THE JOURNEY
Where to start? I guess where my 'real' education began. I was just turning 22 and getting ready to hop on a greyhound bound for Langley BC. My brother hands me a copy of the Celestine prophecy to read on my journey. I only had one backpack and a duffle bag and my imagination and a guitar. I was headed to the lower mainland BC because my trade in horticulture was seasonal on the east coast. Moncton is frozen for half the year so not much work for a recent grad in landscape horticulture. So off to bc I went. That book began a train of thought that has taken me many places , physical, mental and spiritual. I didn't know it then but my journey was going to test the limits of my entire paradigm and give me an entire new outlook on life, several times over!
THE BRAKE DOWN
After getting involved with a Wicca and indulging my curiosity, I began to research the 'unexplained ' side of reality. I had been in BC now for 4 years and had settled into a routine that was too comfortable for my own good. Once again I found myself caught up in the trivial rat race of endentured servitude that enslaves the masses with materialistic ideals and vain aspirations. The stress of debt and 'social responsibility' was too much. Socialism sickness took hold and a minor mental brake down occurs. A move back to the east coast temporarily to get perspective and back to BC I was going. To try again.
ENLIGHTENMENT
I was in a good place, the winds were still blowing hard but the worst was over. It was early morning and we were called in to deal with storm damaged trees. My new job as an arborist was exciting and challenging. i was learning about how to care for very old and very large trees in extreme urban circumstances. In other words, grab a rope, throw it as high up into the tree as possible, grab a climbing saddle and a chainsaw and go up. Pruning and cutting without damaging the houses 150 feet directly below you. An amazing adrenaline rush to say the least
A year later I was in Victoria BC. The most beautiful city in Canada. I was still an arborist, certified by this time and working on perfecting my climbing and rigging techniques. One of the most influential people in my life, Paul spriggs, a master gardener and expert crevice gardener and mountaineer, invited me to join him on two excursions into the BC wilderness. Knowing my passion for trees, he took my brother and I to Carmanah Whalbran provincial park, a true untouched old growth forest. I got to witness Mother Nature in her most pristine state. The trees were beyond massive. One of the thoughts that persisted was "how?" " how is this possible". Working so hard in the gardens and applying 12 years of horticultural experience and I couldn't understand how this forest of perfection attained its glory. The question haunted me for several more years before I found my answer. But it also spawned a new question. " how did we as a species allow these reserves of vast natural wealth be diminished to a measily 2% left. It was heartbreaking to see the clearcuts and logging turning the lush forest into a dry barren desert. My loathing towards "civilization " began.
REEDUCATION OR DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION.
Greed. After an enlightening lecture on the history of money, I decided it was time for me to remove myself from this forced slavery for the money masters. I realized that all evil stems not from greed of material wealth, they can create as much as they want from nothing, no not material wealth but life essence. They covet control and domination above all else. So I decided that abstinance was best. I was learning as much as I could about permaculture, having been inspired by the likes of Bill mollison and Geoff Lawton. They had brought to light the secrets of the old growth forest and answered my question of "how?" It was the food web. It was the interconnectedness of all life in the soils that allowed these trees to thrive into giants 500 years old and older. The organisms in the forest care for these trees and offset the requirements for them. It's a trade. A real economy. The trees make sugars from sunlight. They trade these for medicine and nutrients from mushrooms, they exchange other sugars with bacterias who in return keep soils moist and attract other larger organisms like worms which eat the bacteria and convert it to good soils. The mushroom underground can span for miles in all directions and can mine and transport nutrients and water from one end to the other and back. It was this realization that led me to think that we are doing things wrong.
I've since returned to the east, learning as much as I could, my focus switched to family. I live a humble life, working a piece of land and giving away the fruits of my labour. One of my main beliefs is that all people on this planet should be able to eat for free and have free water. With the amount of airable land there's no excuse. So I will grow and give away my fruits. My neighbors are my family as is the bear, the trees, the ocean and all else on this planet. It deserves my attention and help to move us forward in our thinking towards a sustainable existence for us all.
Cheers