Wealth Exists Not in Having Great Possessions, But in Having Few Wants
By 2023 apprentice, Grant Munro
There’s no escaping from the fact that we are in the midst of a social, economic, physical and mental health crisis. We have been waking up to this fact at an increasing pace and the majority of people can see that a change is essential if we don’t want to enter another mass extinction of our own doing. The abundance of information out there can be confusing and can leave us feeling stuck in the mud, unsure of where to direct our efforts. Additionally, the typical modern lifestyle leaves most of us feeling far removed from the essence of what it is to be human. I can imagine that I’m not the only one who has felt overwhelmed, not knowing which way to turn to make an impact. Studying permaculture over the last 3 months at the Ranch has shown me the potential that the principles of permaculture have to help us with these problems.
Having spent the last 14 years of study and practice as a chiropractor, I’ve come to understand and witness that, most times, what makes us healthy or sick comes down to the stories and concepts we hold about our health, the world and our place in it. We could call this our world view, or cosmology. We align our behaviours to what we have been taught by our family traditions, trauma, our now archaic colonial educational institutions and cultural narratives shaped by the media. These behaviours either lead us towards health or towards chronic stress and ultimately disease. An example would be that my Grandad had back pain, my Dad has back pain, I have back pain therefore I must have back pain because it’s genetic. There has never been a gene found for expressing simple low back pain, what’s been passed down is a concept. When we shift the story, we shift the expression.
The recipe for shifting towards the expression of health looks to be simple and repeatable for those who truly desire to and have a driving reason to get well. In practice I have found we must create a healing image based upon logical truth to move towards health, and not away from disease. For example, we can logically argue that the human being is designed to be healthy, not sick. When we remove interference/irritations, establish new, simple behaviours aligned to human values and commit over time, people start to transition and get well. Irritations include intrusive thoughts, residual traumas and accumulation of toxins. The body naturally expresses health when we address these alongside the addition of gentle exercise, proper breathing, daily time in nature, a strong connection to community and nourishing food and water. However, Big Pharma’s marketing experts will have you believe it’s way more complicated than that, ensuring they rack up huge profits year on year whilst somehow we get sicker and sicker.
It’s easy to see how this draws parallels to climate catastrophe. Big Ag and other Big Industry see Earth as a giant dead rock for sale, extracting resources at an alarming rate in the name of profit and wealth accumulation for the few. Their marketing campaigns, execs and the media do a great job of spinning why we should sacrifice our lives and happiness for their cause. The stories they tell us are woven in to our very way of being and the behaviours we are coerced in to are impacting how we view and impact Earth.
In his book, ‘Change the Story’ Change the Future’ David C. Korten goes in to more detail about our psychology and how we make purpose in our lives. He describes the current paradigm as The Sacred Money and Markets Story; essentially we sacrifice ourselves to serve the Money God who is never happy. We can flip that story to one that is more consistent with living heart-centred and to the traditional values and needs of humans. It’s an easy and thought-provoking read which I assure will create a shift in your confidence in making change.
We have the responsibility to educate ourselves in order to educate our children. If we don’t do it, Big Industry will continue to do so through our educational systems and the current story will continue. We have sleepwalked in to this mess and it is going to take intentionality, commitment and consistency to rewrite the potential of the future. The ethics of permaculture are Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share and Transition. The act of transitioning is where the movement for change starts to take place.
Transition takes time. No one can expect to go from sick to healthy in a day. And we can’t expect to shift the health of the planet in a day or even a year. But change happens with commitment to small and consistent repeated inputs. Just finding a way to shift our energy balance from extraction to regeneration can be as simple as taking a moment to find out where your coffee comes from and give thanks to the Earth and people who grew it – creating ritual rather than chugging it down. Or it can be as grand as selling everything you own and moving to a countryside and starting a farm/community/education centre.
The truth is that most of us are going to be somewhere in between. Commit to what’s just uncomfortable enough for it to be meaningful. A Permaculture Design Course is a great place to start.
