Why It’s Worth to Surrender to Those Annoying Little Moments in Life

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias We’re told that everything happens for a reason. But really, what good could possibly lie in those everyday irritating instances such as having to rummage through your bag once again to find the train ticket, which — of course — has hidden in the last folded corner of the bag? I never knew until one sunny day in March, more than fifteen years ago. I was visiting professor at the time at the Friends of Thoreau Institute. This was going to be my first lecture on environmental ethics with a group of German and Spanish master students. I stayed with…

Shedding Skin

Permaculture Womens Guild

Things We Can Let Go Of In A Crisis. By Priya Logan Sometimes we are like snakes that have outgrown our skins. Sometimes, we need to shed them for safety. It is a difficult time right now for many people and for many, it already was. Some of the more redundant elements of our culture can and could be easily walked away from; it may be good to remind ourselves these are not necessary. Here is a list of a few things you can pretty comfortably, ( in most cases ), live without. Expensive cosmetics, moisturiser being an obvious one. In…

Love in the time of Corona

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Priya Logan One of the most impactful books I have ever read was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which is a memoir transcribed to a personal assistant by a French Journalist, Jean-Dominique Bauby. Where the autobiographical tale picks up, he had spent several years with a rare and completely debilitating condition called locked-in syndrome. It is a beautifully recounted, brave and soulful work. It hit a deep chord because I was also working as a personal assistant for a man in his mid-thirties who had become tetraplegic in his late teens. He had been unable to move anything…

6 Steps to Befriend Your Fears and Get a Life

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias I could start the article by suggesting that the corona virus was designed and spread by the toilet paper industry, but that would be a lame joke. In fact, I don’t want to talk about COVID-19 at all. I want to talk about something way more contagious. About fears. Let me clarify. I say fears. Not The Fear. The Fear is something else. One day, when I lived in the Amazon rainforest, I was walking on the ground (our houses are on stilts, since it’s all wetland), looking for a piece of lumber to chase away…

Having kids in a climate crisis: can you do it? I’m too scared

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Gudrun Cartwright As always, I was fascinated by what happened in Davos this year. If not necessarily encouraged. Donald Trump criticised climate ’prophets of doom’, pronouncing the amazingness of the USA and promoting their fracked gas as a safe solution to energy security. On the same stage, Greta Thunberg gave all the adults in the room a good talking to about the rapid action needed to tackle climate and ecological breakdown to provide her generation with a future that they can thrive in. HRH The Prince of Wales told us that we have just ten years to get our…

Allotted peace

Permaculture Womens Guild

My allotment, a small gateway into the living land, has been of prime importance to my connection to the ground of Permaculture. I have been signed up and working through my diploma for seven years now. At this point, it means weaving together a thousand notes in earnest. By Priya Logan A permaculture diploma must contain some land-based designs which make sense though this was not something I had a lot of confidence with when I started. At one point I saw growing, building and creating with envy and trepidation. However, I also wanted to get there. I was more…

Avoid These Common Mistakes After Your Permaculture Design Certificate Course…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Karryn Olson Often, after an in-depth permaculture learning experience, folks emerge with the desire to change their living or working situations so that they can make a bigger difference in the world. I’ve identified some common mistakes that can be detours or even obstacles on this path towards a right livelihood, and I’m sharing them in the hopes you can avoid them and instead, fast-track regenerative solutions. Mistake #1: Permavangelizing People are attracted to permaculture for different reasons. Some even “fall in love” with it. Have you? Why? Or why not? Here are some of the reasons I was super…