By, Pamela Laurence

© Pamela Laurence

She worshipped the sun

She bowed to the Earth

Then turned around and skipped jumped and ran down the hill laughing.

Spotted by a man running large machinery – she darted into the woods.

It was there that the magic began…

By the owl in the tree which turned out to be the magician in she –

“I can’t see,” she said.

“ No need to see as you have before – refocus,” said a voice within.

“Follow the path – follow your path and…

Let the Earth teach you giving and compassion

Let the rocks and stones teach you courage

Let the waters teach you reflection and movement

Let the birds teach you harmony

Let the wind teach you strength and gentleness

Let the trees teach you growth, sustainability, peace and inner strength

Let the insects teach you joy and curiosity

Let the butterflies and wild flowers teach you beauty and health

Let it all teach you how to dance

Let the strangers who come across your path teach you too  – as you teach them your ageless wisdom.

Go with the flow and bend with the breeze – Many of life’s lessons are learned from rivers and trees.

With the turn of the century and the beginning of a new millennium – perhaps it is a good time during the lazy days of summer to begin to reflect on how you live your life. What is your life about? Who’s heart do you follow? What impresses you? How self-sustainable are you? Perhaps in these times of almost absolute technology it is time to look again at age-old wisdom and ways to live a simpler life – a more self-sustainable life. In the American Heritage Dictionary, millennium is defined as a hoped for period of joy, serenity, prosperity and justice.   Maybe it is time to look at the priorities in your life. We all need shelter, water, food and a form of communication with others (for it would be no fun to live alone without sharing). But what kind of shelter, food, water and people do you want in your life? How self-resilient do you think you are?  I pose these questions to myself as well. Is the American Dream in reality becoming a nightmare? Are we striving for things that we in reality – if we stopped for a moment and reflected – would not even want?

I like indoor plumbing as much as the next person does, but couldn’t it be fun to design our homes so that we could live days without dependency on outside sources and without electricity if we wanted to?  How would you design your kitchen to reflect a more organic, self-sustainable time? Big fireplaces in the kitchen can be used to cook up great vegetable soup and provide heat. They also create a sense of coziness and a place for the family to gather. Just watching a fire can be relaxing and a good solution for some of today’s stresses. We could design great cupboards filled with dry goods and baking materials.  There could be water tanks that could also be used as “serenity pools” through glass design solutions.  There may be many challenges to this design concept, yet I feel that the added benefit of pulling ourselves out of electro-magnetic fields every now and again may be helpful to our health. I also feel that we are all under a subtle stress and fear that is hard to put our fingers upon –that of feeling things are getting out of control. To create a home that is safe and self-supporting of a family’s needs – despite the weather conditions or possible Y2K situations would be a blessing to all of us