Author: Veronica Shukla
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Choose your Suffering
There was once a miser who lived alone aside from some servants and a dog, whom he hadn’t bothered to name, in a large draughty mansion. He had no friends and had never even given anyone a present. He spent his days alone counting and recounting his money, never leaving his house for fear of…
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4 Examples of the Power of the Breath
We all know how important breathing is. It’s so important, it’s an involuntary action of our bodies, carried out without having to think about it. Our body just does it, because if we stopped breathing long enough, we’d die. Since our body does it involuntarily, we often just forget about it, but the breath is…
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How to Save Money on Hair Care Products
What if I told you you don’t have to wash your hair? By the end of this article, you’ll believe me. You know, sometimes when you think about things, like really think about them, they start to make no sense. Well, about a year or two ago, I started really thinking about the current norm for hair…
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Full-Time Parents Accomplishing Goals: A Solution
EDIT: This group is now in operation. Please visit the Parents Accomplishing Goals (PAG) Cooperative website to learn more. I am in the process of creating a group that will allow full-time parents to accomplish other goals. These goals could be things like professional work, volunteering, studying, and starting a business. I am a full time mother. I…
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Whole Systems Design Permaculture Design Course Review
This summer I attended a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at Whole Systems Design in Richmond, Vermont, from July 10, though July 19, 2015. The PDC was tought by a team of permaculture professionals including Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design, Mark Krawczyk of Keyline Vermont, Sean Dembrosky of Edible Acres, and Mark Angelini of Roots to Fruits. Upon…
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The “Weeds” in My Yard – A Response to Questions
A great benefit of transforming my suburban-type yard from an unsustainable lawn to a sustainable ecosystem is setting an example. I can use the process of transformation to inform neighbors, who undoubtedly have many opinions and questions. I’ve been getting a few general questions since I started the process, but yesterday I got some of the…
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Why Are Humans Here?
I’m one of those people who tends to think everything happens for a reason. I’m also one of those people that thinks that what we like to call “Mother Nature” has got it all figured out. After billions of years of evolution from a probably lifeless planet to a complex web of life that humans…
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Making Sustainability Cool
I tend go back and forth between wanting to fit in and wanting to not fit in. At first, it may sound odd that someone would want to be a misfit, but hear me out. You see, humans have always wanted to find a common bond with one another. We’re social creatures; it’s natural. But at some…
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A School Food Forest
I have a crazy idea. It would be a ton of work and require a ton of collaboration and generosity from others. It would be a lifetime commitment and beyond. It would also provide extensive benefits to thousands of local children and even help to save the planet. There is a piece of land next…
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The Uncouth Truth: Poop and Peace
Growing up, I never thought twice about the sustainability of our bathroom habits. Why should I have? Everyone else did the same thing. I mean, we all do it this way because the best way has evolved out of hundreds of years of trial and error, right? Not necessarily. In fact, our modern bathroom practices could…
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Skills We Really Need
Not too long ago, my son’s school sent us a survey. One question asked how well we feel the school is preparing the children for the future. This is a difficult question. At first glance, we see the future as a more technologically advanced version of today with not much changing besides lots and lots…
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Sustainable Eating
If you want to make a huge difference in your environmental impact, a good place to start is being responsible for what goes in your mouth. I don’t have all the scary facts, and I don’t intend to include much of them here, but I do encourage you to research more. Here I will simply…
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Plant List for a Beautiful Apple Tree Guild
As stated in the post introducing the design of my front yard guilds, I had very specific requirements when choosing a plant list. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here. So here’s my plant list along with the traits and uses that I personally found to be beneficial to our family. Purple…
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My Front Yard Apple Guilds
While I have been reading since my last post, the bulk of that passed time was spent researching and organizing plants and designing the apple guilds I’ll be planting this spring. Permaculture design requires a lot of forethought and planning. Designing my guilds involved only a small portion of what is required in the holistic…
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Dealing with Feelings of Despondency Regarding Human Degradation of the Earth
Lately I’ve been feeling something that would be best described as urgent helplessness with regard to the state of the Earth and the rampant apathy surrounding it. I want to spend every possible second I can learning and arming myself to be able to spread the word and do everything I can to help remedy…
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The One-Straw Revolution: Parts Four and Five
I could write a lengthy blog post on just about every sentence in The One-Straw Revolution. Unfortunately, my library loan has expired for this e-book and all the highlights I made, so I must write a quick final post on a couple of his points that currently stand out the most to me. Although I’ve…
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The One-Straw Revolution: Part Three
Part three of The One-Straw Revolution is wise, thoughtful, and philosophical. Much of it I’ve already read and begun to practice in my Buddhist studies, but there were quite a few gems that I had not encountered yet. The first gem that keeps coming back to mind is, “Each person should ponder seriously how much…
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The One-Straw Revolution: Part Two, The Four Principles
The Four Principles In part two, Masanobu Fukuoka discusses his four principles for successful natural farming. The four principles are simple and indeed seem to propose a less labor-intensive method of producing food. Here I’ll discuss each of the principles while adding my own elaboration. No Cultivation Throughout my life, I’ve only ever seen methods of…