Action Doesn't Need To Be Big To Be Bold

Post: April 22, 2023
Update: May 19, 2023

Your Earth Day Action
Doesn't Need To Be Big
To Be Bold
Just Include Nature

In 1971, less than a year after the very first Earth Day celebration, Machaelle Wright's involvement in the non-violence movement catalyzed her thinking about the concept of ecological non-violence. She understood then the concepts of non-violence needed to be expanded to include the environment. In June of 1973, she moved to the land that would soon become Perelandra. And the following year, her new education for what would become her life's work began in earnest. Though not initially named so —– Co-Creative Science was born.

Here we are 50 years later. Machaelle's groundbreaking work and teachings have a worldwide reach and have changed the way we understand nature. And her newest book, the 25th Anniversary Edition of Co-Creative Science, solidifies her work for generations to come. We believe it is the answer to solving our current climate crisis and shifting how each of us relates to nature, our environment, our health and our entire lives.

Machaelle has made accessible to every single one of us the ability to shift our relationship to nature right now and to keep expanding it one simple step at a time through the rest of our lives. It really is the most important step you can take — to change your life and the life of our planet.

Start with this insightful explanation from Machaelle:

Why I Bother

Over the years I've been asked what the Perelandra garden means to me. I can hardly believe the question is even asked, and I have barely been able to articulate a response. I keep wanting to say, "Isn't it obvious?" Friends say I am naïve to believe that it is. Now it's even a tougher question for me to answer. My partnership with nature has expanded to include many different kinds of gardens — some growing in soil and some I call "projects" that are not growing in soil. For example, The Perelandra Garden Workbook is a garden for me. No matter what kind of garden I'm working in, I still look to my partnership with nature to give me the vital information I need to successfully achieve each garden's goals. So with this expansion of my work in mind, here's my latest attempt to tell you what the partnership means to me and why I bother.

My partnership with nature is my life and my heart. Nature is my dear friend, my teacher and my key to the universe. I draw from it my questions, answers, approach and direction. How I live springs from what I've learned and experienced from our partnership.

It is my access to truth and universal natural law. And my gardens are the demonstration of this played out before my eyes. It is my proof that truth and universal law course through all reality — and this includes any garden.

My partnership has taught me about true power — my own and that which is contained in all life around me. About equality. About balance. About teamwork on a peer level. With nature I have experienced different environments and situations where the focus is maintained on the welfare of the individual parts as well as the health, balance and well-being of the whole. And I have experienced extraordinary results from that focus.

Nature links me to the greater whole. This allows me to experience reality beyond space and time. It has taught me that life is truly beyond five-senses form and that form (five senses and beyond) is the essence of life itself. From this I have dramatically changed my thinking, what I know, my actions, how I perceive reality and my life.

With a little luck, nature and I have inspired you. You're feeling that the time to start a garden is now. Right now. Tomorrow is too late. Of course you'd like to work directly with nature in your new garden, but perhaps this notion has overwhelmed you. And the practicalities of starting a garden have overwhelmed you as well. Then there's the size of The Perelandra Garden Workbook, and that has you thinking you don't have enough years left in your life to learn it all. Now you are overwhelmed beyond belief.

To help you regain consciousness and start moving, I introduce you to Perelandra Gut Gardening! No, you won't be planting guts or even harvesting guts. You will be using guts — your guts, to be precise — to forge a partnership and to work consciously with nature in your garden. This couldn't be easier. No PKTT to learn and no testing to do. It's just you, your gut and nature. You may begin gut gardening with your already existing garden [Garden Workbook, p.29] or you may start a new garden from scratch. And if you don't have a plot of land, you may apply gut gardening to houseplants or potted deck plants or anything else you have growing in soil. All you have to do is activate your gut garden by doing the simple two-step process [below], and then you can get on with your adventure.

— Machaelle Wright
Excerpted from The Perelandra Garden Workbook

Nature, Your Partner in Life's Garden

Set up simply and consider your life (or a single life goal) a Gut Garden. The Perelandra Garden Workbook tells you how to set up a Gut Garden and how to work with nature. It's the easiest partnership to set up. To make it effortless for you, we have included the steps below,

Although the Workbook steps for Gut Gardening are set up for plants, you only need to take the Gut Gardening approach and principles and apply them to any aspect of your life. We're not talking about the more complex setup we use for "soil-less gardening." When gently weaving nature into the various aspects of daily life in an ongoing basis, Gut Gardening is the easier way to go.

To learn Gut Gardening, you can put in a little 3-foot-square garden or start a couple of clay pots — indoors or outside. Houseplants count! This is your training ground. From there you can choose a simple aspect of your life and, using what you've learned, set it up as a Gut Garden. Start asking questions, start making changes and start taking the needed steps that will lead you in the direction of balance in that area. When you see what this will give you, you'll want to apply Gut Gardening and your partnership to other areas of your life.  

ACTIVATING A GUT GARDEN
[The Perelandra Garden Workbook, p.22]

1. Write down the description and goals (the DDP*) of your garden.

For example: A kitchen garden with vegetables and herbs that can provide fresh produce through the late spring, summer and early fall for my family of four (two adults and two children ages eight and twelve). These are the vegetables my family won't eat and these are the vegetables my family loves: (write down each list of vegetables).

Or: Potted deck plants filled with flowers that I will be able to maintain easily with my hectic schedule that includes working full time, taking care of our two kids and volunteering once a week at the local red cross. I'd like my deck and these flowers to give me a quiet place to rejuvenate and regain my balance.

Or: The ten-acre field located just beyond the west end of the barn. I want this field for grazing our twelve sheep over the upcoming spring and summer.

These are examples to give you an idea of what to include as you describe your "garden" and its goals. You are giving nature the definition, direction and purpose of your garden.** This is what nature will be using when giving you the information needed for creating and maintaining your garden in balance. You may have more or fewer people you will be feeding. You may want flowers in your kitchen garden, as well.*** You may want just an herb garden. It's up to you to define what kind of garden you want. Also, add any information about time constraints. The amount of time you can spend in your garden if you also work full-time and no one else in the family is willing or interested in joining you in the garden is different than the time a family of four who are all interested in gardening can put in. So don't be afraid to add realistic time issues. Remember, all gardening, and especially co-creative gardening, should be relaxing and fun, not torture.

2. Find a quiet spot, get comfortable and say the following (aloud):

I want to activate a Perelandra Gut Garden for working consciously with nature and I want the following DDP to be the focus of the partnership. [Read aloud what you wrote down in step 1.] I ask that all relevant input from nature be given to me through my intuition, gut instinct or any other manner that is consistent with a Perelandra Gut Garden.

That's it. You now have an activated co-creative garden and an eager partner who is looking forward to working with you. Congratulations!

* DDP = Definition, Direction, Purpose

** DEFINITION: Vegetable garden.
DIRECTION: Supply produce over the spring, summer and early fall.
PURPOSE: Supply vegetables for my family of four (two adults and two children ages eight and twelve). These are the vegetables my family will not eat.

*** Even if you don't include flowers or herbs in your vegetable garden, nature may include some of each in order to create a more balanced garden biosphere. It may even include a vegetable you listed that your family won't eat. For an herb garden you may need to include some flowers or vegetables. To achieve balance, we can't get ourselves locked in. In co-creative gardening, flexibility is key.

Be A Consumer Warrior

Part of being on the right side of history is to understand you are in the power seat as a consumer interfacing with business and industry. It's your money. Don't spend it on anything that adds to the climate change problem.

Every time you make a purchase, you are in control. You have the power to say to each business, "If you want my money, you have to make the product correctly and environmentally sound." Simply by saying "you aren't taking my money" to those industries and businesses who are part of the problem, puts you in charge. Nothing changes a company faster than the realization that what they are offering is being rejected and their profits have plunged. So don't be afraid to be a consumer warrior!

Here are suggestions on how to get started. Don't try to take on every single decision in your life all at once. Start with one aspect. Ask nature for help.

• Which cleaning products do I use in my kitchen?

• I'd like to make my food purchases better for the environment and keep healthy food in my budget?

• How do I shift my clothing purchases to stop harming the environment (and people)?

Pick one thing. Make the change.

When you have that in place, go to the next thing.

For more simple ways to include nature right now, wherever you are, and in your own home — see the article:

Co-Creative Ways To Celebrate Earth Day
Because Earth Day needs to be every day!

And find more ideas in our Environment Series.