This post is more about wealth in general than it is about money per se. Just the same, I’ve used the title “Money Talk” as a sort of reminder to myself that I’ve been meaning to do a series of posts about financial sustainability, which is a key aspect of living lightly on the earth.
Today I have been very busy carting away five very heavy trash-bags full of money that one of my neighbors had left at the curbside as garbage. Thanks to my hand-cart, I was able to carry the bags of money to my house. With great effort and patience, I managed to get the very thick and expensive plastic bags untied (they were knotted very tightly!), and now those dollar bills are sitting in a thick layer in one part of my yard, where they will gain value over time.
Now, dear reader, I’m pretty sure that you (being an enthusiast of green living, or a person who has known me for five minutes or longer, or perhaps even both of the above) can guess what was really inside those yard trash bags. Not actual dollar bills, but something equivalent to money. Maybe even something money can’t buy! Yes, my friends, I’m talking about topsoil and yard “waste”. Piles and piles of native “weeds”, dark rich soil built up over time (by the action of rainfall washing organic matter down a sloped sandy yard), and whatever fungi and bacteria are in there performing the fecund mumbo-jumbo on which our life depends.
I’m not kidding when I say this is something money might not be able to buy. (And even if you are able to buy soil, it is quite expensive, and usually does not include the all-essential microbes.) Soil depletion is real and widespread. Depending on where you live, you may be experiencing the consequences up-close and personal already. One of the best investments you can make to boost the resilience of your household and community is to learn how to conserve healthy soil, and how to build it where you don’t have it.
One thing that has really hit home for me lately is that I can’t skimp on the task of building soil. (This is true in some metaphorical ways also. More about that in a future post.)
For me, the days have been flying by lately, even more than usual. Life is packed, and sometimes I really have to get a bit stern with myself about being sure to make the time and effort to sit down and share with you in writing. If I don’t share publicly, in writing, at least some of what I’m learning and experiencing, I feel that I’m not fully doing my job as an educator.
The Permaculture Revolution online summit, which started this past Monday, has been rich beyond my imaginings. I posted about it the other day, and I hope at least a few of you are availing yourselves of this mind-expanding series of interviews with ecological landscapers, natural builders, seed-savers, community-builders, a beekeeper, teachers, farmers, possibly the USA’s foremost expert on rainwater harvesting, a world-leading soil microbiologist, and others who have built their livelihoods around healing the earth and serving humanity.
Note, you don’t have to listen to the interviews at a certain time! They get posted every morning, and will remain up on the page for at least a short time after the summit ends. So you have plenty of time to watch them. Today is Day 6, and since there are a total of 20 or so interviews, with two interviews posted each day, I think we have four or five days to go at least. And it’s free! So go for it.
And if you do, let me know what you think! On the original subject I brought up in this post — money — I’ll be posting more in the near future. May your day be rich!