The trees and the broader living landscape of our great earth speak to us in subtle but powerful ways. Many in modern industrial society choose not to spend time hearing the voices of the trees and our other plant allies; …
Community
Tar Sands Oil Pipelines Update – Restoration Planning at Strawbale Studio
The question of how to respond to events beyond our control, the broader events and decisions that continue shape the world, is an important one. So much destructive and exploitative human activity is taking place (fracking, mountain top mining, tar …
Approaching the Sacred Through Nature: Sustainability and Sacred Action (Pan Druid Retreat Talk, 2014)
I was blessed to attend the Pan-Druid Retreat in Gore, Virginia this past weekend. As part of the retreat, I served on a discussion panel about “approaching the sacred through nature.” We were asked to prepare 10 minutes for discussion. …
Shifting Beyond Corporate Exploitation: Meaningful Work and Reconnecting with Ourselves and the Land
I’ll start by saying that I wasn’t sure I was ever going to post this blog post. I started working on it over six months ago, and debated posting because it deviated from my usual posts about homesteading, simple living, …
Sustainability as Sacred Action
The common bond that unites druids, and other earth-centered spiritual paths, is a deep respect and reverence for the living earth. We celebrate the turning wheel of the seasons, we revere the plants, and we speak to the forest spirits. …
Shifting away from Materialism and into the Sacred: Alternatives to Typical Holiday Gift Giving
We find ourselves, yet again, in the middle of the “holiday season” where the emphasis has drifted away from families and is now on cheap deals, plasma televisions, and the amassing of various piles of stuff. Against the cultural push …
Garden Update & Permablitz: Many Hands Make Light Work
I wanted to post another update from my garden and update from our Permaculture Meetup, which blogged about some time ago (Here’s our meetup group site: Oakland County Permaculture Meetup). Recently, I hosted what we call a “permablitz” or a …
Strawbale Studio and Tar Sands Oil Pipelines – The Clash of Worldviews, Part I
As I’ve discussed a few times on this blog, we have an oil pipeline going through our immediate area in South East Michigan. The first “phase” of the project went 1/2 mile north of my home in 2012-2013. This was …
OBOD East Coast Gathering 2013 – Review
This is the fourth year of the OBOD East Coast Gathering, (which I have reviewed before on this blog) and if anything can be said for certain, its that a tribe has now been firmly established. In the four years …
Township Ordinances and Front/Back Lawn Battles – My Own Story
In my post a few weeks ago about what I called the “Garden Resistance Movement” (where people are converting their yards to gardens, etc.), I alluded to the fact that I was now on the front lines of this particular …
Barn Raisings: Building Sustainable Structures and Communities of the Future
I’ve been blogging a lot about sustainability and community–and this is for good reason. I’ve come to understand, as I worked my way through the AODA’s 3rd degree (where I investigated the relationship of druidry as a spiritual practice and …
The Garden Resistance Movement – Replacing Front Yards with Gardens and Food Forests
Note: I have been composing this blog post for quite some time. This past week, I received a letter from my township about the “state of my lawn” and now find myself in a similar position to those I was …
From Consumptive Spaces to Productive Spaces: The Lawn as a Site of Change and Growth
In America and many other industrialized nations, one feature dominates the landscape, especially in the suburban areas of the great cities–the green, pristine, velvety lawn. The lawn is so ubiquitous in American culture that a huge industry of chemicals, tools, …
Historical Reenactment and Reskilling – Learning from our past
A great deal of discussion exists within the sustainability/transition movement concerning the loss of “old” and sustainable skills and the importance of reskilling to help preserve the future and live comfortably in it. The concept of reskilling is a simple …
Garden as Sacred Sanctuary
The garden is a sacred sanctuary. The calming nature of the plants; the patterns of light, water, and growth; and the tranquility the garden provides are unmatched. This world we live in is so busy, so full of concrete and …
Book review and Personal Response to John Michael Greer’s “Not the Future We Ordered: Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress”
In today’s blog post, I’m going to review John Michael Greer’s newest book, Not the Future We Ordered: Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress. To review this book, I am going to start with an extended personal example …
Review, Video, and Discussion of John Michael Greer’s Detroit Community Lecture, “Not the Future We Ordered”
Recently, our druid grove brought John Michael Greer to Michigan, where he did a book signing and gave a talk on the fall of industrial civilization. If you are interested in either druidry or sustainability, John Michael’s works (on druidry, …
Building Community – The Oakland County Permaculture Meetup and How to Form a Permaculture Group
I think community and community building should be a critically important part of any sustainability efforts. When I first became interested in sustainability and permaculture, I checked a bunch of books out of the library and set to reading and …
The Process of Tapping Trees and Making Maple Syrup – A Blessing from the Maple Trees
This time of year, something magical happens to the maple trees. When the temperatures drop below freezing at night and then goes above freezing during the day, the maple sap runs. In South-East Michigan, this usually occurs in late February …
Wassail – An Ancient Rite of Orchard Blessing
Last weekend, I was honored to be invited to a friend’s orchard for an old-fashioned Wassail ceremony (you can read more about my friend’s orcharding and sustainability work on his blog, The Fruit Nut). Wassail (or Old English waes hael, …
Creative Altruism: Free Art (Black) Friday
Today, at the start of the “holiday season” we have Black Friday, the epitome of the American consumerist culture. We are are continually bombarded with what to buy. We are presented with the dominant cultural narrative that owning products somehow …