How Permaculture's Third Ethic Enchanted my Workspace
For someone managing home chaos, and possibly neurodivergence, Permaculture's Three Ethics could seem like yet another demand on an overwhelmed system. Care of Earth
Care of People
Share whats Spare
In my recent 'Home that Loves You Back' webinar I showed how a 'Share what's Spare' attitude enabled me to fall in love with once-scary bookkeeping. These days, calculating taxes has become so satisfying, I do it as procrastination from drawing pictures.
First I'll show you my office and its inspiration, then I'll explain how the three Ethics unlocked the resources that made it possible.
When I first glimpsed the office of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, I was blown away. I had always known that a regular work life wasn't for me. But this office, in the depths of Tokyo Disneyland, exploded my ideas of what an office had to be. Walls were not needed! We could scrounge what we needed from shipwrecks or op shops.
A few months later, in the terrace house I rented in North Melbourne, I fould I had such an office. My worktime even included designing clever water systems, just like the Swiss family.
In true japanese style, I had a bedroom by night, and 'anything' room by day, with my futon and bedding folded up into one corner. I would clamber out the window, with a tray full of pencils, notebooks, and my electronic Japanese dictionary, and of course breakfast. My tiny balcony garden became a world I could escape to, and work with focus and flow. I studied Japanese in this chair for 4 hours a day. If the phone rang downstairs, I wasn't going to clamber down to get it. My tea was in a thermous by my side, so no fridge raiding. Soon I had a montly column I'd write in Japanese and illustrate: 'Cecilias Permaculture Slow Life'. My cozy home-made wheatbag extended the time I could use this office by 6 months. $1 worth of wheat and second-hand fabric, for an entire office. That's a great real-estate deal.
An approachable view of Permaculture's Three Ethics
Care for the Earth can start with under your feet. When our kitchen scraps turn into flowers, via our compost bin, we have proof we live in a redemptive universe, and we are powerful co-creators. When we put out a birdbath, we get to hear birdsong. Of course, we are the earth, and when we care for it, we remeber how expansive we are.
Care for people can start with ourselves. Thats where we have the power to have the most success. It can start with finding ways to eating a rainbow of food, and get to bed on time. In my case, it started with becoming a WWOOF host, and hosting volunteers to do the work my mind was not cut out for, and as an ecosytem, get lifes requirements fullfilled.
Share whats Spare is How we did it. Unlocking unnoticed, unused resources.
...(to be continuted later today).
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