Awaken To Energy Flow, Learn to See Elements in Life, Be Thankful

So much is happening on the earth every season, every day and every minute. To witness this transference of energy is to join in the flow of nature and its cycles that keep life living. When you begin to recognize that everything around you contains elements that nourish the body and soul, you begin the awakening process. At this point the elements can begin there teachings. These are the gods that provide us with all our elementary lessons; water, air, fire and earth. Stewarding the land in reverence of the elements can give us all the teachings we need to continue on a path of health and growth.

First we begin to see that everything that was once alive contains energy as it decomposes and in-turn feeds the living. This step helps us make the connection between recycling waste and storing excess resources/energy from our home and land in order to feed it back to the life which we are cultivating. Now without getting too scientific or making this process seem too complicated I will list a few elemental resources that are commonly wasted as a means to help us all begin to look at our own methods of energy efficiency.

• Earth

• Yard waste/ lawn clippings, leaves, anything that grew on your land is an asset to your land. To bag it up and throw it in the garbage is to deplete your lands fertility. Every fall people throw away their biomass (by raking up and bagging their leaves) believing it is garbage. Nothing should leave your land unless it is participating in community service of some sort, i.e. feeding people or creating return that makes it possible for you to stay on your land. Anytime energy that was created by your land leaves your land you participate in the depletion of fertility and health of that space. This is true with all earth. We must begin to slow down the amount of earth we need to move thousands of miles and create something that could be way more efficient and secure.
• Fire
• Kitchen waste is another place that we can catch and utilize energy. I see the kitchen as fire, a place where a lot of heat and energy are managed. With this sight the kitchen becomes a means to filtering out wastes that still contains energy that can be distributed among the farm and fed to other life. By creating methods to gather the excess energy of the kitchen and feed it to your garden or animals is how we can begin to establish a healthy nutrient efficient home. This is the only security anyone should be concerned with. If you know where and how to gather all that you need from your home without machines you are establishing a home that will be the only kind left if and when we run out of oil and collapse as a oil dependent system. The culture that is developed in hand scale agrarian life is one rich in love and ceremony. A stable long term approach to a humble-service-based life rich in love, food, and community. This is what we need as people taking care of earth. The Kitchen. The Hearth.
• Water

• Water is energy, it is the medium that feeds all life on this planet. We are all dependent on it in order to survive. It deserves to be worshiped and used with a manner of respect. It is common in civilized society to use it without this reverence as we have been brought up to practice inefficient ways to utilize this precious resource. To live life without seeing the power of water is to ignore and pollute our home. Water needs care and respect, it is our job as earthly stewards to protect it from pollution. Water carries and gathers energy as it travels its path to the ocean. We can choose to speed that decent up or slow it down and retain that energy so life can become abundant. Seeing plants as a method to store water is a healthy and beautiful way to manage water. By absorbing water near to our home we store energy and produce abundance. We must focus on storing our water waste in places like the garden. We need to respect water enough to not pollute it with chemicals that kill life rather than feed it.
• Air
• Air is found in the breath of all life, all life is a lung absorbing this precious gas. Where we find it being wasted at home is in when we burn oil. Our cars and use of planes and misuse of agricultural lands etc. etc. even down to our gas powered leaf blowers. This is a painful one to address because we as a culture so mindlessly abuse by polluting with oil that is not suppose to be removed in huge quantities and then shipped all over the world to then be burned into the atmosphere. The acceptance of industrialism was the birth of a culture that forgot that air was sacred.

Composting is one way to begin to be more efficient and return energy back to earth. Compost is a balancing of elements to create a desired medium for life to live and thrive. Training the mind to see elements in all life is the foundation for becoming good at composting. Good composting practices are the foundation for health and long term energy management. Efficient energy practices result when we begin to actively manage compost heaps. 

There are many other waste streams that occur, to list them all here is not needed to make the point that by seeing how energy works we can intervene and redirect it so it can serve the health of our families and homes. By awakening to our methods of waste management we can begin to change. By understanding and paying attention to the energy systems of a home we are able to cultivate care that feeds itself and your community.

To successfully make the shift into energy efficiency there is a need for respect and reverence for what sustains our life in relation to our home, the Earth. Every little step made that is rooted in love for our home and the elements will steer us closer to feeling a sense of purpose and need that will fulfill our longing for connection to place. Let this connection be your guide towards serving the Earth in a way that is rooted in love and gratitude.