At a permaculture-based ecovillage in North Carolina, care for the earth, care for people, and care for inner health all benefit from a dynamic culture based on local self-reliance, holism, and community.
Noise and quiet can both affect well-being profoundly. Gordon Hempton’s One Square Inch of Silence offers ear-opening stories and perspectives, practical suggestions, and simple, radical wisdom.
Both in traditional cultures and at La’akea, close loving relationships, consistent community connection, a life close to nature, fresh non-processed food, satisfying work, regular exercise, clean air and water, attunement to biological rhythms, joy, and laughter all support health.
Neither the therapist diagnosing Major Depression nor the psychiatrist prescribing an antidepressant asked the fundamental question: Do you like to garden? When the author discovers this doorway into the natural world, he also finds community and inner and outer health.
A community rallies in support of a long-time member diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, discovering opportunities and possibilities for new connections with each other and becoming more present to the priceless experiences of both living and dying.