Permaculture Marin welcomes blog posts on relevant topics from our members. Our intention is to feature posts about the many individuals and organizations in Marin (and beyond) who are working towards furthering the development of regenerative ecologies, economies and communities.
If you or your organization has an article you would like to post, please contact DustinKahn@gmail.com.
The Economics of Happiness is a new documentary film by the International Society for Ecology & Culture (ISEC) about the worldwide movement for economic localization. The film is “a persuasive explanation of our ailing world,” according to Bay Area author Joanna Macy. “It connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown, and our own personal suffering. . . . It presents localization as a systemic alternative to corporate globalization, as well as a strategy that brings community and meaning to our lives.”
Both hard‐hitting and inspiring, The Economics of Happiness demonstrates that millions of people across the world are already engaged in building a better world — that small-scale initiatives are happening on a large scale. The film shows that countless initiatives are united around a common cause: rebuilding more democratic, human scale, ecological and local economies – the foundation of an “economics of happiness.” The film features a chorus of voices from six continents calling for systemic economic change, including David Korten, Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva, Rob Hopkins, Richard Heinberg, Juliet Schor, Michael Shuman, Helena Norberg‐Hodge, and Samdhong Rinpoche — the Prime Minister of Tibetʹs government in exile.
Sunday, March 6, 1pm
Presented by: Unity Marin Ecos Circle
Unity in Marin, 600 Palm Drive, Novato (Hamilton Field)
Monday, March 14, 7pm
Presented by: Sustainable San Rafael and Pachamama Alliance
Marin Youth Center (MYC), 1115 Third, San Rafael
Tuesday, March 29, 7pm
Presented by: Transition Mill Valley
Mill Valley Community Center (Cascade Room), 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley
Special Musical Guest Matt Jaffe
$10 donation for all events
This post was submitted by Permaculture Marin member Scott Davidson, who is co-teaching a series of classes on tracking with John Brossard.
In the wild edges of Marin County, California
Tracking is a cultural art form, experienced alone and in community, that truly deepens connection to ourselves, each other and to all the life that surrounds us. Tracking is a state of mind that fosters awareness and connects us to the animals and all life on the land. It changes how our body moves, and ultimately what path we walk on the Earth.
Tracking and Nature Connection can help you learn:
Please join us this spring for this fun and enriching series! Each class is from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm and is
held in the field at different sites throughout Marin County.
Cost: $300 for the four-part series
Instructors: John Brossard and Scott Davidson are co-founders of the Marin County Tracking Club and certified in track and sign interpretation by CyberTracker Conservation International.
For more information: call 415-868-9681, or visit: www.regenerativedesign.org
This post has been submitted by permaculture student Rebecca Speert, who is organizing a powerful weekend workshop for women. Please contact her at rspeert@comcast.net if you are interested in attending.
The Red Tent Retreat is a weekend of renewal, inspiration, and connection.
One step toward resilient communities, is nurturing resilient women! This workshop will provide you with tools to empower yourself and other women in your life to engage with the Earth and each other in the most intimate way we have access to, through our blood cycles.
Women are often fed a diet of negativity about their menstrual cycle from a very young age. Since most women were never welcomed into womanhood, their “Inner Maiden” is left inside, often embarrassed, ashamed, or afraid. As a result, many women view menstruation as a “nuisance,” “bother,” or “the curse,” thereby giving way to the development of PMS symptoms.
Uprooting any negativity about menstruation stored in your body since adolescence is the beginning of an empowering and healing journey, which ultimately dissolves and reverses PMS symptoms. Additionally, reclaiming our “Inner Maidens” is a necessary stepping-stone to empowering our daughters as they enter womanhood, preventing yet another generation from suffering needlessly.
This journey is for women of all ages! You will:
Join us for a deeply nourishing weekend, and find the last missing pieces of your womanhood’s jigsaw puzzle!
When: Saturday-Sunday, March 26-27, 10:00 am – 4:00 am daily
Where: Marin County (directions provided upon registration)
Fee: sliding scale $195.00 to $245.00
To register or for more information: Rebecca Speert at (781) 820-4539 or by email at rspeert@comcast.net
Click here to download a pdf flyer about the retreat.
Facilitator: DeAnna L’am (B.A.) speaker, coach, and trainer, is author of Becoming Peers – Mentoring Girls Into Womanhood. Her pioneering work has been transforming women and girls’ lives around the world, for over 20 years. DeAnna was the first to bring Rites-Of-Passage work to Israel/Palestine, her country of origin, where she helped Jewish and Palestinian women surpass political and religious differences by deeply bonding as cycling women. DeAnna specializes in empowering women to reclaim menstruation as source of inner guidance and spiritual renewal, coaches moms to welcome their girls into womanhood with ease and comfort, and trains women to hold Red Tents in their communities. Visit her website at: www.deannalam.com
This was written by the organizers of the event:
Greetings Powerful Permie Women-
Registration is open for the next West Coast Women’s Permaculture Gathering: Sowing the Seeds of Women’s Leadership and Growing a revolutionary paradigm.
The themes include Women’s leadership, social permaculture, self-care and growing a revolutionary paradigm.
It will happen May 20-22, 2011 in Cazadero CA at the Black Mountain Preserve and Retreat Center (http://www.blackmountaincenter.com/). Stay tuned for more info as we solidify the schedule.
Confirmed speakers:
Nina Simons (Moonrise, Bioneers & Cultivating Women’s Leadership),
Starhawk (The Last Wild Witch & Earth Activist Training),
Jude Hobbs (Cascadia Permaculture Institute & PI USA),
Kat Steele (Urban Permaculture Guild & Esalen Institute),
Jenny Pell (Community by Design & Permaculture Now!),
Carla Perez (Movement Generation & Permaculture for the People),
Pandora Thomas (Grind for the Green & Earth Seed),
Deborah Eden Tull (The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide to the Sustainable Food Revolution),
Heather Flores (Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community)
Also Rebecca Newburn of Richmond Rivets will coordinate a seed swap! There will be room for all to speak and share ideas and projects through an Open Space format, so come ready to share and participate.
We will update our website with other important details as they become available.
The site is a breathtaking space surrounded by nature. The weekend will be full of strong, powerful, committed women who share a vocabulary about planetary consciousness that sets us apart. This weekend will juice you up, connect you to other extraordinary women, and inspire you to continue to create the world we all know is possible!
We are creating a weekend of connecting, inspiring, playing and conjuring with other women dedicated to a vision of the world where resources are precious, relationships are priority, and beauty abounds! Spreading what’s possible by implementing permaculture designs and principles throughout our lives. We will share what’s happening in the various cities we live. We will inspire each other with the great projects we are spear-heading. We will support and offer resources and guidance to each other throughout the weekend.
The first gathering was amazing. This one is sure to be equally incredible. A bunch of permaculture minded rock star women all together for the weekend! How could we go wrong?
We’ve tried to make it as affordable as possible while still covering expenses. Tickets prices range from $165-$350 depending on accommodations and income. Please pay at the highest level you can afford. This helps us offer work trade options and makes the future of this gathering sustainable and not subsidized!
To Register for the event please visit our website at www.westcoastwomenspc.weebly.com or use the following link: http://womenspermaculture.eventbrite.com/
**If you have the means to contribute financially to help create this event that would be appreciated (to help us support key note speakers travel, provide scholarships, and make the event more smooth)
We are delighted to be creating this gathering and are looking forward to sharing it with YOU!
Please spread the word! Please forgive cross posts.
Thank you for what you do and how you be!
Love,
Joan, Camille, Kat, and Melora
“There is one, and only one, solution, and we have almost no time to try it. We must turn all our resources to repairing the natural world, and train all our young people to help. They want to. We need to give them this last chance to create forests, soils, clean waters, clean energies, secure communities, stable regions, and to know how to do it from hands-on experience.”
“…the greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
- Bill Mollison
Thanks to Kiea Spake-Wright and Lynn Tompkins for this post.
On Friday, October 8th, we traveled north with our Coyote’s PATH nature studies homeschooling program to Lynn Tompkins’ property in Lucas Valley. Lynn started the adventure by introducing them to the magic behind a healthy garden…the compost pile! Then the kids tasted honey from her bees’ hives, licking every drop of honey off of the combs. We helped Lynn harvest potatoes, pumpkins, corn, beans, sunflowers, and more. Lynn also treated us to a special fall harvest treat…her famous strawberry rhubarb crisp. Lynn was such a wonderful host and so enthusiastic about sharing the wisdom from her permaculture design with the children.
Instructors: Kiea Spake-Wright (Permaculture Marin Steering Committee Member) and Spencer Nielsen (Co-instructor)
