The Great Listening
Why you need a duck
My wife Claire has been writing about the Permaculture Design Course I attended (a good few years back) and how we try to weave permaculture principles into our busy family lives (you can check out at her writing here; Creatively Conscious Substack).
Permaculture is a way of asking the question…
How can I work in harmony with nature?.
But let’s be really honest right from the get-go; I’m no environmental saint!
I wish I was, I really do, but with a busy household (2 kids) and an even busier mind (call it trauma, call it neurodiversity, I just call it living in the 21st Century), I haven’t found a way to completely align myself with my own values. Tragic, I know.
To use an oft-heard phrase from my favourite philosophical TV programme ‘Love Island’; “It is what it is!”
Whilst I’d love to live off-grid and be self-sustainable…probably in the middle of a forest somewhere by a lake, the reality is… I own a car, I buy from Amazon, I enjoy foreign travel…well, I did before the world went to shit. We’ve tried and failed with reusable nappies (diapers) multiple times, and I’m still bewildered by which plastics you can and can’t recycle!
So with that said, can I be gentle with myself as well as the planet as I slowly find peace with it all. Can I use permaculture not just as a way to heal the planet but as a way to heal myself? And to be really poetic with it, could I watch nature and watch myself watching nature and for that to be enough.
Who knows, but we’ll do a pinky promise to take an honest look anyhow.
An invitation to find out about yourself from another perspective
Incidentally, have you ever read something written about you, that somebody else wrote? It’s such a casually-weird thing. Even though my wife writes about ordinary everyday things, I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience when I read her prose. Someone with an open heart and a curious, childlike faith in the world will see how beautiful you are in your ordinary every day! It’s pretty trippy!
Ask an open-hearted friend
Having someone cast an observant eye on how you go about the world can make for some beautiful revelations. If you have a friend who could write a short paragraph or two about your life I’m sure you’d be shocked in the most delightful way!
Why not take a risk and ask a friend today!
What is Permaculture
Permaculture is one of those things that, as soon as you start to explain it, you lose it.
I’ve heard it described as ‘Beyond organic gardening, but it’s more than just gardening. The name itself is perplexing, and people seem to drift off after 20 seconds of me trying to describe the crux of what it is. Maybe I just need to work on my communication skills!
Just like the word Podcast is a portmanteau of iPod + Broadcast. Permaculture is a mash-up of Permanent + Agriculture. Podcasts and Permaculture feel like names AI software would spit out, but both are pretty cool and they both open up a whole new world once you’re acquainted.
If you’ve already in danger of drifting off, then all you really need to know is…
If you think that we should be treading softer on planet earth then permaculture is for you.
If you want closer and more meaningful relations with your neighbours and community, permaculture is for you
If you’re doing 108sun salutations every day as a spiritual practice whilst all around you, your house plants are dying, then permaculture is definitely for you!
You don’t have a slug problem. You have a duck deficiency.
One of the first things you hear at a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is, ‘The problem is the solution’. It sounds like a zen riddle to mess with your mind…how can the problem be the solution?!
In reality, it’s a clever way to reframe the problem. Instead of the problem just being a pain in the arse, could it actually be an opportunity in disguise?
You don’t have a slug problem. You have a duck deficiency. - Bill Mollinson; the founding father of permaculture
Ducks, if you didn’t know, eat slugs. They also make lovely pets and, with a few ducks around the place, you might even get to enjoy fresh eggs for breakfast! So, the problem of having too many slugs is actually an opportunity to learn about keeping ducks!
That’s a way more holistic approach to managing slugs than the typical slug-pellet approach.
Bill is basically asking us to consider our problems in the most optimistic way.
When confronted with a slug (a problem) can you find the duck (the unexpected opportunity)?