emotional permaculture

Permaculture Womens Guild

Learning a new way of living from an elder Iranian farmer By Kali Morgan Of late, I have been consumed by the stories of strong, bold, warrior-spirited women of long ago, like Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae of Central Asia (who may or may not have killed Cyrus) and the more well-known Judith of ancient Israel (who decapitated Holofernes). Imagery such as the statue pictured above, in which the mother-protector holds a bowl of wine in one hand and a sword in the other, are powerful symbols. These women, in their passionate fight against injustice and oppression, have influenced me as…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias Most of us are primarily concerned with the question: what can I get? That question is futile. You can have it all. The real question is: what are you willing to receive? When I ask people that question I usually get some funny looks. “Why, of course, I’m happy to receive. After all, I’m asking for it! Who wouldn’t want to receive a check over $500,000 or a whole pack of orange-flavored chocolate?” Think again. How do you react when someone praises your work? Do you take it in with a smile, say thank you and…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Dido Dunlop In times like now, our emotional strength and resilience can feel drained away. It can seem like our inner resources are not enough. Yet here we are, still alive. I Am Alive When the going gets tough, I meditate on this. I remind myself that I’m still alive. It’s the most precious and essential thing. Now, overtaken by pandemic, we’re constantly reminded that we or our loved ones might quite suddenly not be alive. We can get so caught up in worries about how to manage, we forget to stop, and notice that in this present moment, we…

Permaculture Womens Guild

When I enrolled in a Permaculture Design Course in 2013, my youngest child was only three months old, and we had only recently landed in Scotland. I had spent most of my adult life away from Scotland…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Notas desde La Pampa, Argentina By Rosaura Ruiz Hace más de un año, casi en otra vida, me encontraba ante un viejo Atlas recuperado de la calle, abierto por la página que decía “América do Sul”. Estaba planeando a grandes rasgos el itinerario de mi inminente viaje por Latinoamérica. Trataba de imaginar los relieves y la vegetación, resistiéndome a la mentira de la bidimensionalidad del papel y los tonos de ocre, marrón y verde. Me generaba curiosidad esa vasta región central de Argentina llamada La Pampa. El nombre tenía algo de exótico para mí. Pero preguntando a mis amigos argentinos…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Priya Logan ( Even in the face of larger ones) Breaking down is natural, think of anything in nature. Reimagine it as composting, stir, add food and rest.\ NB( this has been mainly inspired by punk music; the benign void in my brain; personal experience with real compost and prolonged emotional meltdown, though to be clear those two have never converged in real time, and is dedicated to everyone who gets stuck and unstuck) Invite the worms: do activities that churn your ideas of yourself into something new: take up something physical, wrestle with interesting but unsavoury ideas and…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias Nothing causes as much frustration as unmet expectations. In fact, I dare say that every single time we suffer, get mad, anxious or irritated it is because something is not as we expected it to be. And very often it’s somebody else who failed to do, be, think or say what we expected them to. When I talk about expectations (and I love talking about them), I often hear people say: “Oh well. I better not have any expectations then, do I? Especially, ESPECIALLY, not in romantic relationships. Haha. (And is it just me or do…