Edible Food Forest Gardens 101

"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” Isaiah 2:4 American King James

It’s obvious to us that these words mean people who have been destroying the earth, and that includes us, will be and are now being made aware of their actions and as a result of this we will come to our senses, stop making war and start growing food as a way of living!

Let the new heroes of the future not be the conquering, warlike, oppressors, but the farmers and growers who labor to provide food for everyone… who dare to lay down their swords to embrace forest food generation as an art, a gift and an intensely pleasurable occupation..

If we spent all the military budgets on planting food forests across the world and all countries did the same, people would have enough food to eat and not have to go to war for resources like oil so they can create processed food. Doh!!!

How to create a food forest for beginners

We are preparing a weekly e-learning series that covers a number of topics on how to create an earth-based, sustainable life that will leave an earth worth living in now and for the future.

One of the topics we will cover is ‘food forest gardening’. We have gathered heaps of information from many sources and distilled it down into an easily understandable, clear, 101 e-learning course.

The Food Tree of Life
Food forest gardening is part of a process and strategy that we call the ‘Food Tree of Life’. The Food Tree of Life has many branches of food cultivating


Kitchen Gardens – consist of pots on windowsills, sprouting seeds, growing mushrooms, herbs and wheatgrass

Winter Greenhouses – for cultivating seedlings for spring planting, herb growing, some tropical and non-seasonal food

Annual Gardens – are for growing food and vegetables that grow indigenously in your region. For example here in Georgia, our staple carbohydrate is the potato family. Kale and Mustard greens flourish here. In the Caribbean mangos and coconuts grow like weeds.

Forest Food Gardens – are perennial gardens, planted with careful design, mimcking how the forest grows, to create a harmonious group serving environment for growth. They yield fruit, nuts, berries, herbs, medicinal plants, mycelium.

If your food forest is to flourish you must grow the right trees and shrubs for your zone. Use our quick zipcode lookup guide to find what zone you are in…

Animal Husbandry – The Forest Food Gardens are fertilized through the symbiotic process and with the help of chickens, goats and worms. These in turn produce occasional meat, butter, cream and eggs.

Horses may be included for transport and work previously done by gas-hungry machines

We will be covering all of these and more including repurposing, natural building adaptation, alternative natural methods for everything from cooking and healing to heating and water supply.

We will be recommending to you the experts in the business so that you may investigate the areas which interest you in more depth.

Find out more here on our Feed The Future blog
www.pierresoleil.com/ourblog

Edible Forest Gardens - Together We Can Feed The Future

When the oil runs out the stores will be empty. What and how will you eat and stay healthy? By growing a forest where almost everything around you is food. Find out how here..

VISION

Picture yourself in a forest where almost everything around you is food. Mature and maturing fruit and nut trees form an open canopy. If you look carefully, you can see fruits swelling on many branches—pears, apples, persimmons, pecans, and chestnuts. Shrubs fill the gaps in the canopy. They bear raspberries, blueberries, currants, hazelnuts, and other lesser-known fruits, flowers, and nuts at different times of the year. Assorted native wildflowers, wild edibles, herbs, and perennial vegetables thickly cover the ground. You use many of these plants for food or medicine. Some attract beneficial insects, birds, and butterflies. Others act as soil builders, or simply help keep out weeds. Here and there vines climb on trees, shrubs, or arbors with fruit hanging through the foliage—hardy kiwis, grapes, and passionflower fruits. In sunnier glades large stands of Jerusalem artichokes grow together with groundnut vines. These plants support one another as they store energy in their roots for later harvest and winter storage. Their bright yellow and deep violet flowers enjoy the radiant warmth from the sky. This is an edible forest garden.

WHAT IS EDIBLE FOREST GARDENING

Edible forest gardening is the art and science of putting plants together in woodlandlike patterns that forge mutually beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is more than the sum of its parts. You can grow fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, other useful plants, and animals in a way that mimics natural ecosystems. You can create a beautiful, diverse, high-yield garden. If designed with care and deep understanding of ecosystem function, you can also design a garden that is largely self-maintaining. In many of the world's temperate-climate regions, your garden would soon start reverting to forest if you were to stop managing it. We humans work hard to hold back succession—mowing, weeding, plowing, and spraying. If the successional process were the wind, we would be constantly motoring against it. Why not put up a sail and glide along with the land's natural tendency to grow trees? By mimicking the structure and function of forest ecosystems we can gain a number of benefits.

WHY GROW AN EDIBLE FOREST GARDEN?

While each forest gardener will have unique design goals, forest gardening in general has three primary practical intentions:

•High yields of diverse products such as food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, 'farmaceuticals' and fun;
•A largely self-maintaining garden and;
•A healthy ecosystem.
These three goals are mutually reinforcing. For example, diverse crops make it easier to design a healthy, self-maintaining ecosystem, and a healthy garden ecosystem should have reduced maintenance requirements. However, forest gardening also has higher aims.

As Masanobu Fukuoka once said, "The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings." How we garden reflects our worldview. The ultimate goal of forest gardening is not only the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of new ways of seeing, of thinking, and of acting in the world. Forest gardening gives us a visceral experience of ecology in action, teaching us how the planet works and changing our self-perceptions. Forest gardening helps us take our rightful place as part of nature doing nature's work, rather than as separate entities intervening in and dominating the natural world.

WHERE CAN YOU GROW AN EDIBLE FOREST GARDEN

Anyone with a patch of land can grow a forest garden. They've been created in small urban yards and large parks, on suburban lots, and in small plots of rural farms. The smallest we have seen was a 30 by 50 foot (9 by 15 m) embankment behind an urban housing project, and smaller versions are definitely possible. The largest we have seen spanned 2 acres in a rural research garden. Forest gardeners are doing their thing at 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of elevation in the Rocky Mountains, on the coastal plain of the mid-Atlantic, and in chilly New Hampshire and Vermont. Forest gardening has a long history in the tropics, where there is evidence of the practice extending over 1,500 years. While you can grow a forest garden in almost any climate, it is easiest if you do it in a regions where the native vegetation is forest, especially deciduous forest.

Edible forest gardening is not necessarily gardening in the forest, it is gardening like the forest. You don't need to have an existing woodland if you want to forest garden, though you can certainly work with one. Forest gardeners use the forest as a design metaphor, a model of structure and function, while adapting the design to focus on meeting human needs in a small space. While you can forest garden if you have a shady site, it is best if your garden site has good sun if you want the highest yields of fruits, nuts, berries, and most other products. Edible forest gardening is about expanding the horizons of our food gardening across the full range of the successional sequence, from field to forest, and everything in between.


ECOLOGY OF THE EDIBLE FOREST GARDEN

Edible forest gardens mimic the structure and function of forest ecosystems—this is how we create the high, diverse yields, self-maintenance, and healthy ecosystem we seek for our garden. It is therefore critical to understand forest ecology and its implications for design. Four aspects of forest ecology are key: community architecture, ecosystem social structure, the structures of the underground economy, and how the community changes through time, also known as succession. Brief discussions of each of these aspects and examples of their influence on garden design and management follow.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE EDIBELFOREST GARDEN

Contrary to the prevailing wisdom on forest gardening, vegetation layers are only one of the architectural features important in forest garden design. Soil horizon structure, vegetation patterning, vegetation density, and community diversity are also critical. All five of these elements of community architecture influence yields, plant health, pest and disease dynamics, maintenance requirements, and overall community character. For example, scientific research indicates that structural diversity in forest vegetation, what we call "lumpy texture," appears to increase bird and insect population diversity and to balance insect pest populations—independent of plant species diversity. Learning how and why plants pattern themselves in nature and about the effects of the diverse kinds of diversity on ecosystem function can add great richness to the tool box of the forest gardener.


'SOCIAL' STRUCTURE OF THE EDIBLE FOREST GARDEN

The unique inherent needs, yields, physical characteristics, behaviors, and adaptive strategies of an organism govern its interactions with its neighbors and its nonliving environment. They also determine the roles each organism plays within its community. The food web is one key community structure that arises from each species' characteristics. Organisms also form various kinds of "guilds" that partition resources to minimize competition or create networks of mutual support.

When we design a forest garden, we select plants and animals that will create a food web and guild structure, whether we know it or not. It behooves us to design these structures consciously so we can maximize our chances of creating a healthy, self-maintaining, high-yield garden. For example, the vast majority of solar energy captured by natural forest food webs ends up going to rot. We can capture some of this energy for our own use by growing edible and medicinal mushrooms, most of which prefer shady conditions. We can design resource-partitioning guilds by including plants with different light tolerances in different vegetation layers, for instance, or mixing taprooted trees such as pecans and other hickories with shallow-rooted species such as apples or pears. We can build mutual-support guilds by ensuring that pollinators and insect predators have nectar sources throughout the growing season. Insights into the guild structure of ecosystems provides clear direction for design as well as research into many aspects of agroecology.

EARTH'S UNDERGROUND ECONOMY

The workings of nature's "underground economy" are a mystery, but the dynamics of this ecosystem are fundamental to the workings of all terrestrial communities. What is the anatomy of self-renewing soil fertility? How do plant roots interact with each other and their environment? What roles do microbes and other soil organisms play in our forest gardens, and how should we interact with them?

Plants are critical components of the structure that creates self-renewing fertility in natural ecosystems. They plug the primary nutrient leaks from the soil and energize a networked system of plants, soil organic matter, soil organisms, and soil particles that gathers, concentrates, and cycles nutrients conservatively. Maintaining perennial plant cover greatly aids this process. In addition "dynamic accumulator" plants like comfrey (Symphytum officinale) selectively accumulate mineral nutrients to high levels in their leaf tissues, adding them to the topsoil each fall. As we enter the post-oil age, our understanding of the anatomy of self-renewing fertility will become more and more critical to our success in temperate climates.

Understanding the dynamics of woody and herbaceous plant roots is critical to learning how to design and manage forest gardens. In what patterns do plant roots grow, why, and when? While the majority of tree roots grow in the top two to three feet of soil, it turns out that fruit trees that can get even a small percentage of their roots deep into the soil profile produce more fruit more consistently, resist pests and diseases more effectively, and live longer than those that have only shallow root systems. Good pre-planting site preparation is therefore a highly worthwhile endeavor. Root system understanding provides a solid foundation for plant species selection and polyculture design.

Soil organisms perform numerous critical functions in forest and garden ecosystems, and we can easily disrupt these allies and their work with unthinking actions. Luckily, basic forest gardening principles like using mulch and leaving the soil undisturbed provide just the kind of benign neglect our tiny friends need. However, good soil preparation can make all the difference, as well. For example, compacted or poorly drained soils can severely hamper the development of healthy soil food webs, and hence healthy forest gardens. Understanding the soil food web also provides insight into how to manage for healthy mycorrhizal fungi populations and how to ensure that nitrogen-fixing plants actually do their soil-building work.

THE MATURING SUCCESSION OF THE EDIBLE FOREST GARDEN

Ecosystems are dynamic, and ever-changing. Plant succession used to be thought of as the directional change of a community over time from "immature" stages toward a "mature" "climax" community typical of a given region and environment, such as a field changing to shrubland and then to, say, oak-hickory forest. However, new models of succession have arisen in recent years that articulate the complex reality of plant community change over time without so blatantly projecting human cultural constructs upon natural phenomena. Plant succession is nonlinear and occurs patch by patch within the ecosystem, and rarely do ecosystems ever attain a climax or equilibrium state. Disturbances of various kinds are a natural part of every successional process—windstorms, fires, insect attacks, and human intervention. Nonetheless, linear succession to a "horizon" is a valid model to use when designing forest garden successions, as are various other permutations that mimic garden crop rotations or represent an ever-changing dance responding to the forces, needs, and whims of the moment.

While the practical applications of these new successional theories are of necessity somewhat vague, we do know that the most productive stages of succession are those in the middle—such as shrublands, oldfield mosaics, and woodlands—not necessarily full-fledged forests. In addition, most of our developed tree crops are species adapted to such midsuccession environments. Our highest yielding forest gardens are therefore most likely to contain, not the dense tree canopies of late succession forests, but lush mixtures of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbs all occupying the same space in patches of varying density and character. Succession theory also teaches us many different approaches to directing ecological succession in our gardens.


DESIGNING A FOREST GARDEN


At its simplest, forest garden design involves choosing what plants to place in your garden in which locations, at which times. However, these seemingly simple acts must generate the forest-like structures and functions we seek, and they must also achieve your design goals. A forest garden design process, then, must be information intensive if it is to achieve even moderately complex objectives. Therefore, begin by articulating your goals and assessing your garden site. Then you can select and apply design patterns, ecological principles, and plants in such a way that you integrate your goals and the site into a coherent whole. The challenge is to array the available design elements to create a set of ecosystem dynamics that will in turn yield the desired conditions of high yields, maximal self-maintenance, and maximum ecological health as inherent by-products of the ecosystem. You can use design patterns drawn from natural ecosystem examples or invent your own patterns that solve specific problems your design faces to help you do this. Patterns also arise from the requirements of the goals themselves and from a deep understanding of the site's characteristics. The goals guide the site analysis and assessment, and the site assessment discovers the design.

We recommend designing on paper, at least initially, so you can make as many mistakes as possible there, and correct them before putting anything into the ground. On-site design techniques can also work well, especially for those who prefer to avoid the mapping process. Careful design of plant spacing is a critical piece of the puzzle, in any case. Planting too closely together is the most frequent mistake that forest gardeners around the world have made. We hope that a more robust and explicit design process will help us all avoid such common mistakes and make some newer mistakes that are more interesting so we can learn from the experience.


PRACTICALS OF A FOREST GARDEN

Good site preparation is a critical precursor to planting your forest garden. Your site analysis and assessment should help you understand your site's limitations so that you can decide whether or how to alter the site, or how to adapt to the conditions present. Soil compaction, for example, is exceedingly common in most urban, suburban, and even rural sites, and it can severely restrict root growth, water movement in the soil, and the health of soil organism communities. Double-digging, chisel plowing, radial trenching, and other techniques can help you deal with severe compaction, while the simple act of mulching the soil and planting deep-rooted perennials will eventually address slight compaction. Other common site preparation challenges include poor soil texture, shallow soil depth, road salt, and persistent weeds.

Proper stock selection, planting, and mulching techniques can also have major long-term effects on plant vigor and productivity. Many woody planting specimens have been transplanted multiple times, and these can have kinked, circling, or damaged roots that will result in plant stress and even an untimely death. Carefully examine your specimens before you buy to ensure a quality root system, or purchase bare root stock so you can see the whole root system before planting. In fine-textured soils, the edges of the planting hole often become smeared to a smooth, impenetrable surface as a natural part of the digging process. This can severely restrict root growth and cause water to pool in the planting hole. Breaking up the edges of the hole with a spading fork allows roots and water into the surrounding soil. This needs to become a common planting practice, as do proper planting depth, proper mulch depth, and effective sheet mulching techniques.

Once the garden is in the ground, the longest and most satisfying phase of forest gardening begins: management, harvest, and coevolution. Potentially the hardest part of this phase is learning to do less and let the system take care of itself, as well as knowing when to intervene and how. These questions are, however, part of the process of shifting from a paradigm of command and control to one of cocreative participation as part of a natural system. As we observe ourselves and our gardens through the dance of the seasons, we will learn the most effective ways of guiding the garden ecosystem's evolution, we will select and breed ever more delectable crops for all the niches of the garden ecosystem, and we will begin to realize the full potential of forest gardening as a tool for cultural and personal evolution, not to mention cultural and personal survival in a post oil world. Welcome to the adventure!

Good information on plant, animal, and mushroom species and their ecological characteristics is essential for good forest garden design. You'll need data on the plant's size, form, and habit, its rooting patterns, hardiness and other tolerances and preferences, as well as its native habitat, human uses and ecological functions. Information that helps you design habitat for beneficial wildlife such as insects, frogs, toads, salamanders, and birds is also crucial. Ideally, this information will come in a variety of formats and levels of detail that relate to different parts of the design process. The appendices of Edible Forest Gardens provides this kind of information on over 600 useful plant species and a plethora of beneficial wildlife for your designing and gardening pleasure.

From the amazing website www.edibleforestgardens.com

We salute their offering and urge you all to create your own forest garden NOW

Who are the REAL mis-fits?

Misfit is the label given by society to those humans who don’t match the criteria for ‘normal’ behavior, beliefs and desires.

Most so-called ‘normal’ people accept if they are to sport the ‘normal’ badge, they will be required to shape themselves into psychological, career and social boxes that we know deep down are not contoured to the freedom, spontaneity and genuine expression of the individual spirit.

The ‘normal’ illusion versus reality.

In other words to become normal will most likely require us to deny or suppress our individual and unique human spirit. And because this denial and suppression is SO painful we are driven to opiate ourselves with TV and material goods to stop us becoming neurotic about not being real.

The powers that be know that. They maintain control by forcing us to slave at the altar of money whilst hypnotically drawing us to all manner of stuff designed specifically to dumb us down.

The universal jigsaw puzzle

Imagine all life on earth as being an integral part of a huge multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. All members of the mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms are given a specific, unique structure and ‘shape’ that is designed to fit into the puzzle and complete the big picture. The fit is dependent on the unique structure of each part of the system maintaining it’s shape system.

Fitting into THIS puzzle should be easy because our given role is to be who we truly are</b> deep down beneath the programming and fully express our unique gifts, skills and talents.

However, the world hasn’t learned to work like that. We aren’t taught to explore and realize our true role.

Instead most of us are forced to squeeze ourselves into a distorted shape to fit the illusory big picture thus creating a global distortion. It’s a bit like the ‘ugly’ sister trying in vain to squeeze her foot into the shoe designed uniquely for Cinderella.

When we assume our proper, unique shape, and step into our own shoes, the entire world operates smoothly in harmonic orchestration, this is what we call REAL-FIT

How to tell if you’re a real-fit

If you’ve felt like a mis-fit for most of your life, or wondered why the world is so alien to your way of thinking and being; if you sense that society is unjustly organized; that people’s spirit is suppressed and that money as the primary goal has become a self-looping addiction, then you’re probably a REAL-FIT.

You’ve likely refused to squeeze yourself into a shape that you’ve known is NOT you and you’ve paid their price for being real.

Psychoanalyst and Social commentator, Dr Erich Fromm questioned the definition of normalcy in his paper ‘The Psychology of Normalcy’. He suggested that neurotic symptoms are not a ‘default’ on the part of the individual. Instead, they are a partial rejection of oppressive or alienating society.

So what the frack is considered normal in 21st century society?

As you read this list you will likely realize with gratitude just how abnormal [according to today’s standards] yet real [according to universal laws] you are.

And, you will be reminded once more of the degree of perverted thinking that is gripping the majority of people in our so-called ‘civilized’ society.

In ‘normal’ society all of these behaviors are going on all the time and until now have been commonly accepted as ‘how life is’.

The Real Mis-Fits Revealed

Below are some of the things that we have been taught are how life is. They are mostly considered ‘normal’ and acceptable to the majority of society despite the fact that they go against the laws of nature and true humanity. And most of you reading this, including the authors, will have bought into this normality in some way or another.

Land owned and fortressed by a few individuals rather than open and stewarded by all

Selfish-concern – I’m all right Jack and frack you, even if you are dying

Walking past a homeless person, salving your conscience by giving them money yet secretly judging them for being lazy, good for nothings

Believing that the Earth is an endless resource designed primarily for human consumption

Signing petitions virtually to save dolphins or end landfills and thinking you’ve done enough

Buying food and other items in disposable containers yet not repurposing them

Burning second-hand tires that could be used to produce walls for Earthship houses

Goods deliberately designed to fail or become obsolete to further profit interests of the manufacturers

Eating factory farmed meat that is produced with disregard for animal life and poisons us with chemicals and hormones

Eating food that is full of MSG because it seems to taste nicer

Microwaving food for speed and ‘efficiency’ while totally destroying all the enzymes in that food

Kidding ourselves that all-natural means healthy when anything from uranium to deadly snake venom can be defined rightfully as ‘natural’

Allowing the destruction of rainforests to grow soybean to feed cattle to satisfy our addiction for burgers and other cheap meat products

Big Corporates paying off law suits out of court with contingent ‘no publicity’ clauses so that they are still free to continue their ‘socially criminal’ activities

Justifying pouring huge amounts of money into military activities in the name of securing resources

Being opiated by the media to the point of mental numbness

One person driving a six-seat gas guzzling SUV

Far greater percentage of corporate investment in new weapons technology versus sustainable energy facilities

Harnessing natural, sustainable energy in the name of ‘green’ yet selling it at great profit to individuals

People grubbing a living on $1 a day while others spend $$$$ to buy an additional home that they use no more than two or three weeks a year

Gated communities to protect the resources of the have’s and have-more’s

Managed Healthcare that is more concerned with making a profit than making you well

Doctors recommending pharmaceuticals based on material incentive and rewards for them versus an untainted concern for what’s best for you

Greed – more for me even if it means less for ‘them’

Buying political influence for personal/corporate gain even at the expense of the greater good

The right-wing rich using illegal immigrants as virtual ‘slave’ labor whilst promoting tougher crackdowns on immigration

Persuading third world countries with offers of loans they can’t afford to develop huge infrastructure projects, which must be contracted to friends of the administration and result in huge debts and political and military blackmail

Money printed and sold to the government for profit by a private organization

Peddling drugs that don’t cure diseases but manage symptoms

Prisons that punish rather than reform

Using goods, gadgets and gaud to present a fake view of who you are to the rest of the world

Expensive insurance that offers sweeping promises of security crippled by small print limitations and company profit policy that dictates paying out as little as possible

Transference of blame by society to solely individual responsibility with a blind refusal to see our contribution to all of society’s ails

Easy credit sold via ‘dreams can come true’ marketing with a disproportionate mention of the downside

Protecting corporate profit by preventing generic manufacture of drugs to make them financially available to those in need

Buying designer and low cost clothes produced in inhumane sweatshops

Treating workers like slaves because there are 2,000 other hopeful desperates waiting to step into their shoes

Promoting of earthly resource pillaging such as coal mining in the name of ‘jobs for our people’

Peddling food that is engineered to taste ‘better’ and thus becoming addictive and poisoning our systems

Fear and mistrust of strangers - confinement of trust to small nuclear family rather than embracing wider community

Being able to win a law suit based on the default of having more money to throw at a lawyer regardless of whether the case is just or not

Letting people die on the streets because there is an inadequate welfare or employment system

Media hypnosis that persuades you to buy things you don’t need but will dumb you down for a little while longer

Giving up civil liberties of freedom because we’ve been corralled into the fear pen

Believing the President of the US is the most powerful person in the world

Allowing Corporates to legally ‘purchase’ self interest through campaign contributions

Your every online activity being open to monitoring by government agencies

Children stuck indoors for hours playing video games as opposed to running around in the fresh air

Creating compliance out of fear generated by managed inflated hatred of a common enemy

Dumping litter in the national forest because you can’t afford garbage pick-up

No-Scavenging signs on local dumps preventing people from using discard to repurpose

Snake-oil peddling of ‘get rich without lifting a finger’ schemes

Cash rich opportunists buying up foreclosed property in the hopes of turning a quick buck

Building codes that don’t take into account the sustainability and viability of naturally built shelter homes

Preferring a manicured green bug-free lawn over a brown fertile food patch

And that’s just a few of the things that the majority of people in the Western world consider ‘normal’. What would you add to the list?

As George Bernard Shaw said the world was never changed by reasonable people because it takes an unreasonable person to go against the ‘norm’.

As more and more people wake up and begin to join together in movements that buck the system and the ‘norm’ we are on the dawn of a breakthrough. It is time for the mis-fits to rise up and say as Peter Finch said in the film ‘Network’ way back in ’76.

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”

What can we do?

Each person has to choose their way or mixture of ways knowing truthfully that this is the best way for them to help shift themselves and the rest of the world in the right direction. Here are a few alternatives

We can insinuate our ideas into the society, working from within the system under the guise of normalcy, spreading subtle awareness and rallying others to a new way of thinking by making steady progressive changes in our own lives.

We can step out of society and reject the way it works whilst building a life and community of real-fits that is ready for tomorrow and a living example of what's possible.

We can take legal action, rebel, protest, object to, disobey the rules, get thrown in jail as ways to bring public attention to the cause.

We can play the system game to accumulate amounts of ‘money energy’ in order to plough it into changing the same system.

Each person must choose the way that works for them. and know that even if others’ methods aren’t right for us, they are our sisters and brothers in a vital time of human evolution and we must find a way to work together or we will fail. We are the vanguard. We are the pioneers. We are the guides.

To take this road requires great courage, and some of us may not survive long enough to see the results. The question we must ask ourselves of our every action,

Is this taking me closer to my intent and ultimately is it the right thing to do for the good of all life on earth, now and into the future?

If We Don't, Who Will?

Someone who just joined one of our groups wrote something that really summed up what is going on today...deep in the hearts of most of us.

"I would love nothing more than to feel what life is supposed to feel
like. Western society is suffocating my soul. To the woods! "

It's likely, given the current economic situation in most of the western world, that the dream of a nice house in the suburbs, a steady job, good income, stores full of food, a car or two in the driveway and a solid pension is slowly disappearing into the distance.

The problem is that most people don't want to know. They bury their heads in the sand and continue to hope that Obama-style change is really on the way, that this economic downturn is just a blip and that we will recover.

In the film, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' Professer Barnhardt is pleading with Klaatu to save the earth. He says:

"You say we're on the brink of destruction and you're right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment"

Humans seem to be programmed to take action only when the doo doo hits the fan . Acting at the precipice is too late.

What has to happen for evolution to occur BEFORE it's too late?

We need to evolve a new dream for the world. There are many resources in this world that are tightly held in the hands of the few. If we are to save the world, there has to be an 'epiphany' from out of those ranks.

Imagine if one of the 'powers that be' were to turn round like Tony Stark in 'Ironman' [an arms manufacturer who decides, after a heavy duty personal epiphany, to use his resources to save the world rather than destroy it] and realize that he or she doesn't need all the stored up riches they have.

Imagine if that person were to decide to use his or her resources to buy up huge tracts of land and hand them over to the people for rehabitation.

Imagine if everyone who had acres of tended lawned land were to offer to share that land for the purpose of sustaining life?

Imagine if the forest service were to free up tracts of land for community earth villages...

Imagine if the people were to band together to reclaim and revitalize that land with self-sustaining simple earth-based communities, where homes are built out of natural and repurposed materials, harvesting and recycling rainwater, growing nutritious organic food and providing community education and care for the children.

This dream is not new... but realizing that dream requires that the most precious resource we know is divided out amongst the people... in a fair way so that they can begin to live closer to the earth, demanding little other than basic sustenance.

We dont' need much when we have the earth and good people around us.

We don't need TV, we need storytellers.

We dont' need Wal-Mart, we need to grow our own food and repurpose old stuff.

We don't need to look good or have a wardrobe full of designer shoes, we need to have the right clothing for the climate.

We don't need lawyers and accountants and doctors, we need carpenters, builders, healers, gardeners and wise elders.

We don't need two gas guzzling cars in our garage, we need horses, bicycles and our feet.

We don't need pharmaceuticals we need natural herbs and wellness promoting food.

We don't need gold and silver, we need useful, natural materials with which to clothe, feed and house ourselves.

We don't need to send our children to school or college we need to educate them in the ways of the spirit, inspiring them to find their purpose in this new world...

We need to return to a truly earth-based lifestyle and take joy in the simple abundance of gifts our mother earth has to offer us.

How can we effect this change on a mass level? How can we persuade the few that hold the resources that they don't need more than one home or huge tracts of lawned land doing no more than giving them an imagined sense of living close to the earth.

The shift in consciousness is already happening at an accelerated rate, but we need to speed it up. We need to sow these positive thought viruses into the world and rally more and more people to the cause.

What will happen if we don't?

Here's the horror scene that could manifest if we don't take action now to educate those that have the power to help change this world.

As resources dry up, planes, trucks and trains will stop running. Stores will no longer have food, lights won't come on at the flick of a switch and desperate people will begin to loot and pillage. The country will go under martial law. Will we go like lambs to the slaughter?

Do you remember Solzhenitsyn' s words from "The Gulag Archipelago "

And we sat there in our cells talking about, if only we had resisted them in the hallways, and in their vans. How we could have taken them down with sticks and pitforks ...."

Let's hope it doesn't come to this... Let's hope there is nothing to resist or revolt over and that the world will come to a peaceful, fair-to-all solution..

We must do what it takes to spread the world and take any measures that we can to begin to carve out a simpler lifestyle.

We're here in the woods,planting winter veggies, building a homemade greenhouse out of logs and plastic on the side of the house, heating it with an old discarded wood stove, topped with the inside of another discarded stove in which we can slow cook food. We're growing herbs for flavor and wheatgrass and sprouting seeds to provide nutrition. We don't own this land but we're doing what we can to survive simply.

And we're attracting people to come join us and hole up for the winter..and longer, working together to do what one or two cannot.

And we're taking solace from the energy of the forest that surrounds us, reminding ourselves that mother earth wants to save us...and that in this entire world, there is enough for all of us to have a simple life.. if only we can learn to live with less and share what we have.

What is your dream for the world and what are you or could you be doing to prepare?

with love and blessings

sunny

alternativeresearchconsortium.com/

pierresoleil.com/

THE ROCKY ROAD

to Enlightenment

We may think of men such as Buddha, Mohammed and Jesus as those who came to earth with a fully fledged enlightenment. Most men and women, however, do not reach this level of awareness in their entire lifetime.

If you think you’re enlightened you’re likely living an illusion!

What happens when you consider enlightenment not as a noun or something static, but as a movement, a verb, an ongoing process of waking up to reality and shedding the illusory defenses and pretences of our personalities?

The Rocky Road to Enlightenment is our path from life to death. Some of us live our entire lives in an illusion, unaware of anything other than the goals and desires of the materialistic illusory world.

And then something happens, a small spark, an awareness, an illumination. This is usually generated by a tiny nagging thought that occurs from time to time saying ‘there must be more’ or asking ‘this can’t be all there is’.

It can be sparked by something someone says, a line we read in a book or a blog like this or by an unexpected kindness or action on the part of someone else. The only real given is that once woken we cannot go back to sleep again.

And believe us, you will want to go back or you will know what we are talking about!

Waking up to reality is similar to the process of Neo taking the Red Pill and getting that life outside the Matrix is not so shiny shiny. We are so programmed to seek the illusion, and to draw comfort from it yet the illusion keeps us in a zombie like dream.

On the other hand living in reality allows us to be FULLY ALIVE.

Once started along the road, we will experience a series of small illuminations, often triggered by a ‘dark’ experience. And if we are waking up and aware then we recognize that frequently the darker and more traumatic the experience, the greater the illumination available to us. These illuminations become pathfinders, points of light that show us the next steps in our journey.

This journey is not about thinking spiritually or having a vast knowledge of spiritual texts or knowing the ‘how tos'. It is about having real experiences that face us with our egoic defenses and pretences and wake us up and engender a resolve to be and do differently. It’s about recognizing that these experiences, however uncomfortable we translate them to be, are showing us what needs to be addressed.

It is about seeing how we stop ourselves from more fully participating in honest and open relationship with our own thoughts, personality and subsequently with other people. It is about catching ourselves if we can and congratulating ourselves each time we do. It is about being humble, admitting our part in the game and respecting the other for facilitating in us this illumination, no matter how harshly it appears to cut you to the quick.

The steps are small, the path is uniquely yours and the road is eternal. Knowing how it works enables us to keep on track in the darkest of times.

Ram Dass [Professor Richard Alpert] in ‘Be Here Now’ his classic book, gives some useful pointers to the process of spiritual waking up.

Ram Dass was a big spiritual guru in the 60’s and subsequently suffered a stroke in his sixties, prompting him to rewrite his latest book ‘Still Here’. The book offers profound hindsight into his own process and is endearing in the way Dass observes himself and his egoic moves with humor. What’s really cool and a lesson to all of us is that after the stroke, Dass realized his journey of spiritual growth was far from done.

The topography of the road to enlightenment [adapted from Ram Dass]

YOU ARE NOT ENLIGHTENED
Each stage one can label must pass away. If you think you’re enlightened, you’re probably not.

IT GETS WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER
The initial euphoria at waking up will often be followed by and leave a sense of loss or even a despair that may seem like the Dark Night of the Soul.

THE ROAD IS ROCKY
This process is NOT smooth. Each new height is followed by a new low and understanding this makes it much easier to ride the aves.

GLARING IMPERFECTIONS
As you get illuminations so your imperfections seem more glaring. Relax. You’re not getting more stuck in the illusion, you’re just more aware of it. But also take heart in the fact that, as the demons get fiercer the illumination get Sbrighter. Think of if as the sweet that comes after the medicine.

FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT
In the beginning you may see spiritual practice as something you do, like meditating for 40 minutes or giving to the poor or thinking abundantly. In time you realize mindfulness, being present and experiencing the moment IS spiritual practice. You can experience illumination as you pour a cup of coffee, wash the dishes or fire an employee. There is a Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water.

THE 'I'M SO SPIRITUAL' TRAP
At some stage when you think you are being all good and spiritual you will get caught up in how ‘spiritual’ you are. In India this is called the Chain of Gold. The chain traps you in an inflated illusion of ‘oh I’m so spiritual’ that only exists up your own backside. We have to give up the illusion of total purity and holier than thou if we are ever to make progress.

AM I THERE YET?
Early in the journey you will I be probably wondering on a regular basis how long it will take or whether you have got it yet. and be saying to yourself ‘Oh if I do this course or read this book or meditate for x hours a day, I’ll get spiritual in two, three or four years' As you progress you realize that where you are going is ‘here’ and you will arrive ‘now’.

LAUGH AT YOURSELF
You will also start to get really serious about it all. Give it up. A cosmic sense of humor about your predicament, your resistance and your journey is an absolute requirement

NOTHING'S HAPPENING - IS THIS SPIRITUALITY?
At some phase you will experience a plateau, a sense that nothing is happening, in which case just continue chopping wood and carrying water or whatever equivalent you have in your life. Sweep floor, make beds. Fix car, drive to work. Write blog! Just keep on doing whatever YOUR Zen is!

INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT - NOT!
You may have been led to believe that enlightenment will come upon you like the flash that hit St Paul on the road to Damascus that your halo will sprout and everyone will notice your spiritual energy. Bullshit. This is very very rare. Most frequently it is just a slow peeling of layers, like an onion, only slower!

IN AND OUT
At times you will experience not just the up and down process but the ‘in and out’. You will feel the need to go inside and spend time examining and experiencing your own inner processes and sometimes getting just how yukky it really is in there [and how nice it could be]. And you will also feel the need to be out in the world, connecting with and experiencing yourself in relation to others. Both the in and the out are part of a total process and feed each other.

The rocky, stony road to enlightenment is full of challenges, obstacles and barriers that bring spiritual illuminations because it is in the facing of these and moving beyond them that we develop spiritual fortitude.

Enlightened people don't have to sit on a velvet cushion, holding their fingers in om-cars, chanting mantras and getting into yoga asanas. They're all great, but remember, enlightenment comes from being present in whatever life you life, no matter how ordinary.

And next time you scream at the guy who takes the parking space you were angling for or you think angry thoughts about your spouse, or you trip over something cos you’re not ‘here’… remember you’re human. We all are. Simply tell yourself 'life happens… what’s next?'

WE INVITE YOU TO SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES IN THE COMMENTS

What illuminations have you experienced along the road?

How did they come about and what changed for you as a result?

Sunny and Pierre Soleil

Harmonic Emergence - Return to Earth
H.E.R.E.

people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS. More than just camping
www.everytrail.com/
tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN OUR TRIBE

Light of Freedom

What is freedom?

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity"

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?" Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr. knew that for change to happen the collective unconscious has to free itself from the exclusive ‘me and mine’ paradigm and embrace an all-inclusive ‘greater good’ concept. This is the path to personal freedom. It is a road less travelled.

Freedom comes when we release ourselves from the competition, stress, anger and envy that accompany the pursuit of individual excess at the expense of others

Freedom begins when we choose to work instead for universal abundance trusting that there is enough for all.

Freedom comes when we deprogram ourselves from the collective hypnosis of materialistic desire and stop accumulating and using stuff as a dumb down denial escape pod.

Freedom emerges as we learn to value the simple gifts of life such as fresh unpolluted water, clean air, a biodiversity of species, the life sustaining power of the trees, the grounding force of the earth and the joy of human connection.

Freedom begins when we stop following the route set up for us by those that think they know what’s best for us based on their own personal and often misguided ambitions and desires.

Freedom emerges as we choose to step onto the path that we intuitively feel is right for us. The more we follow our individual higher purpose, the freer we are to manifest and serve the world with our unique gifts.

Freedom does not just turn up in the collective unconscious of nations. It begins with a few individuals here and there and like the hundredth monkey syndrome, it starts to emerge in people all over the world.

Freedom begins when you break free from the prison of outdated dogmatic theologies and ideologies and the belief that God is a separate entity outside of and apart from yourself.

Freedom emerges when we begin to sense that God is the collective light of all life in this universe and the galaxies beyond. God is only as good, bountiful and forgiving as we are collectively and that our every action contributes to the godliness or otherwise of the world.

Freedom comes when you see another fall along the way, and instead of saying as the Pharisees did "what will happen to me if I stop and help this person?" you are compelled to ask "what will happen to this person if I don't stop and help?"

Freedom begins when your commitment to change is no longer motivated by selfish individual greed, but by a harmonic desire for the betterment and enrichment of all mankind through the healing of ourselves and our planet..

It is our experience that this way of being does not come upon us in a big bang. It's a long challenging journey and sometimes it feels almost impossible as we are tempted back into the matrix of illusion. But as they say, once awoken, there's no going back.

The journey seems to be made up of a series of illuminations that flicker on and off from experience to experience until we get the 'aha' and the light stays on. These illuminations allow us to see our path more clearly and encourage us to stay on course.

And we are constantly asking ourselves the question - what has to happen for us to take one more step on the road to freedom? How about you?

your fellow pathfinders
Sunny and Pierre Soleil

Harmonic Emergence - Return to Earth

H.E.R.E.

people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS AND WEEK LONG SELF DISCOVERY COURSES More than just camping
www.everytrail.com/
tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN OUR TRIBE

What on Earth will become of us?

As people all around the globe celebrate Earth day, we are drawn to consider these emerging values for a more harmonic life on Earth. This is no dream. This is what is naturally emerging in the face of global shifts.

Power

When the majority begins to realize that those our current leaders are not evolutionarily mature enough to hold the positions they think they merit, power will be divested to those people who are conscious enough to understand that leadership is a stewardship, a sacred assignment to be used only for the greater good.

Leaders will be selected because their actions have shown them to be worthy stewards of all life on earth.

Like this they will be able to direct efficiently and wisely the urgent process of returning to earth and rebuilding our world

Love

As the challenges of the current system begins to affect more and more people, human compassion will surface in the face of loss and sadness. As more and more people begin to vibrate love in the face of hatred, fear, and loss, Love will emerge as a dominant force.

Knowledge

As access to information becomes more widely available global consciousness is already expanding. The mankind will make more informed decisions and begin thinking and acting from our core with integrity and consideration for the greater good

Action

Action will increase as awakened people throughout the world step-up their efforts towards laying the foundations for a renewed, more harmonious and sustainable world. As a result of their pathfinder accomplishments, others will be inspired to awaken and take up the mantle of their own action.

Cooperation

As we find ourselves increasingly beset by severely challenging situations, the inner urge and need to band together with others and live in harmonic cooperation will emerge.

People will desire and demand right human relationships as a natural way of life. Community spirit will revive as our lives become more localized.

Simplicity

When more and more systems falter or become uneconomically viable, people will be nudged to explore simpler more natural activities. We will find ourselves being nurtured by nature as we return to earthly pursuits such as camping.

The more time we spend in simple pursuits such as sitting round a fire with others the quicker we will lose our addiction to passive diversions such as watching TV.

We will learn to be more delighted by nature and people as we engage in wood gathering, camp fire cooking, conversation, laughter, dance, music making and storytelling.

Persistence

Persistence will emerge as a dominant human characteristic in the face of greater trials . This will be prompted by an increased awareness that time IS running out.

More people will get that we must act now if we are to preserve the earth for future generations

Creativity

As the mankind experiences increasing shortfalls in the material supply system, the creative spirit will be activated to design and adopt alternative renewable energy sources, new ways of food culture, ecological shelter building, non pollutant transport, natural healing and intentional community structure.

Organization will emerge harmonically to support and facilitate a symbiotic system as the mankind begins to let go of the need to control and dominate and recognize and accept his role as an integral part of all that is.

Thought for the Day

“One enlightened thought can change your whole day. One thought of appreciation, joy or gratitude can change your whole internal state. One enlightened thought can turn a half empty glass into a half full one, a challenge into an opportunity, and a stranger into a friend. One enlightened thought can open your heart and clear your vision of the future. So why not think one, just one, go on!” Steve Nobel

You can make a difference

If you are reading this, then you are a pathfinder; you have started the awakening process and with that awakening comes a responbibility to share what you know with others.

with love and blessings

Sunny and Pierre Soleil

Harmonic Emergence - Return to Earth
H.E.R.E.

people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS and FACILITATED PERSONAL EVOLUTION COURSES More than just camping
www.everytrail.com/
tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN the Harmonic Emergence tribe

WORLD OF EYE

Enter the World of Eye Love You...

When you gaze out into the world with your eyes, you see each moment contained as a whole image...
When you dream your dreams you envision them fully and completely as a vision in your mind’s eye...

It is only the mind that separates, labels and divides.

When you gaze into another’s eye you are entering through the windows to their soul.

Are you part of the Eye of the Tribe Photo Gallery? people.tribe.net/windwaterclear/photos

What will happen when we look gently into each others’ souls through our eyes and CELEBRATE the differences? How will it be when we recognize the light in those eyes, the colors, hues, shades, and shadows.? What more can we achieve when embrace each other in a shared sense of being human, seeing eye to eye and emerging harmonically to orchestrate a new world vision?

EYE OF THE TRIBE PHOTO GALLERY

We are fascinated by eyes, and so it seems are the members of Tribe, for the eye features so strongly in so many of your albums. As a tribute to you we have gathered eyes from all across Tribe and beyond and placed them in the photo gallery people.tribe.net/windwaterclear/photos

EYE FACTS

We have also researched some interesting eye-facts from the role of the eye in mythology and the mating process to the amazing discoveries of NLP eye-accessing cues. Enjoy!

With love and respect

Sunny and Pierre Soleil

SOUL EYES

The eyes are often referred to as the windows of our soul or the mirrors of our mind.

Cicero (106-43 B.C.) is quoted as saying, 'Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi' (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter).

EYE MYTHOLOGY

In Egyptian mythology the Eye of Horus became an important symbol of power. Horus fought with Seth for the throne of Egypt. In this battle one of his eyes was injured and later it was healed by Hathor. This healing of the eye became a symbol of renewal.

In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, the Eye (often with the addition of an enclosing triangle) was an explicit image of the Christian Trinity. A 1525 Jacopo Pontormo painting uses the Eye of Providence in a triangle as a symbol of the Christian Trinity

In Vedic mythology the sun is referred to the `eye of the gods' or the ‘eye of the world’ Its gaze penetrates all it reaches. The sun is guardian of all beings, animate or inanimate. It observes the good and evil actions of men

In the Bible we also find references to the eye as an indicator of good or evil. Matthew 6:22-23

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.

THE EYE OF PROVIDENCE

The Eye of Providence, or the all-seeing eye, is a symbol showing an eye surrounded by rays of light and usually enclosed by a triangle. It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God keeping watch on humankind

On the Great Seal of the United States [as seen on the dollar bill] The Eye is positioned above an unfinished pyramid with thirteen steps, representing the original thirteen states and the future growth of the country. The lowest level of the pyramid shows the year 1776 in Roman numerals. The combined implication is that the Eye, or God, favors the prosperity of the United States.

NLP EYE ACCESSING CUES

Did you know that your eye movements give away the structure of your thoughts?

Richard Bandler and John Grinder, creators of Neuro Linguistic Programming [NLP] discovered through extensive research that the direction a persons eyes move in indicates HOW a person is thinking.

They could tell from where someone placed their eyes whether they were imagining a future or past event, internally re-hearing a sound or making up a sound, talking to themselves, or attending to their feelings.

Eyes moving up and to their right indicates that they are creating a visual image

Eyes moving up and to their left indicates that they are remembering a visual image.

Eyes moving up frequently indicate the person is a visual thinker. If they are moving their eyes back and forth and looking up, they are probably visualising a 'movie' of images.

If you want to get your message across, use visual words and in particular use images and diagrams.

Eyes moving towards their right ear indicates they are constructing a sound

Eyes moving towards their left ear indicates they are remembering a sound

Eyes moving frequently towards the ears, left or right indicate a person is an auditory thinker. They may respond better to auditory explanations than visuals or diagrams

Eyes looking down and to their right indicate that they are processing feelings. People who do this frequently may need time to process what you are saying and benefit from experiential ‘learning’.

Instead of demonstrating something to them, or telling them about it, let them try it out for themselves.

Eyes looking down and to their left indicate they are talking to themselves.

[all the above directions may be reversed in a left-hander]

EYE CONTACT

Eye contact often increases significantly when we are listening, and especially when we are paying close attention to what the other person is saying.

Less eye contact is used when talking, particularly by people who are visual thinkers as they stare into the distance or upwards as they 'see' what they are talking about.

POWER EYES

When done without blinking, contracted pupils and an immobile face, eye contact can indicate domination, aggression and use of power. In such circumstances a staring competition can ensue, with the first person to look away admitting defeat.

LIARS’ EYES

Sometimes liars, knowing that low eye contact is a sign of lying, will over-compensate and look at you for a longer than usual period. Often this is done without blinking as they force themselves into this act. They may smile with the mouth, but not with the eyes as this is more difficult.

LOVERS’ EYES

We look more at people we like and like people who look at us more. When done with doe eyes and smiles, it is a sign of attraction.

Lovers will stare into each others eyes for a long period. Humans are only one of two primate species who mate face to face. Eye contact is vital to this process.

Looking at a person, breaking eye contact and then looking immediately back at them is a classic flirting action considered a sign of attraction.

CONTRIBUTE TO EYE OF THE TRIBE [pictures and comments!!!]

We inv-eye-te you contribute eye pictures to the gallery and add to the comments on this blog any interesting eye facts you wish to share…

Please email your eye pics to pierre@harmonicemergence.org

If you see your eye in the gallery, please add a comment to the photo – we’d like to know more about your eyes. And if we’ve used your eye and named it wrongly, let us know what you want to call it and it is done.

Harmonic Emergence - Return to Earth
H.E.R.E..

people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS. More than just camping
www.everytrail.com/
tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN OUR TRIBE and contribute your eyes to the great vision
people.tribe.net/windwaterclear/photos Eye of the Tribe - PHOTOS

Indigenous Rights of Responsibility

JFK reminded us to ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country.

The indigenous peoples knew this instinctively in relation to the planet.

They didn't look for what they could take but what they could do to safeguard the universe they lived in.

The indigenous philosophy considers all actions in relation to how that action will affect the world 7 generations along. This is what we call having a 'greater than self' awareness and motivation in our way of living.

The Bill of Rights, long revered by us all, actually has a destructive side as it perpetrates self importance and selfishness by focusing on the rights of the individual.

What if we were to adopt a new bill? We propose we create a Bill of Responsibility

The Bill of Responsibility would require us all to act not from a desire to get what is rightfully ours but from a desire to help ensure that all living things can flourish and play their part. It requires us to act from a 'beyond self' consideration at all times.

It requires us to drop self importance in favour of the greater good. It requires us to share and care for all life in the same way we would care for own. It requires us to ensure that there is enough for all.

In an indigenous tribe no one person is more valuable than another. No person hoards belongings or covets those of another. No one person is ever left without shelter, food,care, companionship and a feeling of belonging.

The words 'mine, mine, mine and private, private, private are not a part of their sensibility. Contrast how our lives are today. The more we focus on our individual rights the more grasping and selfish we become.

This is the thinking that has destroyed all so-called great civilisations and it will and already is destroying ours if we do not stop flying to dizzy heights of acquisition and come back down to earth.

The more time we spend in communion with and awareness of Mother Earth,the more we begin to access the indigenous spirit that is in all of us as we walk more lightly on the earth, show more respect and awe for every living aspect as part of the fabric of our existence, not as a resource for our selfish needs.

As people tune into the natural order of life's harmony so their own emergence becomes more harmonic and like that they can be a member of life's orchestra rather than a bunch of discordant solo instruments.

with love and blessings
in the spirit of cooperation, family and global community

Sunny and Pierre Soleil

people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS. More than just camping
www.everytrail.com/
tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN OUR TRIBE

A SPIRITUAL C * NSP * R* CY

A SPIRITUAL C * NSP * R* CY

We think this is so harmonically tuned to the spirit of Tribe and all of the mankind who are working towards a more peaceful, abundant, natural and consciously emerging planet. We trust you will feel the sentiment of it and pass it on...

with love and blessings

in the spirit of cooperation, family and global community

Sunny and Pierre Soleil

A SPIRITUAL C * NSP * R* CY

On the surface of the world right now there is
war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly, at the same time,

something else is happening deep down.

An inner emergence is taking place.

And certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent awakening.
From the inside out. From the ground up.

This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual C * nsp * r * cy.
There are 'sleepers' awakening in every nation on the planet.

You won’t see us on the T.V .
You won’t read about us in the newspaper
You won’t hear about us on the radio

We don’t seek any glory
We don’t wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles

Some of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes

in every country and culture of the world;
in cities big and small, mountains and valleys;

in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands.

You could pass by one of us on the street
and not even notice

We go undercover
We insinuate into the system

from behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done

During the day some of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront and at any hour
is where the real work takes a place

Some might call us the Conscious Warriors
Rainbow Warriors of Light, Spiritual Activists,
Lightworkers, Shamans, Helians [healing beings]

However we know ourselves as,
we are slowly creating a new world

with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy

Our orders come from from the Central Spiritual Intelligence or The Celestial Concourse Administration...
Whether it's the CSI or the CCA or our own deepest access to global consciousness
We are all dropping soft, secret love b *m b s when no one is looking

Poems * Hugs * Music * Photography * Movies * Gifting * Kind words * Smiles * Inspiration * Meditation & prayer * Compassion * Workshops * Community Gatherings * Dance * Social alternatives * Websites * Blogs * Random acts of kindness and outgoing concern for the whole before self

We each express ourselves in our own unique ways
with our own unique gifts and talents

Be the change you want to see in the world
That is the motto that fills our hearts.

We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the
power of all the oceans combined.

Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved ....

Love is the new religion of the 21st century
You don’t have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it

It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings..

Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you

We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have.

All are welcome
The door is open

author unknown

Welcome H.E.R.E. We love you

SunWaterClear & WindWaterClear

Harmonic Emergence - Return to Earth H.E.R.E.

people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS. More than just camping
www.everytrail.com/
tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN OUR TRIBE