Hi Everyone-


It's been a long time since we have sent out a newsletter with commentary, but we find ourselves in interesting times, thought we would say hello.

        Our next event is the launch of a new series called "Permaculture Around the World" beginning with Warren Brush of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm, speaking about his experiences in Liberia, West Africa.  In reading one thing and another on the Quail Springs website and Warren's blog on Africa for this event, I came upon something Warren wrote called "A Pattern Revolution".  In these uncertain times it seemed appropriate to share part of it with our readers.  It is beautifully written and has a way of bringing things into perspective, as many things about Permaculture will do.  So many of our permaculture teachers & designers have so much wisdom to share,  with foresight into a shifting world and the need for re-orienting ourselves in practical and positive ways.  I am grateful they have acquired and shared the skills they have learned with all of us.

        It has been a busy summer, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network convened with Quail Springs, as the host site, the first Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence.  It was a very special event, with keynote speakers, honored guests, and permaculturists from all over the southland sharing their experiences and projects.  It was really all we could have hoped for
. The only negative was we could only accommodate 60 people due to site restrictions at Quail Springs, so many people who wanted to attend, weren't able to.  Our job was to kick-start and initiate a Southern California Convergence, passing it on to others to organize future events, with hopefully larger sites becoming available.  A website was developed to be handed over in trust, support & advisory committees in place to assist future conveners, and even an official banner was created!  It fulfilled our mission of beginning to identify ourselves as a region, and to link and network effectively for changing times.

Please see Warren's "A Pattern Revolution" article at the bottom of this email.  Warren's talk "Child Soldiers of Liberia, Transformation through Permaculture" takes place on October 4th, 7pm at the Santa Barbara Public Library, and is a fundraiser for his work in Africa.  When times are tough, the best thing is to do the
"Abun-dance", free up your heart in generosity and love, bring your $10 to support another part of the world that has experienced troubled times, managed to come out on the other side, actually ready to teach us a thing or two.

Hope to see you at an event soon-

Margie Bushman
SB Permaculture Network


Upcoming Events:

Friday, Oct 4, 7-9pm - Fundraiser donation for work in Liberia,  $10
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network "Permaculture Around the World Series"
Talk with Warren Brush, "Child Soldiers of Liberia, Transformation Through Permaculture"
SB Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara
No reservations needed
More info, (805) 962-2571, margie@sbpermaculture.org, www.sbpermaculture.org
Co-sponsored by Everyday Gandhis



Wed, Oct 8, 6:30-8:30pm Free
Slideshow & Book Signing with Heather Flores, author of "Food Not Lawns"
Goleta Valley Community Center
5679 Hollister Ave # 1, Goleta, CA 93117 (near Santa Barbara)
For more info http://sustainability.sbcc.edu
Co-sponsored by Fairview Gardens, SB City College Adult Ed Programs, SBCC Center for Sustainability, and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network


Sunday, Oct 12, Noon - 3pm
Community Seed Swap at Fairview Gardens
with Guest Speaker, Heather Flores, Author of "Food Not Lawns"( http://www.foodnotlawns.com/seedswap.html )
Music by "The Underscore Orkestra"
Potluck, Bring Seeds & Seedlings to Swap, a Family Event!
Parking at the Christian Science Church
for more information, contact Tiffany Cooper 967-7369
www.fairviewgardens.org
SB Permaculture Network helps to sponsor, call Tiffany if you are able to help


Tuesday, October 28, 7-9pm, $10 Fundraiser donation for Bustan Permaculture Center
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network "Permaculture Around the World Series"
featuring "Sustainable Community Action for Land and People" at Bustan Permaculture Center, with Michal Vital,
 long-time Bustan volunteer, and leading Eco-Builder in Israel.
Bustan is an Israeli NGO working at the nexus of social and environmental justice in the Negev region of Israel. www.bustan.org
No reservations required
More info, (805) 962-2571, margie@sbpermaculture.org, www.sbpermaculture.org


More Info:

<<<<>>>>
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
 Permaculture Around the World Series

Child Soldiers of Liberia, Transformation through Permaculture
with Warren Brush

Saturday, October 4, 7-9pm 2008
Fundraiser Donation $10
Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery

        Please join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network as it launches its new series “Permaculture Around the World” by hosting a talk with Warren Brush of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm as he talks about his journey and work in Liberia, West Africa. 
 
      Invited by the Santa Barbara based non-profit Everyday Gandhis ( www.everydaygandhis.org), Warren Brush traveled to Liberia to teach workshops in Permaculture as a part of a peace building process, with vocational training for many former child-soldiers from a brutal 15 year civil war the country had endured.  After the long civil war, the land was injured, but so were its children, now grown to young adults.  Caught in the nightmare of a war they didn’t create, but had been conscripted into, many were reluctant to return to their homes after the terrible atrocities of war. Could Permaculture help heal the land and its people?
 
Warren Brush made his first journey to Voinjama, Liberia in 2007 to teach a Permaculture course to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. These included elders of all the local tribes, medicine people, ex-combatant youth, trained agriculturists, subsistence farmers, men and women, all teaching translated into the local language.  Teaching sustainable agriculture and building techniques, as a part of the course, the students participated in a design project for a newly created Peace and Permaculture Demonstration Farm.  In March 2008, the first graduating class of a Permaculture Design Course in Liberia’s history received their diplomas from an assistant to the country's President H.E.Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, noting the significance of the event.

Permaculture (PERMAnent agriCULTURE) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, resilience, and stability of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape with humans in providing shelter, water, food, energy and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable manner.

Quail Springs is a 450-acre working farm and wilderness center focused on modeling and teaching the concepts and practices of sustainability. Located in the Cuyama Valley north of Ojai, CA, Quail Springs ( www.quailsprings.org) has been incorporating Permaculture into all of its land practices on their farm and demonstration site since it's inception.  Permaculture teachers from around the world have taught at Quail Springs, and most recently, students from Liberia have attended advanced training courses there.  The hope is to share ecological design techniques and strategies with both the local communities of California and the world.  Currently Quail Springs is involved in a capital campaign to help build a Core Mentoring Center to accommodate this work, and join a network of Permaculture Training Centers around the globe.

Warren Brush is a certified Permaculture designer, educator, and storyteller. He is co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis & Permaculture Farm, Wilderness Youth Project, Mentoring for Peace, and Trees for Children.  He works extensively in Permaculture education and sustainability design in North America and in Africa.  Follow Warren's work in Africa on his blog at http://web.mac.com/warrenbrush/iWeb/Site/African%20Journeys/African%20Journeys.html .

 
The event takes place at the Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 East Anapamu St, in downtown Santa Barbara, on Saturday, October 4, 7-9pm, 2008.  No reservations are required, fundraiser donation for Quail Springs work $10. For more information please call (805) 962-2571, or email margie@sbpermaculture.org; www.sbpermaculture.org. Sponsored by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and Everyday Gandhis.

<<<
A Pattern Revolution

by Warren Brush

(complete article can be found on the Quail Springs website at www.quailsprings.org)


For many years my life work has been to facilitate the best next step process for youth and adults alike through various workshop and mentoring modalities.  In my working with and learning alongside thousands of people during these years, several key patterns have emerged that are instrumental in connecting us with our next best step toward knowing how to be responsible for our lives and for the communities in which we live.  These subtle ideas/patterns are truly revolutionary in their capacity to bring healing change, and they are approachable from where you dwell TODAY in your uniqueness of being and life circumstance!  Our work is in the weaving of a cultural basket that supports the health, well-being and spirit of individuals and their communities. The wefts of change beneath are the constant pattern understandings innate in all peoples.  The weaves come from our own uniqueness and the beautiful diversity that we are capable of offering:
 
      Incorporate Nature Into Your Worldview:  Develop routines that immerse your senses in the influences of the natural world on regular basis.  This could be a daily ritual of sitting in one place over and over again, surrounded by nature, for a few minutes each day, whether in the woods or leaning against a tree in your urban neighborhood.  This is the beginning of awakening your true nature as you step into a worldview that includes nature rather than ignores its deep connection to you.  Another key ingredient to shifting your worldview is to be mindful of where you focus your mind energy.  So many people spend countless hours giving their attention to the medias often fearful and politically motivated interpretation of the world around us.  Begin by losing your television, look at the newspaper less, read more books, observe the happenings of the world around you in present time.  Replace fear, depression and hopelessness with a positive outlook.

      Link the World Together Into Patterns:  The world is made up of multitudes of patterns that make up larger sets of patterns that make up still larger sets of patterns that are inextricably interdependent.  We are forever integral to this amazing web that touches everything.  The industrial human has been unfortunately acculturated to see the world as individual and separate parts disassociated from the patterns of the whole. It would be like trying to picture a friend, their uniqueness, what they love, and their value in the world by looking at one cell in their pancreas rather than stepping back and seeing the amalgamation of patterns that make up the wholeness of their being.  It seems idiotic at best, yet for many of us this metaphor accurately represents our daily relationship with the world that sustains us.  Try this linking exercise: Find a tree across your yard or street and then identify another tree at least 100 yards away.  Then find a link between them by tracking those nuances that touch both of them through a storyline.  Maybe you will find a ground squirrel visits the base of one tree to pick up the dropped food of a crow eating a chestnut high in the branches. The ground squirrel carries the food back to its in-ground nest and stores it for a rainy day.  During those rare spring rains, water enters the nest hole and reaches down into the storage of the squirrel and sprouts the chestnut seed, which grows toward the light. That sprout gets eaten by a deer, which leaves its scat, as a natural fertilizer, on the other tree.  It does not matter if the trees, or any element of this world, for that matter, are hundreds of miles apart. You can link them together with enough investigation.  This understanding, once kinesthetically learned, is the basis of understanding our deep need to be responsible for our impacts on the earth and one another.

      Develop Routines of Gratitude:  I believe it is better to live in a state of gratitude than to be in a state of hopefulness.  Hope has often served to stagnate action; i.e. If only the (democrats, green party, republicans, etc.) were in political power; everything would change for the better; I could afford to do what my heart wants me to do if I only won the lottery;  If I find the right partner I would then be a happy person.  In hope, often we relegate ourselves to sitting and waiting when there is so much work to be done now in our lives and our communities to bring about positive change.  Gratitude engages a different energetic mechanism than hope. Gratitude opens doors to awareness of the tools needed to be in rightful action. Everyday our family and visitors to our Permaculture farm sit in a circle before dinner where we share our gratitude for the things we are truly thankful for that day. It has become an important feedback loop in our unique ecology of action where our hopes are being lived and reflected upon in positive ways and shared as a part of our developing story. 

        Observe Your Life From a Birds Eye View:  Often we see our lives myopically through the worries of the brain rather than from the wholeness of our hearts.  Regularly stepping back - physically, emotionally and spiritually -  to see our lives within a broader landscape of space and time, is essential for us to stay synchronized with our destiny.  There are infinite ways this can look, yet, we have had many successes with these few actions:

        Physically, look at your home, your neighborhood, and your community from different vantage points.  Climb a nearby mountain or tree, stand on the tallest building, and look at where you dwell.  To define and know where you are, you must define that which surrounds you.

         Tend a Re-Membrance Fire.  Kindle a fire in your back yard, fireplace, or a special place in the wilderness from sunset one day to sunset the next.  Place your intentions of wanting to see the bigger picture of your life and your next best steps.

         Gather your family together in a circle and ask each to share their dreams as they understand them at this point in their journey.  Before you begin, create a safe space of listening and sharing by picturing your own circle within a circle of all your ancestors who are intently listening and holding each of you in their wisdom, grief, and joy.  Then picture a circle inside the family circle where you picture the children who are yet to be born the next generations.  As your dream sharing circle ensues, remember that you are each a vital link that connects the ancestors with the children yet to be born. 

      Grow a Garden:  History shows us that most of the problems in the world can be solved in the garden.  Cultural stability comes from living within regional ecosystems that feed their inhabitants, whether naturally or by human design. These ecosystems have the diversity, resilience, and equitability to support a permanence to human habitation.  When we grow a garden, not only do we get local, healthy, fresh food that we know the source of, we get the security of knowing we can feed ourselves without needing to be reliant on a failing industrial complex or imperialistic power. The garden grows us through our tending its needs and it tending ours with truth and integrity.  Much of the foods and medicines many westerners have come to rely on are poisoned, depleted and spiritually crippled.  The garden reminds us that our bodies, our emotions and our spirits are inextricably intertwined. Our patterns of health, happiness and culture are inspired through the gifts of tending life in the garden. Nurture a garden to life today!

      Convert Your Economic Capital Into Natural Capital: There is immense economic wealth that is squandered daily on products and systems that are destroying the capacity for our future generations - our grandchildren - to live and thrive.  We are literally stealing from our children and grandchildren to feed ourselves.  The western economic wealth that has been derived from mining the earth needs to be converted into natural capital as we near a catastrophic tipping point where life-necessary natural resources become scarce. Many economists have stated that we are nearing the point of possibility where our money could become completely worthless. There are many ways to regenerate natural resources:

         *Convert your monies now into natural capital through planting beneficial food-bearing perennials around your home, neighborhood, and community.

         *Engage a Permaculture Designer to lay out a sustainability plan for your home including food, water and energy stability, and security.

         *Give substantially to groups that plant trees in sustainable systems.

         *Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program where the farmers are producing food in regenerative systems that ensure ecological health in your region and keep land out of development.

         Take responsibility for your personal impacts on the earth by purchasing ALL the goods needed to sustain your life from local sources. Know the stories of how the materials and processes involved in the production of these goods impact the land.  Better yet, begin to produce more of the products you, your family, and your community need to survive.
 
It takes many heartfelt steps to change the pattern of ones direction toward healing and balance, and even more to be an instrument of regenerative change to the larger patterns that make up society.  By reading this book at this fortuitous moment in your own journey, you have opened the door for beneficial change to weave itself deeply into your life patterns and deeply into the landscape that sustains you.  Take courage in knowing that you are not alone in this process. Many of us are shifting our life patterns, not only toward being sustainable, but toward being instrumental in bringing to life a new era of cooperation between humans and this earth that holds and nurtures us. Together, we will be the change we want to see as our beautifully diverse lives weave together in an earth shaping pattern revolution.



-end-

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
   an educational non-profit since 2000
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous

First Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence August 2008
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
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Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
   an educational non-profit since 2000
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous

First Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence August 2008
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.173 / Virus Database: 270.7.5/1700 - Release Date: 9/30/2008 11:03 AM

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
   an educational non-profit since 2000
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous

First Annual Southern California Permaculture Convergence August 2008
http://socalifornia.permacultureconvergence.org