. We are globally headed in a similar direction, unless each of us takes some responsibility for ourselves and our own food supply. I listened to the audio version of this book, A Short History of Progress, back in 2006, which was probably when I began to think a little bit more about sustainable living. It's really worth a read/listen. 

Last week we attended a meeting regarding the ALR, or Agricultural Land Reserve of British Columbia. It was put in place in the 1970's to preserve farmland across the province. There was a hall full of concerned citizens who want to see the land remain as productive farmland. They're full up on strip malls, fracking sites and housing subdivisions.  I was surprised to learn that something like only 5% of the landmass in BC is fertile farmland. And it's shrinking. 

Yikes. 

We signed petitions and shared lengthy discussions about what we can all do. The same group organized a rally that took place today in front of the legislature in the capital city of Victoria.

We woke up this morning to a snowy winter wonderland (of all days) which made for a slushy trip to the Capitol.  Once we arrived, the sun came out and stayed out just long enough for the remainder of the rally. 

Over a thousand supporters from all walks of life came out to cheer on the speakers and show our government that we won't just sit back and watch them destroy this precious fertile land forever. We even enjoyed a local apple, which a fellow hauled by many bushels on the back of his bike trailer. That's dedication to local food. 

My personal response to this issue is to stay informed and to continue to further my knowledge of small scale, natural food production. We are so excited to grow a garden where the growing season can be extended nearly year-round for the hardier veggies.

What steps are you and your family taking to create a sense of ownership and pride in your food supply? It's easier than you may think. And it's fun too!

On the weekend we took a ferry across to Salt Spring Island's "Seedy Saturday" seed exchange event. We left there with a hardy helping of 25 varieties of mostly organic, locally-saved non-GMO seeds.

 There were hundreds of varieties (Many I had never even heard of!) of everything at numerous booths and it was fairly overwhelming. I felt like a kid in a candy shop! Thank goodness we made a list beforehand. The vendors were all so enthusiastic and passionate about saving seeds and they encouraged others to grow their own food and save seeds themselves.

Speaking of local food, I am excited to begin working at the local organic market next week as part of the produce team. We were invited to sit in on a meeting with some local farmers to discuss who would be supplying the store with which produce this season. It's so refreshing to see these kinds of partnerships happening! Things are coming full circle. 

Think about this:

Now it's time to get supplies to start some seeds indoors. The challenge always seems to be finding space to do this. I think we may have a few window sills available...on your mark, get set, GROW!

Expand your world. One page at a time.

I LOVE coming across a book that feels like it was written just for me. Below, I have listed a few books that have been fun, educational and inspirational for me in my search for greater meaning in the world. I have added amazon.com links just in case you are super excited to read these.  I must add, however, that I prefer to borrow books from friends or libraries or purchase them second hand. Saves a tree and keeps your home less cluttered!

Farmacology by Daphne Miller, MD

A wonderful librarian friend handed me this newly published book a few weeks ago. It's been so fun to read and has confirmed (again) that traveling from farm to farm, both learning and sharing ideas, is what calls to me. Great read!

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B0089LOISW

Walk Out Walk On by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze 

This one is inspirational and reminds me of how much having a sense of community is crucial to my happiness, and to most of us, since we are a tribal species! http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/1605097314/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

You Can Buy Happiness (and it's Cheap) by Tammy Strobel

Last Christmas, a friend regifted this book to us. This is an awesome, fun read that inspired us to ditch our STUFF and live small and light in a motorhome. If you are on the fence about downsizing, she might just convince you too!

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/1608680835

Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin

Joel is a hilarious and brilliant farmer from Virginia, whom we were fortunate to see at a lecture in Calgary last spring. We bought this book that night and I laughed  so hard reading it. It's full of thoughts and ideas that made me shake my head and say "everything is wrong with modern agriculture!!!" One more confirmation that alternative methods of food production are not an option but an extremely urgent issue. You will love it!

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0892968206

Hope one or more of these will change your life's direction for the better like they have for us.  :)

What do you get when you follow your heart?

This blog has been created to do two things:

1. Allow me to empty my brain when it's overwhelmingly full of ideas and questions. 

2. Share our adventures in sustainable and spiritual living with other souls who are in also search of a more meaningful world. 

My fiancé and I (call us 30-ish, give or take a bit) are in the process of freeing ourselves from the entrapment of the far-too-widely accepted cycle of debt and overconsumption. When we met one year ago, we were both at our wits end with this seemingly hopeless vortex of exhaustion and lack of meaning in our lives.  At Christmas time (and forecasted apocalypse time) in 2012, a friend passed to us an excellent book called You Can Buy Happiness (and it's Cheap) by Tammy Strobel. It was exactly the inspiration we needed to start down a road less traveled. 

Our solution to our entrapment so far?

Step1.  We minimized (by selling and regifting) our personal possessions to the point where we have a mental inventory of exactly what we own. How many people can make that statement? 

Step 2: We then purchased a slightly squeaky and finicky (but oh-so-magical) motorhome, which houses pretty much everything short of our two (seasoned but lovely) vehicles (of which we plan to sell at least one).

We have thoroughly enjoyed these adjustments to our new way of life and we don't miss ANY of that useless stuff we once thought we needed to feel secure and happy. 

We originally intended to make "the moHo" our home for the 5 months (if we are lucky!) of the year where our toilet water won't freeze in  northern Alberta. Well, we are now more than half way through those months and we are firmly uninterested in paying rent or strapping ourselves to a mortgage for eternity, as so many elect to do. 

Step 3: We are working on acquiring the financial means to call the moHo home for as long as it takes for us to feel like we have gathered the wisdom and knowledge to pass on a recipe for sustainable living to our future generations (which will IDEALLY involve following the sun south) by the time toilet-freezing temperatures arrive, roughly late September to early October. *fingers crossed*

...and so this blog begins... 

Please follow along as we document our tales of all manner of things non-conventional and our minimalist life in a tiny home on wheels.