Author: jennynazak

For many of us, our work is our calling, and we have no desire or intention to “retire.”

However, between intergenenerational wealth and becoming eligible to receive old-age Social Security, some of us might find we have plenty of income and don’t need to be making more income. This is the position I am in personally with a paid-for house, plus housemates contributing to utilities and other shared costs, and no need for a car, and now receiving Social Security.

Furthermore, some of us as Degrowth advocates believe that it is healthiest for the planet if we don’t seek to make money unless we need to.

However, volunteering can end up being harmful to the younger generations, as young people need paid work. If everything is being taken care of by elders who can afford to volunteer, that’s not a very good thing for younger people who are trying to raise their families.

After percolating this for a while, I thought up some ways that an older person who has enough income can keep working, while supporting younger people’s needs and minimizing ecosystem destruction to the greatest degree possible.

• If we have a trade or profession, including giving public talks, we can accept gigs still but take a younger person along as an apprentice. Have the client pay the apprentice directly.

• We can accept gigs but have the client, audience, etc. remit the payment to a local mutual-aid organization of our choice, or to a national/global nonprofit that’s not super enmeshed in the nonprofit industrial complex. This is what I plan to do with my upcoming books.

• If the organization wishing your services is adamant that they have no budget and that the function must be performed by a volunteer, we can invite a young person to shadow us so at least they get some internship experience that can feed their future livelihood and career.

• If your calling happens to be in the form of working for an employer, then you could take your paycheck and use it to buy buildings and empty lots in your city (or put down-payments on same), and give those properties to young people, local businesses etc. But this probably won’t be a very frequent situation. It’s pretty easy to turn our calling into something that doesn’t involve a paycheck from an employer. And that frees up a paycheck job for a younger person who needs the money.

Volunteering is a beautiful thing, but I’ve come to feel that volunteering, especially elder volunteering, is prone to create the public perception that some kinds of work are not worth paying for, or that people can get away without paying for it.

And I do really feel like it displaces potential paying work that young people need.

Art, writing, teaching, classroom assisting come to mind. And ecological / native landscaping as well. But I’ve even seen it with carpentry and roofing, and even lawn mowing.

The movie theater, your favorite pub, coffeehouse, the public library, the concrete breezeway structure at a park or City Hall. All of these are places where people can go to cool off. And no, it’s not “cheating” to borrow AC (or heat, as applicable).

You’re not stealing anything. It’s paid for by our taxes (or our patronage).

And, assuming you take the opportunity to reduce the AC at home while you’re out, you’ll be saving on fuel and money.

Cooling centers (official or otherwise) are something we’re only going to need more of as time goes on. As we face more power outages, as well as equipment breakdowns and not enough people available to fix it, and/or not enough money available to fix it.

This might sound disheartening but it’s actually a good thing. Cooling centers offer the additional benefit of connecting us with our local community. And being able to check on the more vulnerable members of our community.

And of course it’s a lot more energy efficient to cool one big building than to try to cool each of our individual houses.

Also, cooling centers can have a TV or library, offering entertainment that you might not have at home.

On that note, I’m off for my weekly visit to my favorite neighborhood pub. A Bloody Mary (no straw please) and a PBR, oh so nice and cold!

And I like to catch up on the TV news which I only usually ever watch in a bar. Plus, there’s this really great vintage car channel that’s always on over there.

This morning a post came across my feed from a landscaper who specializes in brick and rock borders, gravel. The photos of their work were very appealing.

I shared their post on my page, with this comment:

Beautiful borders! As an eco landscaper, with a focus on native and edible trees and plants, I often suggest borders as a way to convey a deliberate and neat appearance.

A managed meadow yard can sometimes get to looking unkempt but I find that a border makes all the difference. Sort of like framing a picture. Good to know these guys exist, they are based in Winterhaven Florida and I’m in Daytona Beach.

Note to fellow Permaculture designers / consultants / landscapers, it’s a really good idea to build a resource list of practitioners in your area. Pond design/builders, pavement & border specialists, and yes even we sometimes need mowing and tree-trimming services!

What a beautiful offer from the Kerrville Folk Festival/ Quiet Valley Ranch:

Hey there, neighbors. In light of the recent flooding disaster, the Kerrville Folk Festival Foundation is opening the Ranch to any displaced folks in the Kerrville area with an RV looking for a safe place to harbor.

We have about 40 full hookup sites and another 30 or so sites with power and water.

We know that many RV parks in the area are along the most dangerous parts of the flooded banks of the Guadalupe, and our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted. If you can safely make your way to Quiet Valley Ranch, we will be glad to welcome you.

Please reach out to us in our DMs [Kerrville Folk Festival page on Facebook] or email info@kerrvillefolkfestival.org to let us know you’re coming or if you have any questions about our sites / space availability. #kerrvillestrong

And my comment accompanying my sharing of this post on my DEEP GREEN facebook page:

This exemplifies the spirit of the Kerrville Folk Festival. An 18-day festival that I have long deep connection to, despite not having made it out there for some years. It’s not only a (really great) folk music festival; it’s a live demo of what a real nurturing community can look like. Exemplified by the sign you see when you enter the festival grounds: Welcome Home. In the same spirit, another prominently displayed sign reads, “It can be this way always.”

And here is the festival organizing body demonstrating that very ethos and way of life.

In my professional capacity as a permaculture designer and ecosocial activist, I’ve been connecting with my Permaculture/eco-activist counterparts in central Texas regarding the flooding and its counterpart, drought/fire.

I am feeling lots of emotions intermingled with the exhilaration/satisfaction of engaging in productive brainstorm-networking towards advocating & implementing solutions, prevention, restoration.

And, I am warmed by the nurturing spirit of just simply housing and feeding people.

As a Festival volunteer for some years awhile back, I experienced this spirit firsthand. Nobody went hungry if the staff could help it! People always went the extra mile to support each other’s emotional and spiritual needs as well.

It’s been so beautiful to see that continue and maybe even grow over the years. Truly remarkable. The first Kerrville folk music festival was in 1972!

Although located all the way in Florida, I would like to humbly offer space in my little rustic concrete-block “eco hostel” -flavored house by the sea to KerrFamily members who might need a place to recharge, lay their heads.

Back in March 2018 when I bought this house, I had housemates before the ink was even dried on the title signing papers. My friends/housemates were asking to be let in while I was still at City Hall getting the utilities turned on!

Days later, for Bike Week, we had a total of 11 people staying here. It was so much fun. Over the years, as natural disasters and not-so-natural disasters have intensified, it came to me that if the house can sleep 11 festival tourists, we can certainly sleep 11 refugees.

Peace and love everyone. Hug your people.

“Office-ing” this morning in the livingroom (a communal space that has also served as sleeping area for 4 or more spontaneous guests).

Soft cloudy morning with tapering-off sprinkles from last night’s big rain; sun-exclusion curtain pulled back a bit to allow just the perfect amount of light, and such a lovely atmosphere for having my coffee and easing into tasks. I sit on the floor and recline against the pillows.

Photos here on my deep green Facebook page.

For those of you who can’t access the photos, a brief description: the living room is done mostly in whites and light beiges.

The effect is soft and casual rather than formal. Even despite the very light color note. There’s also a mantle piece that used to go to it where the fireplace used to be, and I have cool old little antique bottles arranged in little clusters / vignettes on the mantlepiece.

It’s almost all old used furniture, a combination of white plastic chairs and wooden chairs. Also, very large beanbag furniture forms an L.

The beanbags (one of the very few things I purchased new, when I first moved into the house) are meant to open out into queen size beds on the floor, or a person can just simply sleep on one of the beanbags as is, a thing I have often done. The versatile bean bags are from Cordaroys of Gainesville Florida. https://cordaroys.com

Also worthy of note is that our refrigerator is in the living room. It’s white, with the door handles painted a cute pale beachy aqua color.

The living room turned out to be a great location for the fridge, very central. And this room stays cooler in summer than the kitchen does, as the kitchen gets a slanted bit of the northwest afternoon sun. that said, the reason originally that the fridge ended up being in the living room is that this giant fridge that was given to me by neighbors who bought a new one, we just couldn’t fit it all the way through the hallway into the kitchen. We even had a hard time getting it into the house at all. I think it’s actually probably a normal size USA American fridge but it looks huge to me. It doesn’t seem to use a huge amount of electricity though, and it’s easy to share among three (or with recent insights such as adding little tote bin drawers) I believe even six people.

Regarding officing in common areas, one of my favorite protocols I’ve developed for the house is that each person can office or otherwise hang out anywhere, as long as they tote their personal stuff in their own little caddy.

Of course when a person is sitting there for a while, as I am now, their coffee cup, notebook, and whatever other personal things might be arranged on a floor or table next to them.

But when we leave a common area, we pack our things into our caddy and return it into our respective personal spaces (the space where our clothes and bedding are).

(Note, we don’t have to pack up our caddies if we’re just going to the toilet or just going to grab some hot water or a snack or something. People do get to relax and enjoy the common areas without being too uptight, but the casdy system is very helpful and practical for encouraging a mind-set of considerateness and neatness.)

My personal caddy is a very sturdy white-with-navy-trim canvas bag that was originally a “gimme” from a law firm where my sister worked. She gave it to me as a gift some years back, and I have loved and cherished it and repeatedly mended it over the years. It is just one of the handiest things ever in my life, with this little front pocket and its big sturdy self. I love it when something has great practical value along with the deep sentimental value.

This morning a realization came to me, regarding this house I call “mine.”

This is not actually a house.

And of course it’s not mine-mine — although I purchased it free and clear (with the benefit of intergenerational wealth, a privilege and an obligation i take seriously), and the title bears my name, making it mine in a legal sense.

However, despite it being legally technically “mine,” I have always felt that this sweet modest sturdy little one-story concrete-block dwelling near the ocean is meant as a shared asset for the collective good.

BTW I have come to not believe in land ownership. I believe in ceding the land back to the indigenous peoples for collective stewardship. However, in the current legal environment, the best way for me to serve my community and the planet is to be a stable steward of this tiny piece of land. At least for now this is how I feel. I won’t be helping society by being homeless or rent-precarious because I oppose land ownership.

And in that framework of viewing Starshine House Trailhead 501 as not “mine” in the capitalist private sense, I’ve simply been blessed with the mission of taking care of it and sharing it in service to the community and world. We are all stewards of things and people and ideas.

No, this house is not actually a house. As in not a mainstream middle-class-type residential domicile. Rather: It’s a hostel or trail-hut and healing center and arts collective disguised as a house!!

It’s also an eco research station, of course. Always has been. But the hostel / trail hut thing came to me just this morning as i was waking up, and it’s a pretty cool realization.

We are not a hostel on the Appalachian Trail of course, but definitely on the cosmic universe trail!

Friends can stay as long or short as they want.

Everyone is a valued & beloved guest, and WELCOME HOME applies whether you are staying for one night for a week or a month or a year or 10 years.

That said, it’s not public-public. It’s not a rental property or commercial lodging. In that sense it is a private residence still. But, I have been introducing porous aspects to it, from the inside as it were.

“Welcome Home” is inspired by the Kerrville folk music festival community. Community that has nourished me deeply, and continues to nourish me, and that I continue to find ways to give back to.

Additionally, to returning friend-guests, we will typically say “Welcome back!” But, in cases where somebody is feeling discouraged, fearing that they may be moving backward in life, we offer them encouragement in the form of the greeting, “Welcome FORWARD.”

There are even potential co-ownership opportunities for friends. I’ve been really thinking deeply about a lot of stuff, and the house has most of the same good energy but some new good energy as well!

The names of this house are Starshine House, and 501 collective or 501 arts collective. (Added later: Also, Trailhead 501.)

In addition, another name is “jenny’s corner,” which is the nickname for the whole property. A nickname that has its origins in our Beachside Neighborhood Watch community. At the BNW meetings, I used to (and occasionally still do) give an eco-related announcement segment each month — a segment that became known as “jenny’s corner.”

It then occurred to me that the BNW chairwoman’s cute nickname for my little eco education segment also had its counterpart in a physical location in 3-D space! Henceforth, my place became hyperlocally known as jenny’s corner.

One of my favorite Public Works staffers even said the other day he feels like it should be named officially on the map! Now that is a huge compliment.

It’s called an arts collective for a reason, because art heals. Even though it’s also an Eco experimental research station, art and joy are at the bottom of it. When I say art and joy, I include evolution, emotional healing, spiritual healing, metaphysical exploration and adventure. Decolonizing our minds! And serving our community.

More to come, this is a work in progress, I’m just making sure to get the words from this morning’s “download” out there in a prompt manner.

Inspiration for Starshine House / 501 arts collective / jenny’s corner “porous property” / Trailhead 501 include But are not limited to the following: Findhorn community; Kerrville Folk Music Festival community; my beloved cousin the artist Jim Kay of Fall River MA. Departed his earthly body a few years back but absolutely lives on!

And the “trailhead” name is inspired by a much-loved and appreciated long-term / repeat housemate who has on several occasions done extended Appalachian Trail hikes (as in weeks or months at a time!).

More notes about the invisible structures (protocols, governance etc.) of the house (this is from an update that I sent to some close colleague/friends who are on a similar path of simple and intentional communal living of various flavors):

Starshine House / 501 arts collective / Trailhead 501 eco hostel has evolved to its next level of living free, we have winter openings (and also for hardy Floridians and other heat-hardy people we have openings now as well).

A stay can be of any duration, be it 10 minutes or 10 hours or 10 weeks or 10 months etc.

There are even potential coownership opportunities.

Financial contribution to stay here is extremely modest and flexible, and is not “rent” but instead reflects a fractional share of the house fixed expenses such as utilities, and my labor (cleaning, sorting, waste management).

Regardless of duration of stay, you will always be a beloved guest, friend, resident, and you will be greeted with WELCOME HOME.

It’s the coming together of many things which I have written about extensively on my blog etc. Angels, ancestral downloads, intergenerational wealth, me starting to draw retirement Social Security (which though modest in my case is a fortune for a person with a paid-for house and no car), etc.

If you like, you can follow me on my blog, or on Facebook. I may also start an email newsletter; I keep thinking about that but not doing it.

Happy day, you beautiful shining humans! xoxo

Key organizing principles / priorities of the house, in no particular order:

Doing our part to address the homelessness crisis. And the crisis of loneliness (which according to my research is one of the two biggest public-health crises in the USA, either tied with extreme heat or a close second). The public health crisis of loneliness, like the public health crisis of homelessness, affects people of all ages from children on up to elderly seniors.

Community service, interconnectedness, mutual aid, being good neighbors and active citizens.

An eco hostel, low-footprint living research laboratory, arts colony, and micro enterprise incubator.

Emotional / generational trauma healing center for European-Americans seeking to dismantle and walk out of white supremacy culture.

With a strong devotional and metaphysical focus along with a solid grounding in the principles of Permaculture design. (The devotional part is nature-oriented and non-denominational. The proprietress identifies mainly as wiccan/pagan, but all faiths are welcome.)

My concept of porous property.

Knowing and embodying the difference between personal property and private property.

Abolition of private land-ownership. #LandBack to Native American peoples.

#Reparations to descendants of the people who were stolen from African nations and brought here and enslaved.

The RV dwellers creed that I made up while living in an RV in Austin: round things suck. No, I don’t hate round things; this just means how much easier & tidier it is to stow rectangular and cubic things that I experience a particular delight around it.

Decolonization, anti-racism, dismantling white supremacy culture, embarking together on a healing path with fellow European Americans walking out of white supremacy culture.

Collaboration and co-liberation, not charity.

Arts as a tool for healing and inspiration.

Spiritual growth, personal healing, emotional regulation.

My perception of the Persian festival of Nowruz. It’s the Persian new year and takes place in March. They have a principle that if the guests are happy, the house will prosper. I understand it to mean that a house without guests is an empty house.

Kerrville Folks music festival community principles: “Welcome Home”; and “It can be this way always.”

Permaculture Design principles

Visual and functional decluttering, including KonMari and other methods I have studied and practiced.

My ethos as a death Doula and as a collapse-aware activist seeking to help my fellow human beings navigate the planetary crisis.

Degrowth

Deep Adaptation

Becoming comfortable with death. Reflecting on our past, and what we want our future to look like. Certified end-of-life Doula on premises.

Lifelong learning. Starshine House has a compact but very comprehensive library. We also offer workshops and other educational programs, which we additionally broadcast online.

Fun and relaxation. The house has a nice selection of cards, board games, and other fun things.

My interpretation of the Japanese traditional aesthetic and ethose of “wabi-sabi.”

Online life can get frantic sometimes, a mirror of our culture. There’s a lot of incredible content out there though, and there is a temptation to try to follow it all, share it all, read it all. All of that goes double if you have chosen some kind of activist path.

When it gets to feel so frenetic and overwhelming that your brain is about to explode, remember the real Internet all around us. It’s all of us, doing what we do. Just out there in life.

Things don’t need to be on the Internet to go viral. Beneficial contagion; cultural transmission — Have always existed and always will.

Look for serendipities, notice synchronicities. Enjoy the real Internet — draw on it, feed the flow, feel the flow, and know that you are part of a loving living superintelligent whole!