I was invited by a friend this week to visit her friend who lives off-grid in Chehalis, WA.  I was fortunate to spend the whole day with him on his land and hear his life story and the ways he is able to live minimally with almost zero waste, and almost zero dollars. He was born in Ghana and when was young migrated to Washington. He spent years living an average american life and working for various companies such as Apple, and one day, with intense frustration at modern society decided to by some land with all the money he had, and to live off-grid, by himself, with little to no communication for almost two years. Over time he slowly and surely built himself a cabin out of completely re-purposed wood and found objects on the land.

The high tech technology living here was solar panels for the cabin, his personal ipad, and cameras part of a security system, mainly to be alerted of hunters overstepping their boundaries. He was immensely inspiring, and was a living example of hope that we as humans are more then able to re-connect and live in harmony with the earth. He is a master of intuitively communicating with nature, and I learned so much about permaculture, botany, and basic living in the bush skills in just a day visit.

Our heavy dependence on technology is an  illusion created my consumerist and capitalist culture, and to see someone who has re-connected with intelligence of life and nature boosted my understanding of my project. I am considering visiting him again soon and incorporating his work with mine.

I have continued reading The Secret Teachings of Plants, and will am excited to add The Metamorphosis of Plants, Goethe, and The Grammar of the Lotus, Henry.

I have started writing my idea for a grant, and establishing The Evergreen Yoga Service Collective.

 

This week I immersed myself in The Secret Teaching of Plants, Buhner, and was blown away by his critique on scientists and their studies of life and nature. He argues that the traditional approach scientists use to study life is by dissecting and deconstructing nature, and while this can be a useful and practical study, it completely ignores a major aspect of nature that may help to understand many of the mysteries of nature; life. Living organisms are able to function based on the communication between cells, organs, and specie to specie. When we look at dead objects, we are missing the whole communicative aspect, which is where I think the high intelligence of nature occurs. This seems to relate to the class readings, especially Palassmaa’s inquiry on the communication between brain and hand. He believes that life is nature, and this leads me to believe that the ultimate high tech is the force of life itself.

 

This week lead to me to realize my first iteration of my project. I want to grow a plant from a seed, (say a bean), and 3D print the process of its growth. I want to make the growth of nature tangible and visible, and freeze these moments in time. At the same time I think it would be interesting to photograph myself or a friend doing a yoga pose every day to see the internal growth that happens within the body and mind when doing a spiritual practice. I think the distinction between growing and making, and the balance of the two are interesting subjects and worth speculation.