Exec. Director Taelor Monroe planting trees with Permaculture Design Course students
(Credit: Austin Permaculture Guild)

Wild humans still exist. Humans who live close to nature, are in tune with their circadian rhythms, and live in cooperative societies. They wake and sleep according to the rising and setting of the sun, and perhaps grow or forage much of their own food.

On the other hand, some humans are urban dwellers through and through. They sit in traffic and go to grocery stores, and most likely have unnatural sleeping patterns. These are two extremes of the same spectrum, with various shades of gray in between.

If you identify more with the second camp, then chances are there has been at least one moment, however fleeting, when you’ve considered leaving your responsibilities behind, and escaping to live in the woods. Modern society, with all its spoils, can feel isolating, disenfranchising, and disempowering.

But before you quit your job and disappear into the wilderness, let’s explore those shades of gray. There is a system that aims to create a new paradigm for the way we live. It’s called permaculture. [Read more…]