Be Strong, Independent And Wise
Human Rights Video #15: Right To A Nationality
One of my principle concerns with the current scene is the rapidly escalating speed with which human rights are being trampled. The lack of peace in certain regions is proof positive that these principles are actually valid and needed, more than ever.
This trend needs to be reversed. The entrance point is educating people that they do have rights. Hence this post and the request you share these posts so more people are aware of and insist upon their rights so that we can live in a peaceful society.
Watch the video and if you think so too, please share it!
Do you know it is a fundamental right of yours to have your own opinion? You would not think so from the way some people (including the government) try to belittle you for disagreeing with them but it is.
Your Own Being
Filling Station Announcement
Huge respect to Nate and the team at Filling Station for doing what is right rather than what tyrants dictate.
This IS how we defeat tyranny!
Forest Garden With 500 Edible Plants Requires Only a Few Hours of Work Per Month
Historically, farms and forests have been at odds. Conventional wisdom says we have to cut down the forest to make way for agriculture.
But a growing movement called agro-forestry “capitalizes” on the free services forests provide farmers and gardeners.
Not only do trees protect more delicate edible plants from the elements and extreme weather, they provide nutrients, water, pest control and pollination services.
Although you might not find all your traditional annual veggies in a forest garden, you will discover hundreds of new varieties of edible plants you never knew existed, that are often more nutrient-dense and flavorful.
And if you choose your plants carefully, they will propagate themselves each year and live symbiotically among the hundreds of diverse species around them, requiring no tilling, planting, fertilizing, weeding or watering.
This is what Martin Crawford has done in his 2-acre forest garden in England for over 20 years — let it do the work for him for the most part, after a few years of research and legwork.
While the initial planting of the forest required years of research and watering, Crawford now has over 500 varieties of food growing wild in his garden, which requires very little work other than plucking and eating the fruits of his “labor.”
From time to time, he adds a new exotic species to his garden or stomps on some overgrown cow parsley to give other herbs a chance to catch up, but for the most part, he’s “playing and tinkering” in his garden, rather than doing anything that resembles work.
In his book Creating a Forest Garden, he describes how a complete garden should include 7 layers:
1. Tall trees
2. Smaller trees
3. Shrubs
4. Perrenials
5. Groundcover
6. Root crops
7. Climbing vines
It includes directly useful plants like fruit trees, nuts, tubers, vegetables, medicinal herbs, timber. It also includes indirectly useful plants that help the system function better like nitrogen fixers, mineral accumulators, plants that attract beneficial insects that eat pests.
Because almost all of the plants are perennial, there’s no need to “dig the soil.”
“Not digging the soil is really important in terms of sustainability because every time you dig the soil, a load of carbon goes into the air,” Martin says in the video below:
Additionally, digging or tilling the soil to plant annual crops, releases nutrients, and kills bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms that keep the soil alive by exposing them to the sun.
The soil in a forest garden is extra rich because the deep tree roots breakdown minerals deep in the subsoil and bring the nutrients up to the topsoil. They also drop leaves, which act as a natural compost.
Also, the canopy layer of the trees keeps moisture from evaporating out of the garden, so that as your forest grows denser you will have to do less and less watering. When forests grow big enough, they create their own rainfall, eliminating the need for irrigation altogether.
And… Crawford notes, the forest attracts wild game, so if you’re into meat, you don’t have to raise it, you can just shoot it.
So, in short, don’t clear the forest to start a farm, let the forest grow your food for you.
For a more in depth tour of Crawford’s garden, check out this longer video and buy one of his books:
https://returntonow.net/2020/10/12/forest-garden-with-500-kinds-of-food-requires-only-a-few-hours-of-work-per-month/
Did Einstein Believe In God?
When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the question students asked him most was: Do you believe in God? And he always answered: I believe in the God of Spinoza.
Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.
According to Spinoza, God would say: “Stop praying. I want you to go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I’ve made for you.
“Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That’s where I live and there I express my love for you.
“Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don’t blame me for everything that others made you believe.
“Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can’t read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son’s eyes—you will find me in no book!
“Stop asking me, ‘Will you tell me how to do my job?’ Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry or bothered. I am pure love.
“Stop asking for forgiveness, there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you, I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies, and best of all, free will. Why would I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How could I punish you for being the way you are, if I’m the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?
“Respect your peers, and don’t give what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life—alertness is your guide.
“My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, not a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now—and it is all you need.
“I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life. It’s you who creates heaven or hell.
“Live as if there is nothing beyond this life, as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. Then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is an afterlife, rest assured that I won’t ask if you behaved right or wrong, I’ll ask, ‘Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?’
“Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
“Stop praising me. What kind of egomaniac God do you think I am? I’m bored with being praised. I’m tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.
“Stop complicating things and repeating as a parrot what you’ve been taught about me. Why do you need more miracles? So many explanations?
“The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.”
Human Rights Video #13: Freedom To Move
One of my principle concerns with the current scene is the rapidly escalating speed with which human rights are being trampled. The lack of peace in certain regions is proof positive that these principles are actually valid and needed, more than ever.
This trend needs to be reversed. The entrance point is educating people that they do have rights. Hence this post and the request you share these posts so more people are aware of and insist upon their rights so that we can live in a peaceful society.
Watch the video and if you think so too, please share it!
Do you know it is a fundamental right of yours to have your own opinion? You would not think so from the way some people (including the government) try to belittle you for disagreeing with them but it is.
Carrie Fisher Quote
The technique of it is this:
First you decide the product you wish to obtain.
Then you do. (Perform actions towards attaining that product.)
As a result of repeated and improved doing (or drilling if you are practicing to do) you acquire competence.
As a result of your competence, you become confident.
Most fear to do because they lack confidence.
But as the above sequence illustrates, that is wrong way to.
So a motto to apply in any area of life you wish to conquer is simply:
Decide the product,
Start to do,
Refine and do,
Accept coaching and do,
Continue to improve your do,
Until you are a Competent, Confident you!
The problem is we are not oriented to the amount of time it takes to drill and perfect our doingnesses to the point of extreme competence. So most give up well before they atain extreme competence. We look at someone really skilled at an action but do not see the enormous investment of time it took to gain that proficiency.
I read an article once that reported on a survey of all sorts of activities: sports, instrument playing etc. that found it took 10,000 hours to become world class at something.
This is one reason I encourage people to find their basic purpose in life and spend more and more time on that. It is a lot easier to persist through plateaus and difficulties let alone overcome serious obstacles if you are working on your basic purpose.
Friends Don’t Leve Friends Behind
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer,
he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?”
“This is Heaven, sir.” the man answered.
“Would you happen to have some water?” the man asked.
“Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.” The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
“Can my friend,” gesturing toward his dog, “come in, too?” the traveller asked.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.”
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
“Excuse me!” he called to the man. “Do you have any water?”
“Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.”
“How about my friend here?” the traveller gestured to the dog.
There should be a bowl by the pump.”
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveller filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
“What do you call this place?” the traveller asked.
“This is Heaven,” he answered.
“Well, that’s confusing,” the traveller said, “the man down the road said that was Heaven, too.”
“Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s hell.”
“Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?”
“No, we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.”
~Anonymous Author and Artwork