I spent time walking the land at Marie’s Farm this morning and relished her wet socks and bird calls and visions of spiral rows of new fruit trees to come. 108 acres just shy of Pescadero, CA and the Pacific, the place offers a critical balance between old machine parts, imaginal yurt chats and seed starts. Patrick and I are scheming mythic: we see an online exhibit of illustrations and new Nature-based myths in April and then a Nature-infused perma-arts conference in June. Tents required.

Our re-integration of permaculture’s land design with the Nature-Arts is a profound intersection to explore and work; to revive personal stories and gang-up to produce new community myths. I love the ritual of the A-Frame march to locate the contour of a hillside. Or our hydro-sense that water will disappear then percolates into a pond. Never forget that PDC foot trance for cob oven smiles.

Perhaps the best artsy connection to permaculture is the harvest ritual. Hands digging for roots, baskets full from months of labor, cleaning, canning, storing. Eating together. How can this wondrous cyclical Nature routine be just a chore?!

To stifle this multiple thread and creative spirit in our permaculture work is to cut the cord to those coming next. We need to “pass the mud back” and sing to create the future we want to be.