On Why I Fast for my Birthday

Since invariably it comes up from year to year, I wanted to resurrect part of a former post I made on another blog and expand upon why I fast for my birthday.

For the past few years on my birthday I have fasted as a spiritual commitment. I believe that we are all related, every living thing, and that we must all have a certain amount of respect for each other and our place on this Earth. I know that what I eat was once living and has sacrificed its life so that I may live. Life feeds on life. To celebrate another year of life I sacrifice that sustenance to give other living things a little more time and to show my respect and gratitude for that sacrifice.

 So what does this have to do with my efforts to live more sustainably? Fasting for one day a year hardly puts a dent in consumerist tendencies. What this spiritual experience does for me, and ultimately for my attempt to live more sustainable, is serve as a reminder to be grateful, but also a reminder that what I consume had to come from somewhere. For this food to come to me, someone else had to sacrifice. What I have eaten is not only no longer available as food for someone else, but is life no longer lived, and overconsumption leads to senseless taking of life when I could get by on far less. While I still struggle with unsustainable eating habits, I feel this reminder is so important to me to keep me grounded in respect for all my relations (not just human or animal, but all life and creation) and focused on how I can reduce what I consume to spread the wealth and only take what I need so others may do the same.

I'd like to share a Lakota prayer that really inspires me and fits this day so appropriately.

Aho Mitakuye Oyasin....All my relations. I honor you in this circle of life with me today. I am grateful for this opportunity to acknowledge you in this prayer....
To the Creator, for the ultimate gift of life, I thank you.
To the mineral nation that has built and maintained my bones and all foundations of life experience, I thank you.
To the plant nation that sustains my organs and body and gives me healing herbs for sickness, I thank you.
To the animal nation that feeds me from your own flesh and offers your loyal companionship in this walk of life, I thank you.
To the human nation that shares my path as a soul upon the sacred wheel of Earthly life, I thank you.
To the Spirit nation that guides me invisibly through the ups and downs of life and for carrying the torch of light through the Ages. I thank you.
To the Four Winds of Change and Growth, I thank you.
You are all my relations, my relatives, without whom I would not live. We are in the circle of life together, co-existing, co-dependent, co-creating our destiny. One, not more important than the other. One nation evolving from the other and yet each dependent upon the one above and the one below. All of us a part of the Great Mystery.
Thank you for this Life.

I was touched by Bill Moyer's call to include a spiritual perspective in our activism, read from his book Doing Democracy this year on the eve of my birthday and the beginning of my fast. In his book, Moyer says:

"Spirit refers to the strong inner urge for meaning in our lives, an urge that involves a deep, positive connection with each other, the planet, and an evolving universe. Compassion, kindness, love, equality, support, and caring, therefore, are qualities of spirit. They bring us back in touch with our true nature. When we experience these qualities we tend to feel more fulfilled, joyful, energized, and happy. These are also the qualities of the peaceful model that we seek." (p. 198)  

 I hope my spirituality can inform my activism well into the future, and that I will heed the lessons I learn from it in daily life and effecting change.

Small Round Cordwood Home

“There is a magic in that little world, home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits” - Robert Southeby

While I've been busy with lots of reading now that graduate classes have started in earnest, we've both been reading Cordwood Building: The State Of The Art, loaned to us by our wonderful neighbors. We've given a lot of consideration to more natural construction styles versus traditional stick-built. We like straw bale, cob, and cordwood construction, but to us it seems cordwood would be most suitable to our northern New England climate.

We've also been considering shape. I really like how Cordwood Building pointed out efficiency of vertical wall square footage versus footprint, with a perfect circle being the most efficient (less vertical wall for the most square footage), with a perfect square being next most efficient and the most efficient rectangular footprint. For us we have spiritual reasons for gravitating toward a round house, as well.

At this point it looks like we're going for a round house, but we might make a quarter of it square, essentially ending up with a teardrop shaped house. We think this has some cool potential for layout options and maximizing square footage and minimizing vertical wall. Our footprint is coming out around 300sf with a loft, giving us space for a small bedroom for our son and a tiny bathroom, plus a combined living/kitchen space and the loft for our sleeping quarters. I would really like to see us build the loft in a way that we can leave some or all of the living area open cathedral-style to give more vertical space and imply a bigger area than it actually is, which really is key to tiny housing.

While we are nowhere near being ready to build anything, it's nice to design and plan now so we can work toward achieving this goal in a few years. If we approach this right, including buying appropriate, buildable land from somewhere like craigslist or eBay real inexpensive, we could potentially have our own very eco-friendly, sustainable home that we own mortgage-free and for a fraction of what traditional homeowners spend on purchasing a home. You can't really get a much better investment than that!