Most people who die in the wilderness do so because they can’t regulate body temperature, meaning, that they cannot find or create shelter before they either freeze or overheat.

It’s a basic need. We need it. We can’t compromise…

And with the world being in such a chaotic state, perhaps we feel even more strongly the need to control the space we live in, our home.

Yet, for many of us, the topic of home is filled with negative emotions…

Many of us are plagued by massive debt that lasts decades. Thus our house and this basic need seems to virtually force us to remain in money-earning activities which may not be conducive to our soul’s happiness and spiritual growth.

When I was growing up, I remember my parents talking about how you ‘can’t trust contractors’…and you need to ‘stay on them all the time’ to keep them working. ‘You have to supervise every nail driven and every tile laid if you want quality results’ they said.

In some cases, friends of mine even had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen by dishonest contractors.

Others, while building their home or suffering under the extreme pressure of financing it, even lost their most precious marital and partnership relations.

Time is taken from children to work to pay for the house.

So, my feelings were, like most people, fairly negative around housing. They consisted of fear, worry, stress, and feelings of endless work and responsibility.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Our home is an opportunity to create our individual space, fulfilling our needs just as we need.

I began to think differently as I examined some of the contructions of non-mainstream architects, such as Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Then I read an article about a man who built his own dream house right into a hillside for only about 4,500 USD. Many of the materials were free and recycled. It only took him four months.

And then I began to understand how a house isn’t just a building, built by disinterested contractors working for a paycheck. No. A home can by your fundamental artistic, creative, unique space.

Take a look at these homes here, images taken from all over the world. Look at the beauty and utility of each, reflecting the creativity and joy of the creator, who very often will be living inside.

Take a moment to consider what your perfect house would be like. Would it be a geodesic dome? Carved out of a himalyan mountain cave? A treehouse in the jungle?

What do you need and what kind of house do you want?

Let’s reclaim our houses, our spaces, and our neighborhoods and communities.

http://www.bayraba.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039719/Simon-Dale-How-I-built-hobbit…

Once unemployed, college graduates and those with advanced degrees are as likely as high-school dropouts to remain unemployed.

1 in 2 graduates under 25 is un- or under-employed.

And, they are saddled with more debt than ever.

For everyone who wants to know what the future of education will be, this interview is it. Join Steven Putter,  Michael Josefowicz, and myself as we explore 1) what the principles are that aren’t working 2) how parents, children, communities, and even the elderly are already creating new paradigms and 3) what the future holds for sustainable education.

Thanks for listening!

Ryan Orrock

We had a conversation about  everything from his father ‘the would-be cult leader’ to how to make maple syrup in Wisconsin.

Enjoy!

Why?

Because our system is based on the acceptance and use of force to ‘make people good’. From the drug war to forced taxes to the the war in Iraq, it’s all force, all the time.

We accept the State as an entity which can force the 49% to give up life, liberty, and property if the 51% decides this is the thing to do. That which you would never do (take a gun and go to your neighbor, take property, threaten to imprison or kill them if they resist for doing something harmless like using cannabis) you support “your” government in doing by voting. You then enable it by paying for it.

We can make illegal anything which the behavioural minority chooses to do which harms no one and simply tax (steal), and lock them up (kidnap) for it. If they resist, they will be attacked and, if necessary, killed.

Is this any way to run a society? Is this how you want to be treated?

Our governments are all built on theft, aggression, and violence. If you resist their confiscation of your property or detaining you for any offense they can dream up, you will be shot and killed.

If you complain about their confiscation and detainment of your person, you can only complain to their own courts, paid for by themselves, who then decide whether your complaint is legitimate or not. It’s like letting the thief and murderer decide whether it was ok to steal from you.

Jesus had it right when he said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Do we want someone to come to your place, guns drawn, to take your property or arrest you for: smoking cannabis? hiring a prostitute? selling raw milk? growing organic vegetables? giving a massage without a license?

“Well, *I* don’t break any laws,” you say. Oh really? In the great book 3 Felonies a Day, Harvey Silvergate describes how a normal citizen going to work, paying taxes, doing everything right, commits, on average, three felonies a day without even realizing it. So you are a criminal already.

Common law–originally designed to prevent theft and aggression–has been completely corrupted until now ‘everything is forbidden which is not expressly permitted’.

Then why do we support (via tax dollars, silence = acquiescence, and voting) this violent system that completely ignores and even persecutes of our brothers and sisters, knowing that we are next.

And I haven’t even described why your vote means nothing anyway, how politicians will do what they want, influenced by special interests.

Most people do not vote now, and they have it right. Voting will not change the nature of the system. Ceasing to believe in the system will cause the system to disappear… Ceasing to support it will cause it to evaporate.

Let’s find a new way. A way that listens to everyone’s voice and needs. A way to connect and not to separate.

Buddha’s Birthday is today! Happy birthday, Buddha! What can we learn about ending our suffering and discovering who we are from Buddha’s life?

Brett Snelson of www.tantricparenting.com.au approaches life in an adventurous and eclectic way that continues to evolve as new ways of being. Early in his training for intimacy and relationship coaching he found a passion for integrating this work with conscious parenting. Brett is living in divine loving union with Alice that is continually evolving within a new paradigm of relating that is radically honest, transparent and unconditional. It is deeply spiritual, rich in connection, full of fun, laughter, sensuality and sweet darkness. He brings together personal experience, holistic counselling, tantric bodywork, conscious parenting approaches, philosophical reasoning and ecological thinking to facilitate alignment with loving life pathways. Brett specialises in intimacy and relationship coaching, sexual healing and expansion, and bringing clarity to contradictions in life.

He spoke to us about non-violent, non-coercive parenting, home schooling and natural learning, Tantric home birthing, community, sustainability, and what he offers to parents and families looking for more depth and connection.

Brett and Alice decided to have a home birth with no assistance. The story can be found here.

Visit www.tantricparenting.com.au to find out how Brett and Alice help parents and couples to have deeper, more meaningful relationships and connections.

Note: in the spirit of openness, this podcast was done completely naked.

Debt destroys families, friendships, and indeed, our entire society if we let it.

Here are a few thoughts about debt and why it makes no sense to have *enforceable* debts in a free and happy society.

Read more here: A World Without Debt

How can I get beyond the feeling of holding on for safety to my beliefs about these things?

A bit of introduction in my experience.

This is a great ‘first half’ of a podcast with Steven Putter about community.

Steven is doing some fascinating work in Zambia in community development and has a very interesting take on community and sustainability.

Some of his points are:

1. We can be concerned with only ourselves, or with our families, but there are simple ways that we can concern ourselves with a greater circle. “My own personal security is only equal to the security of the whole.” The same with abundance and resources, etc. Gated communities are passe and are not a long-term solution!

2. We must take a ‘species view’ of the planet (at least) because a nationalistic view is outdated and destructive.

3. In sustainability values –> Vision.

4. Systems must consider this ‘species’ view when changing something (something that political and aid organizations do not).

5. The future of education, it’s measurements of success and why standardized tests are not that measure (self-sustainability after schooling is).

6. In our society, job opportunities = self-sustainability opportunities. However, 50% of grad students have no job or PT job in our current system. Many people are falling through the cracks (not becoming self-sustainable after schooling). We must educate for other paradigms. We are limited to just one now. Fascinating idea here, can he be educated to sustain himself on a small piece of land if he does not fit into the industrial landscape?

7. Most people *are* sustaining themselves now, which is why conversations about the topic often fall on deaf ears. We can’t ask people ‘leave your sustainability or go into sustainability’. We are asking people often to do more work to have the same life, and that won’t work.

8. How his family achieved sustainability and what that was like. The moved into a tent off the grid for a while year, leaving the house and cars and everything behind. However, this is not an easy path… “It’s not easy all of the sudden to create hot water from a compost heap instead of the tap…fetch water, make fire for coffee for breakfast….” But, he says, “For me it is about starting the transition from where you are now in the community that you are now.”

9. The work of transition specialists.

10. How we can grow food no matter where we are. Literally billions in food savings is possible.

11. Why leading through example is the best way to become sustainable.

12. Experts <--- INFORMATION ----> Your biological situation.

13. How self-knowledge is important for this process.

14. Why ‘sacrifice’ and a shift in perception is necessary.

15. How to raise the quality of life outside cities so that pressure of urban areas is reduced.

16. Why considering human needs and desires is important for finding equilibrium with the environment.

Bio: Steven Putter is a sustainable development strategist for health, nutrition and economic empowerment, with the focus on rural communities.

Steven currently holds the position of President/Executive Director of Imagine Rural Development Initiative in Zambia. IRDI works to empower people and communities toward sustainable and environmentally-sound development through the provision of resources and skills training to improve livelihoods and enhance access to quality nutrition, water, shelter, education, health, information technology and equitable income-generating opportunities, thereby eradicating poverty, hunger and malnutrition.