Month: July 2017

The story of my conversion and how I developed my current belief system

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I’ve been experiencing an increasing frustration with the state of the world and the lack of my ability to get involved. Too many disconcerting discussions, documentaries, reflections and observations went by without me altering my lifestyle or leaving my comfort zone. Like most people I’ve noticed trends and developments – social, environmental, political – that left me aghast, but I stayed inactive.

In line with my conviction that also small steps matter, I’ve started this blog.

In contrast to the general concept of angry youth and disillusioned adulthood, I feel that my believes and convictions (see my other post about that) have only grown more firm in recent years. While they haven’t changed fundamentally, I grew more and more aware of why I believe certain things and that I’m really convinced of them (see first paragraph of article referenced above).

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My trip to the US and what I’m bringing back in my baggage

Peter Schiratzki1 Comment

When the plane touched down in LAX in February, I knew very little about what was ahead for me in the coming 6 months. The agenda was pretty much blank and I would never have guessed that I was going to spend an entire three months on a Permaculture farm in the Pacific Northwest. There were a few steps leading up to that.

Nature. It’s all about nature.

A first important realization happened while car camping across the Southeast, from Los Angeles to Taos in New Mexico. We spent a week sleeping in the back of our Subaru station wagon, which we parked over night on campgrounds across California, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. The realization is as banal and obvious as it was crucial to the further steps: living our cozy city life, we got completely detached from nature. Continue reading “My trip to the US and what I’m bringing back in my baggage” →

What’s Permaculture and why do I like it so much

Peter Schiratzki1 Comment

At this stage, I’m not feeling qualified to give my own description. So I’ll refer to our universal knowledge base at Wikipedia:

Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems. The term permaculture was developed and coined by David Holmgren, then a graduate student, and his professor, Bill Mollison, in 1978. The word permaculture originally referred to “permanent agriculture”, but was expanded to stand also for “permanent culture”, as it was understood that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system as inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s natural farming philosophy.

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What I believe in and why I think it matters and why I’m writing about it.

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I believe that all humans are born equal.
I believe in solidarity and respect.
I believe in education and experience.
I believe in science and intuition.
I believe in planning and action.
I believe in the future.

…but I’m living in the present. I believe that change can only happen bottom up, by people, by individuals, groups, communities, taking action. I believe that governments and organizations have the power to influence and incentivize good behavior, they can inform and sponsor efforts, but at the end of the day, it’s up to individuals to make the change. I believe that every little act of each one of us counts. And I believe that starting with awareness, each small step, change, effort matters, because it will trigger someone else to do the same, until eventually, all the drops create an ocean. Continue reading “What I believe in and why I think it matters and why I’m writing about it.” →