Sustainable, Eco, Earthship, etc.

[Diana]

(Watering wild critters: found some cool info out there. I just have x large plant saucers with rocks in them.) 

Very smart IS to have looked this up. I found out the hard way about the rocks. It's important to have the rocks so insects, lizards, baby birds and other small creatures can have something to grip to get out of the water, because the smooth inside of a saucer doesn't present a good surface. I found a drowned lizard in one plant saucer, and I picked out five tiny newly born quail out of another. They were huddling together in the water at the edge. The parents were nearby and as soon as I put them on the ground they ran to the parents, so that didn't end badly (and the good part of that was I got to hold baby quail in my hands). I learned this lesson fast and now put rocks in all my water sources.

For me, it began months ago, walking in the 'quiet' of the pandemic. I began to take notice of things I hadn't slowed down enough to notice, both within and about me. I began to form ties and make connections that I had sensed before, but could now deepen. 

I walk around my own garden and notice : 

• ... what little insects are doing.
  
• I have seen several generations of praying mantis, dragon flies and many others. 
  
• We helped a butterfly with a deformed wing; we placed it on a flowering bush with all of the other monarchs and checked on it. 
  
• I notice the sun's movement across my yard and how the plants respond. 
  
• I notice the squirrels eat the food I am growing, and laugh. 
  
• I notice the seasons and what I can see of the stars.  
  

Deeper connection to these 'other' beings. Intuitively ask: how might we work together as one? In amongst all of this, I was also discovering Law of One.

This is how my interest in more sustainable living started.

This is beautiful.

I think the idea of reconnecting with nature is a key factor in understanding the connectedness of all things. The world humanity has constructed has created much separation—from the natural world and in societal divisions. But just reconnecting to nature will open the heart and mind and physical senses to a much wider vista, and the wonder of it is such a juxtaposition to the manufactured (in many more ways than one), technocratic, and human-centered perspective. It is a great thing when people connect with people beyond tribalism, but in my opinion, the larger perspective is a connection to all living things.

I absolutely love to watch the squirrels eat and all the bunnies and birds when I put food out for them. When I feed the deer out of my hand there is nothing at all but joy—this connection to the natural world brings one into the present and is much like meditation in that way. In my previous house I noticed doodlebugs (cute little pill bugs) in a patch of grass in the backyard. So I put a piece of carrot down and later found that they were slowly eating it. I used to lay on my stomach at the edge of the patio and watch them lumbering around and having a feast on the carrot. To people who haven't done something like this, it probably sounds silly. But it is a pure simple pleasure, and resurrects the wonder of being a child which gets lost as we live adult lives full of human and societal complexity, much of which just creates busy-ness and anxiety.