Permaculture in Zone Zero

One year ago I had a Permaculture Design Course, at Aurora community, in Romania. At the beginning of the course, Claudian Doboș, the main facilitator, told us something like that:

- This will be a life-changing experience.

There is this AnaConda, my strong and very sarcastic inner warrior that was immediately triggered. There are so many books, movies or events that claims that they can change the life of the peoples so is already a wonder why the world is not already full with enlighten people... 

Hearing my friend speaking about changing lives just remembered me this joke (that is not just a joke):

-  How many psychologists we need to change a light bulb?

-  Just one is enough, but the light bulb has to really want to change.

I don`t remember what answer I had in my mind because I told myself that I know and respect Claudian a lot, and I trust that if he speak about this, he knows what is he speaking about.  So I kept the sarcastic answer it for myself. And it was a wise choice.

The Permaculture Design Course was over and I found myself thinking differently. I was starting the course with so many questions... At the end of the Course I had some answers and more, a lot more questions. Different ones.

I think the most important shift was the one from Me to We.

Most of the students were having the course because they were searching for a project for themselves. Each of us with our own slide of saving the world.  An ”I-world”, a greener one maybe, but the same individualistic way of  dealing with the challenges. Now, I was looking for a collective path, I was searching for a community.

So I chose to stay at Aurora. I was not sure if I will be able to overcome all my individualistic traits. But I was willing to do my best.

So, I spent one year in a small, emerging community. It was a very alive time of my life. I had a lot of challenges to deal with, a lot to learn and a lot more to unlearn.

During this year, had becomes crystal clear to me that the most important part of the daily life in any community is the communication part, the way we relate each other.

In permaculture design we divide the plan of any permaculture project in different zones according to how frequently we have to visit the different areas and we place the elements of the design in these areas according to how much attention they need.

Permaculture zones save a lot of time and energy by reducing necessary travel.

The planting zones in a permaculture design are numbered from the inside out. Zone 1 is the house and the places that we visit every day, many times. From here we count outwards. We have places that we visit just once or twice per weeks, places that we need to visit just once every month, places that we can visit just once in one year, so we plan according to this.

There is another zone, inside the zone one, in the middle of the middle, and this is the zone zero. Zone zero is the people. There is our inner world, inner garden, our relationships – with ourselves and with the others.

This is where the NVC is needed. This is the starting point of permaculture. There is a strong link between this two: Permaculture and Nonviolent Communication.

Nonviolent Communication is Permaculture in Zone Zero.

If permaculture is looking outside, observing and working with external world, NVC is looking a lot inside, observing and transforming the inner world. And this is the place for the most outstanding and durable transformation. Aiming to change the world without changing ourselves is, in my opinion, an illusion.

NVC is the practice that helps us to understand that we are illiterate about our real feelings and needs. And I found it very dysfunctional and somehow ironical that we try to change the world without knowing ourselves. It is almost like we are trying to read Shakespeare, without knowing the entire alphabet.

There are more life-changing lessons incorporated in NVC, as-well as in Permaculture. For me, the most important one is that NVC teach us Radical Responsibility.

What can be more radical in assuming responsibility, then assuming responsibility for our own feelings? And what can be more responsible that deciding to be in touch with our real needs, to make the difference between ”I need” and ”I want”?  Or between the real needs and the fake ones?

Working with Nonviolent Communication is like planting a garden. On the path of growing, both personal and interpersonal, there is a two-way street between our words and our consciousness. Changing the way we communicate is only possible when we change the way we think. Choosing the way we use the world, being aware of the power we have to choose to speak pace, make us to slow down the speed of our reaction. And, without even noticing, we arrive from ”get triggered and react” to the first principle of permaculture – ”observe and interact”.

The Ecology of Human Relationships is a workshop that connects Nonviolent Communication with permaculture principle. It is an introduction in NVC, that provides both theory and practical exercises. With a subject as vast as human communication, the challenge is to select the most practical and most needed information, in such a way as at the end of the workshop the participants will have a clear idea about what NVC is, how and when they can apply it, and also a strong desire to learn more.

As big the challenge is, as big the harvest: a clear, a step-by-step guide to Language of Life, a way to communicate that help us to connect in such a way that enriches every aspect of our lives and led us to that what Marshall Rosenberg called an ”inevitable joy”.