The Importance of Attention to Intention
By 2024 apprentice Rabbit
In a world vying for attention in all directions and in oh so many ways, the importance of directing yours towards intention remains ever important but seemingly less inherent. Around us, there are currents that flow and paths to walk at all times. Currents as the energetic rivers created by individuals or groups, and paths as the trails we can walk towards our goals with our intentions. Taking a current forward, a flow, carries an air of submission while walking a path could be viewed as more self driven but both ways of moving forward are possible to be executed without any personal intention. It is also entirely possible to carry on in these ways chock-full of intention and the social aspects of permaculture taught here at the ranch have helped me to develop more lucidly a framework for moving forward in this manner.
The hypothetical person living as an island without relationships of any influence while still taking part in the world might find that they are able to remain in their own direction as a natural unfolding without much thought of intention - congratulations! The less hypothetical person who finds themselves more intricately involved with family, friends, partners, neighbors, community members, might find their direction in life altered from time to time by taking a dip in the flow of those that surround. One can live this way, flowing with the currents of folks and relations, and hark! experience a beautiful life! If this way of living is your intention I do believe when you reach that river’s delta on your way to Big Blue you might just be able to kick back in your innertube (compostable of course) close those weary eyes underneath your sweet foldable gracious sunnies and breath out a grateful last breath with a smile. On the other hand, if you reach the mouth of the river you fell in to by chance and without a thought as you pass by that old worn sign reading: “So long, and thanks for your intention!” and you mutter under your breath, “Intention?” the sight of the quickly approaching and assimilating hungry blue maw might make you lose those expensive foldable sunnies as you clamor to use the oars of your birthright, frantically doggy paddling your way back upstream.
Taking a step back from oceanic metaphors, I’d like to speak from personal experience. Arriving at the ranch and being still slightly new to the extroverted side of myself I stepped in to a pattern of being, subconscious as it is, or was. One would hope that in agreeing to take part in a year long apprenticeship four thousand miles from whence I came that I boarded that plane with intention. One would be pleased to hear that their hopes were not in vain. But upon joining a new group of strangers with curious dynamics and flows all their own I quickly became a thriving social lepidoptera, fluttering about, at times even frantically, sustained by the sweet nectar of long conversations and personal connection. A sustenance needed because I was not feeding myself in other equally important ways. Late nights formulate in to sleep deprivation, constant socializing leads to a neglected relationship with my internal self, at times even with my partner, and on a more material level; I don’t get jack done!
Praise the day we walked down to Robin’s porch and began a class labeled as Social Permaculture in which, on that day, we would find ourselves identifying our vision and core values.
If this lovely brain is remembering correctly, our first task was to envision an ideal self after this year long apprenticeship was through and to catalogue said vision in our notebooks. Then, with a list of some three hundred odd values encompassing a spectrum more specific and articulate than I could have hoped to pull out of the aforementioned noggin, we were to pick the ones we deemed important to us with the idea that we would also be refining them to a list of ten and ordering them in a cascade of importance. Once completed we were to re-visit our vision with the new outline of our values and see how they matched up. Was our vision displaying proudly the badges of our values as it walked off the ranch? These two processes alone were a breath of fresh (if somewhat sharp) air. Taking the time to look within to create an honest image of where I would like to be helped me to realize that I might be floating on a foreign river. However! Being that this class took place so early in the game, I was still able to see my desired path on the shore. But how do I get back to land? My solutions were discovered in the next step. Creating goals. Long term, short term, personal wellness, and learning goals. Who would have thought! A little structure for the self from the honest and thoughtful self and you’ve got yourself a dinghy with an outboard! The long term goals better defining what the vision consists of, and the contemporary personal wellness and learning goals being activities to create the future that is holding the desired vision and long term goals in its gentle hands.
With these goals as structures in place in my life I moved forward into the following weeks with a renewed sense of purpose in being here and a stronger sense of self. I had been living with the idea of intention but only sometimes employing it. While I am no perfect one, and am still prone to the occasional off day, I find myself refining and redefining my goals but keeping in the grace of my structures is allowing me to better ponder and act in and on my own desired intentions. I don’t know what every step of the path looks like, but as I move forward using these tools I swear I can see what looks like my vision illuminating and growing more opaque with each passing day, somewhere not far ahead.
See you not too soon Big Blue, I’ll be holding on to my sweet sunnies thank you very much.
