Today I read an article by Bill Reed “Progressing BEYOND Sustainable to Regenerative Design”. I love his language and they way he has expressed thess ideas. What most amazed me was taken from “Tending the Wild” – that a hands off approach to nature can promote landscapes that are inhospitable to human life, causing us to loose practical knowledge of correct interaction. “When intimate interaction ceases, the continuity of knowledge passed down through generations is broken, and the land becomes ‘wilderness’.”
A compelling case for human engagement over conservation. I realize the need to further shift my own thinking – that my urge to create doesn’t have to be a dirty desire – directly conflicted to my urge to protect the beauty of an environment. I have know this but struggle to trust in it.
Oh the power of knowledge of a place and its living systems. Designing for engagement with these living systems has the potential to not only sustain but to restore and regenerate. Regenerate a system’s capability to continuously self organize. This is my purpose. I can feel it pulsing through me.
“The urban pattern elaborated and enriched the edge between land and sea.” Oh the beauty of edges and intersections and connections! They spread before me in the landforms I watched from the plane. And in the undersides of the mushrooms I saw while hiking yesterday. In every macro and every micro – edges are infinite.
I know Permaculture is absolutely essential to my life. I will sign up early next spring.
