We've had an extremely dry summer. The drought started in late November and we're not finished yet. With so many of us in this part of the world relying on rainwater for our household use and in the garden, it has been a challenge. A couple of women attending Lucia's yoga class yesterday said they've let go of watering their vegetable gardens. There simply isn't enough water. I know these have been difficult decisions for each of them to make them because they love their gardens.

We're lucky. We have one 5000 gallon tank supplied by the water collected on the roof of our large shed/garage. And we a have a huge rectangular concrete tank under the deck of our house, fed by the expansive roof area of this colonial bungalow. We still have water because we're able to collect a lot from dew and from the very occasional light shower of the last months and because we practice frugality.

One of the bonuses of such a dry summer is that the water quality of the ocean is better than usual. This is because the rains are not washing pollutants from the soil to the sea. So we've been swimming a lot, often twice a day.

Yesterday I was out about 150 metres from shore in the midst of a flock of Fairy Terns. I would have thought they'd find more private fishing grounds when I arrived but, no, they continued to dive all around me. I surmised my flailing was disturbing the fish, making it even easier for the terns to find a meal. I didn't mind at all.

Our drought is a reminder of the dualistic nature of our world. Often in the winter we have so much rain that the earth becomes saturated, leading to flooding the next time a heavy drenching of rain occurs. Then, you could say we have too much rain and now you could say we don't have enough. I prefer to focus on what we have and what we've gained in each circumstance. There is a positive for every negative. And our job is not to change or want to change the outer. This would mean resistance and resistance leads to pain. Our job is to turn away from our attachment to the outer, to form, and to find the deep abiding peace that exists inside, behind the surface of form and duality. This peace is totally independent of what is happening outside.

In the midst of our drought there is great beauty. Peaches and cherry tomatoes are ripening beautifully in the sun. The cicadas and crickets add their magical cadence to the ethers. Queen of the Night (Night Blooming Jasmine) and wild ginger lend their sweet fragrance. All is well in our world.

For those of you that haven't heard the sound of crickets slowed down before I've inserted the following You Tube excerpt. You're in for a treat. I play the extended version in most of my sound workshops.

 

 

Pete Smith, renowned actor and filmmaker, returns to Voices from the North and describes with eloquence his recent trauma (heart failure) and hospitalization which led to an extended experience of awakening. This is a tremendously inspiring talk in which Pete will motivate the listener to live in the present; to simply be. In doing nothing, nothing is left undone and all one's needs are met-effortlessly.

We're all here to remind each other to wake up from the ego-centred world. The ego draws sustenance from defence and attack, fear and worry and the desire for people and events to be different than they are. Pete's story is an evocative call to let go of the ‘tapes' of the past and rest in the stillness and connectedness of now.

Awakening to who we are is what we're here for. As Pete's friend Dean Turner writes, "It's good to be alive when you're living."

I urge you to listen as this master storyteller weaves the tapestry of his recent enlightening experiences:

http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25547289-Pete-Smith-Dialogue-on-Awakening

Here's the link to my earlier blog/interview with Pete Smith

http://insearchofsimplicity.com/2009/11/17/pete-smith-actor-and-filmmaker/

 

Beautiful and truly free improvisation between genius Bobby McFerrin and Richard Bona (Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo) playing live in Montreal.

This sounds like angels playing with sound. My thanks to my friend Doug for putting me on to this. Absolutely amazing!

These two men are quite literally embodying boundless joy while they play with the sound of their voices, guitar and rhythm. Allow them to take you to the same place.

In joy, John

 

I was on the phone last night with an old and dear friend, Geoff, who recently returned to his home in Wellington after living for a couple of years in London with his family. We hadn't spoken together since his return. He told me a lovely story I'd like to relate to you here. Geoff has been a coach for a long time. About ten years ago he had the privilege of hosting and being the guide for an Indian man (we'll call him Michael) who'd come to share some of his knowledge with coaches in New Zealand.

Here's the story in Geoff's words:

Michael wouldn't call himself a guru. He is a little man who is very calm and has much wisdom to share. When he walks across a room it is as if the space around him is lit up.

Part way through his visit we were sitting together in a busy café in downtown Wellington. I was drinking a coffee, he a green tea. In the course of our conversation he could hear that I was a keen seeker of truth.

Michael asked, "Would you like to know the secret to enlightenment?"

This got me excited. After all my searching I was finally going to find that which I was seeking. "Yes," I replied with genuine enthusiasm.

"First of all the word ‘enlightenment' is wrong. It's ‘lighten-up-enment'"

I was on the edge of chair, hanging on his every word.

"You see all the people walking past us. Do you think that because they believe something, it is truth?"

"Of course not. Just because we believe it, doesn't make it truth."

"Then what makes you think you have exclusive access to truth, Geoff."

At this point I was feeling a little deflated; much flatter than I had been earlier.

Michael continued, "OK, here's the first step to enlightenment..."

I was really eager, ready to absorb the coming pearls of wisdom.

"The first step to enlightenment is that you've got to realise you are full of shit."

I looked at Michael, slightly shocked. This definitely wasn't what I was expecting.

"The second step to enlightenment is that the moment you think you're right and start using that ‘rightness' to teach or dominate a conversation go back to step one."

I was stunned. I sensed there was deep truth in what he said, even if it cut sharply across all my expectations.

"The third step is that the moment you think you've got it you haven't. Go back to step one.

"Keep practicing these three steps and eventually you'll transcend your ego."

Have a great day and a great year and may your every step illuminate those around you.

John

 

In this, the first Voices from the North interview of 2010, Golden Globe winner Amanda McBroom shares her love and passion for the music and presence of Jacques Brel. Five songs from Chanson, Amanda's latest CD, recorded in 2009, are featured including I Loved, Song for Old Lovers (this is featured in the video below), Ca Va, Ne Me Quitte Pas (you may know this one as Don't Leave Me) and If We Only Have Love. We probe gently into the life of Jacques Brel (France's premier balladeer of the 60s) including his last sailing journey which brought him to the South Pacific. He was buried beside Paul Gauguin in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. This is a lovely, flowing, musical interview.

Chanson was skilfully arranged by Stefan Oberhaff and Michele Brourman. They played many of the instruments featured in the recording but significant contributions have been made by other musicians including flugelhorn by Oscar winning Mark Isham. Amanda's voice and Isham's horn on If We Only Have Love combine to produce a song of haunting quality. Overall, this is music not to be missed. It travels straight to the heart and captures the essence of Brel.

For more on the salvage of Askoy II, the 60 foot steel hulled yacht sailed by Jacques Brel to the South Pacific visit here. And for the interview I did with author and sailor, Lyndsay Wright, who pointed this out to me click here.

For this complete one hour interview with Amanda please click below:

http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25547004-Amanda-McBroom-and-Chanson-Jacques-Brel%E2%80%99s-Music

For my 2009 interview with Amanda McBroom visit here.

Chanson De Vieux Amants

 

 

In this, the last Voices from the North interview of 2009, Robyn Corrigan shares her wealth of experience with the social issues affecting Maori and other indigenous groups around the world who've felt disenfranchised since the advent of colonialism. She gives examples of positive things (such as role models and story sharing) that can and are improving the lives of many people today. But she acknowledges there is still much work to be done and the results are not instantaneous. It took centuries to get to where we are today. It would be unrealistic to expect to see all the wrongs righted in a few short years.

The inaugural world indigenous social work conference took place in Hawaii in 2007. Aotearoa (New Zealand) is due to host the next conference in 2011. The 20^th Asia Pacific Social Work Conference took place in Auckland in November, 2009.

For the complete interview visit:

http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25546991-Robyn-Corrigan-Indigenous-Social-Work

 

From share trader and financial advisor to a strong and informed advocate for local resilience, Trevor Houghton has married his wealth of experience into a comprehensive whole. In this Voices from the North interview he shares some of the many transition initiatives already underway in Nelson that are bringing hope and strength to their community and readying themselves for the potential changes related to the post-oil world. The hour contains a clip from Transition Town founder, Rob Hopkins and part of Celine Dion's awesome rendition of ‘Where is the Love?'

Al Gore had more than thirty years of experience with climate change. His message was simple. There are more than enough commercial solutions to solve this crisis. What's lacking is the political will and the public focus. It's up to the constituents to insisting on appropriate legislative support from their political representatives.

Trevor mentioned the idea of hunter/gatherer potluck feasts. All the food must be locally sourced through hunting or gathering it from gardens.

Trevor discussed micro-finance and the great benefit this has brought to third world people embroiled in generation slavery. For a site where you can help go to: http://www.kiva.org/

We looked at the present position and direction of Fontera and the New Zealand dairy industry as an example of an industrial agricultural model with globalisation problems.

For the complete inspiring interview visit:

http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25546992-Trevor-Houghton-Peak-Oil-and-the-Transition-Initiative

TRANSITION TOWNS: An Interview with Rob Hopkins

 

Voices from the North

On December 9, 2009 my special returning guest on Voices from the North was Bob Cooper. For those of you who don't already know, Bob is a pioneer of home satellite technology. Here's a link to a Mother Earth News article about Bob written in 1980. He has self-published more than 40 books in the course of his productive life and he's recently turned novelist of the Portobello trilogy set in the Caribbean (Turks & Caicos Islands), where Bob used to live.

Gutenberg and Printing

During this interview Bob gives an overview of publishing from the time of Johannes Gutenberg (the 42 line Gutenberg Bible) in about 1439 until the present. He ties in our discussion with the findings of Gavin Menzies, author of 1421 and 1434, who claims the Chinese sailed flotillas of 300 ships around the world long before Columbus theoretically discovered the Americas. In fact, Menzies claims Columbus was using Chinese maps to assist his navigation. The Chinese were also printing books with movable type at least as early as AD 900, again long before the supposed invention of Gutenberg's.

Bob Cooper was simultaneously publishing five magazines circa 1960 when he was in his early twenties. At that time, technology hadn't advanced much beyond the early printing of Gutenberg. Flats were made for each magazine page from molten lead. Post production, the entire lot was melted down again, ready for the next printing project.

Print on Demand

Now, fast forward to today. Print on Demand companies like BookSurge (or as they're now called, CreateSpace) are using fully automated and computerized machines like the Espresso Book Machine. As Bob explains, from the moment Joe Bloggs (from anywhere) places his online order for a POD book, one minute might transpire before the physical book is produced from scratch complete with an address label ready to be posted or couriered to Joe. Presumably, no human hands have been involved to this point. The BookSurge representative is likely calmly sipping a liquid Espresso at the time. There is no need to make an initial print run of, say, 3000 copies. The books are printed as required.

Enter Kindle

Six months ago the publishing industry was again turned on its head with the introduction of Amazon's Kindle Wirless Reading Device. Again, as Bob says, a vacationer lounging on the beach in Samoa could have a new book uploaded to her Kindle within a minute of placing their order. All they need is access to 3G mobile, something that's pretty omnipresent today.

So, what are the implications of the rapid technological changes we're seeing in the publishing world? Only time will tell. But, as Bob Cooper points out in our interview, Barnes and Noble will be closing 200 stores after Christmas and, at the same time, Borders will be virtually (pun intended) no more. Keep your eyes and ears open in 2010. Will you be reading from a machine or from a real book. I'm sticking to the ‘real thing', and that's not Coca Cola folks!

For the complete informative and entertaining interview listen here:

http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25546815-Bob-Cooper-and-the-Changing-World-of-Book-Publishing

 

During an early walk in the mist this morning I ran into a friend; not literally, visibility was better than that! He lives in Auckland and owns a little seaside house here. He only visits from time to time. I hadn't seen him for months. He said, "I heard you have to leave the house you're in."

"Yes," I said. "The owners are returning from the Middle East in August next year."

"That must be sad," he commiserated.

"I'm grateful. This is already the longest we've ever been in one place (five years), including the houses we've owned. There is only a twinge of regret because of all the trees I've planted and all the work I've done to improve the garden. But that's what I do everywhere we live. I planted a thousand bulbs at our last rental house in Holland. We only lived there for a year and a half."

"That reminds me of the story of the elderly Taoist who was planting a little oak tree. A neighbour saw him as she passed and said, ‘Old man, do you know you won't have a chance to see that tree grow?'

‘Yes,' he replied with a contented smile. ‘I know.'"

Did you plant the crab apple tree that blooms every spring at the end of your lane? Does it matter who planted it? We each get to enjoy the beauty others create. Breathing in. Breathing out. Giving and receiving. It's all a continuum.

Enjoy this creation.

John

I am currently completing the sequel to In Search of Simplicity which will be called Beyond the Search (this is the latest incarnation in a series of possible titles). It is the story of Lucia's and my return to nature and our continuing intention to lead ‘good and natural lives'. Before our initial embarkation on this journey I read two books by Helen and Scott Nearing (it's their photo above near the end of Scott's life) that greatly inspired me. These books, Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life, described the Nearing's homesteading experiences in Vermont and Maine over many decades beginning in the depths of the Great Depression in 1932. Years later I read another book by Helen Nearing titled Loving and Leaving the Good Life. It was a touching memoir of her life with Scott. Her description of how he lived and, especially how he chose to die, deeply moved me. I share below words of Helen Nearing that describe vividly these final days and months of Scott Nearing's life. These words were found here: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC26/Nearing.htm

You may be interested in my earlier post on my mother's touching and dignified death called We Are Always Connected.

Enjoy,

John

 

At The End Of A Good Life

Scott Nearing's dignified death, like his life,
sets an inspiring example for all of us

by Helen Nearing

One of the articles in What Is Enough? (IC#26)
Summer 1990, Page 20
Copyright (c)1990, 1997 by Context Institute | To order this issue ...

Perhaps the most profound reason for our intensely consumptive lifestyle is, at bottom, our fear of death. "You can't take it with you," as they say - though you can try to numb the terror with the things that money can buy. But in his purposeful death by fasting at the age of 100, Scott Nearing demonstrated that there are better, simpler choices.

Throughout their lives, Helen & Scott Nearing were a living example of the possibility of such choices. Their experience, memorialized in Living the Good Life and a string of other books, has been an inspiration to thousands of people looking for an alternative to modern industrialism. On their homesteads first in Vermont and later Penobscott Bay, Maine, the Nearings built, made, grew and collected nearly everything they needed. Yet they still found plenty of time for nourishing their inner lives and giving to others - through music, education, writing and speaking.

Here Helen Nearing, who still lives at the Maine homestead, recounts the story of Scott's purposeful passing. For more information about the Nearings' rich-yet-simple lives and their many books, write to Social Science Institute, Harborside, ME 04642.

Doctors practice medicine. Scott and I intended to write a book together, We Practice Health, which never eventuated, though we wrote much on the subject in various chapters of our homesteading books Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life. We rarely if ever used doctors, pills, or hospitals. Yet Scott lived to a hale and hearty 100 and died when he decided to - by fasting for a month and a half at the very end.

He had always been physically active, in the woods, in the garden, in building construction. He was also active mentally, having written 40 or more books from his 20's to his 90's, including an autobiography, The Making of a Radical.

"Work," said Scott, "helps prevent one from getting old. My work is my life. I cannot think of one without the other. The man who works and is never bored, is never old. A person is not old until regrets take the place of hopes and plans. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for aging." Still, he was facing the end and knew it.

Interviewed in 1981 he said "I look forward to the possibility of living until I'm 99." His blue eyes twinkled. "It is a precarious outlook, I assure you. With age, your facility of expression and perception diminishes. I have almost nothing left but time. But if I can be of service, I would like to go on living." Walt Whitman, at a far earlier age (70) said, "The old ship is not in a state to make many voyages, but the flag is still on the mast and I am still at the wheel."

Most people begin to get old in their 60's. Scott only began to be old in his 90's. Up to then if anyone called him old I was outraged, because he neither looked nor felt old. Sure, he had plenty of wrinkles. They came in his 50's from a lot of hard work in the sun. But failing and getting feeble? No.

He did more than his share of mental and physical work up to his last years. At 98 he said "Well, at least I can still split and carry in the wood." And when he was close to the end, lying in our living room, his one regret at leaving this Earth plane was on watching me lug in the wood for our kitchen stove. "I wish I could help with that," he said. He was a help unto the end.

A month or two before he died he was sitting at table with us at a meal. Watching us eat he said, "I think I won't eat anymore." "Alright," said I. "I understand. I think I would do that too. Animals know when to stop. They go off in a corner and leave off food."

So I put Scott on juices: carrot juice, apple juice, banana juice, pineapple, grape - any kind. I kept him full of liquids as often as he was thirsty. He got weaker, of course, and he was as gaunt and thin as Gandhi.

Came a day he said, "I think I'll go on water. Nothing more." From then on, for about ten days, he only had water. He was bed-ridden and had little strength but spoke with me daily. In the morning of August 24, 1983, two weeks after his 100th birthday, when it seemed he was slipping away, I sat beside him on his bed.

We were quiet together; no interruptions, no doctors or hospitals. I said "It's alright, Scott. Go right along. You've lived a good life and are finished with things here. Go on and up - up into the light. We love you and let you go. It's alright."

In a soft voice, with no quiver or pain or disturbance he said "All...right," and breathed slower and slower and slower till there was no movement anymore and he was gone out of his body as easily as a leaf drops from the tree in autumn, slowly twisting and falling to the ground.

So he returned to his Maker after a long life, well-lived and devoted to the general welfare. He was principled and dedicated all through. He lived at peace with himself and the world because he was in tune: he practiced what he preached. He lived his beliefs. He could die with a good conscience.

As to myself and my old age: I try to follow in his footsteps. It is not so easy homesteading alone, but I carry on. A few more years and I also will experience the great Transition. May I live halfway as good a life and die as good a death.