A city girl's explorations into sustainable living

Recently I found myself unemployed, pondering what I should do with my life next. All the career books say, do what you love. Find your passion. Follow your bliss. As if there is an answer -- a solution that will allow you to make money doing what you were meant to do. Help the world, help yourself, and make money!

For me, it's not so easy. I'm interested in a lot of things, but nothing that I am willing to invest in enough to turn it into a career.

I'm what Barbara Sher calls a "scanner," or what Margaret Lobenstine calls "the Renaissance Soul." At least that's what these self-help books for the career-stunted tell me.

What I tell myself is that I'm a learner. And what I want to learn about right now is sustainable living. I have a feeling it's what I'm supposed to be doing -- even if it doesn't pay. Even if it COSTS money to do.

I am meant to be a student right now, exploring peak oil, the economic crisis, climate change, sustainable agriculture, community building, permaculture, natural capitalism, Transition Towns, rural sociology, and my own spiritual growth. I honestly don't know where it will lead, or what it will amount to, but I invite you to share my journey.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

DPTL: A low-impact, woodland home

DPTL = Dream Place to Live. This is similar to my DPTW -- Dream Place to Work -- series of posts.

Today my friend Paul sent me a link to a beautiful website with a picture what has since become my ideal vision of a home. It was built in 4 months with a lot of man-hours and surprisingly little money. It was built with locally-sourced materials and "green" architectural design.

I love what the home-owner says about this project on his website: "These sort of low cost, natural buildings have a place not only in their own sustainability, but also in their potential to provide affordable housing which allows people access to land and the opportunity to lead more simple, sustainable lives."

That's a worthy vision: beautiful, low-cost, low-impact housing for humanity.

On a side note, I also have signed up to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. I went to their volunteer orientation session -- now I just have to actually go one of these days to help with a project. Habitat for Humanity is based on the idea that decent, affordable housing is a human right. I agree. But wouldn't it be wonderful if the affordable housing could be sustainably-built?
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