EarthSpirit of the Year: Trathen Heckman. Interview 2 with the Executive Director of DailyActs.org and GreenSangha.org. Love -- Willi Paul + PlanetShifter.com.

WP: "Your voice / story / collaboration is much needed now. You and I need to dig deep and find new ideas! I thank you again for your time and vision. But I want to stress that getting you out of your comfort zone or expertise is important to me and you! I wish to know the Tra beyond the day to day at Daily Acts Cool?"

TH: "Sounds great Willi. I'm all for the stretches. Though with as much distraction is alive in the world (even grand green distraction), I think it important that we each be clear on where the stretches are beneficial to our purpose and the bigger picture!"

(December 2009 email exchange)

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Green is rapidly becoming a commercial blurr in the media and the global mind; a clique? How do you keep the sustainability movement fresh and focused for Daily Acts and others in your circle?

People take up green for a lot of different reasons and it's important to develop a good filter for what's authentic and truly of benefit versus what's just more noisy, shiny crap and distractions. That said, I think regardless of the reason people start something, be it for ego or altruism, it can change you. The more you show up and make consistent efforts to care for people and planet, something inside you begins to shift.

You start to connect to a larger purpose and become less concerned with selfish outcomes. And how sad is that? Given the truth and science of our connectedness, that we think we are being "selfish" when we make unconscious choices to benefit our own lil single serving sack of hominid saline that we call me. Ha!

As for how we keep it fresh and focused, it's just about showing up with reverence in your heart and one question in your mind - "how do I/we make something amazing of the materials and the moment?" What is the greatest potential that I/we can live? We keep it fresh by surrounding ourselves with people and examples that amaze and inspire us. We keep it focused by not getting lost in fear, but feeling the fire of the urgency of our planetary situation. Through conscious design, good practices and habits, it gets easier to pattern into our lives, landscapes and organizations that which keeps us on path.

How have you re-defined localization since you started Daily Acts? What are the top 5 criteria you would deploy in a brand new town plan?

I wouldn't say that I've re-defined localization. Though as sustainability culture grows, changes and takes root, it has made me more open to possibility, nuance and unexpected partners. It's not just about organic, but local, small-scale, healthy relationships and unexpected allies who maybe aren't organic. For us local is more about household and community self reliance. It's about the 100 foot diet of what's growing out your front door and the fair trade that is grown thousands of miles away but takes care of the local family and culture of where it comes from.

As for top 5 criteria for a new town plan? Not sure about that one but here's a few thoughts. FIRST it must follow nature's primary organizing principle – nature creates conditions conducive to life. It should be regenerative in nature and be patterned after ecosystem function – food forest landscapes, wetland waste water treatment and such like that. It should integrate art and ecology and honor the land and its indigenous past. It should be water-wise by design to slow, sink and spread rain and stormwater and as Brock Dolman would say, inspire a reverential rehydration revolution!

Are you bored, over-whelmed with or crazy-insane about "climate change" these days?

None of the above. Humbled by the scale of the challenge and consequences, inspired by the planet-wide grassroots mobilization, focused by the timeframe - the most important decade humanity has faced to reduce emissions 80%. This is what is being called for by the latest science and leaders such as Lester Brown, the State of the World Forum and a growing cadre calling for true climate leadership.

What are you meditating on in the garden these days? How do you relax?

Being a couple days past the winter solstice, sacred closure to another cycle around the sun is what has my attention. For all the challenges, this life is such a gift. So I'm drawing in to marinate on this and of course visioning how we are going to take it up 10 notches in 2010 from a place of balanced service that includes time to garden, tend my luvly wife, our bees, chickens and neighborly relations.

As for relaxation, I have a quiver of practices such as my morning meditation and trips to the sauna. I garden, journal, read, make beer, snuggle our cats and Mary. Time in nature always soothes and astounds.

It looks like MySpace is hot in your youth media-dominated world. How do you critique this tool? What are your preferred social networking sites?

Noooo idea. I'm more old school. Nature's tech is my thing. Though we have some eco-web stars like Jaimey Walking Bear who tweets and keeps our Facebook well-tended.

Who are the key enemies of green change in America?

Be it the garden or green movement, I tend not to see things in terms of pests and enemies. That said, more than any group or individual, the issues are ignorance, fear, ego and unconsciousness. How else could we kill our rivers, our forests, our people, our self unless we've forgotten the truth of who we are? When we let ourselves get framed by how we are oppressed, or what is wrong that someone else is doing or doing to us, we give away our power and our ability to lead with how we live.

What are the top five causes in the green youth movement as you see them?

I'm not sure, but climate change is definitely up there. Sustainable agriculture and food growing has a lot of energy as well. Definitely social justice and green job issues. There's 3 biggies.

What new stories, symbols and myths are you creating / using in Daily Acts? How do the old ones get in your way?

As for new stories, it's about focusing on the world being born while carefully navigating the world that is dying and coming undone. The language of "the Great Turning and the Great Unraveling" is a compelling story. For Daily Acts, our symbol is the immense power of the humble daily action, the immense fertility and healing power of the homegrown solution taken to scale. We use nature's wisdom, the language and metaphors of Permaculture by planting "food forests" which is an edible landscape that mimics a forest ecology. We've done this from backyards to city parks to Petaluma City Hall's front lawn.

The old story that gets in our way is that of dis-empowerment and disconnection. Because people feel small and disconnected and that their acts don't matter, they lose connection to the immense power and wisdom of nature which can guide and heal so effectively and richly. By living from and relating to a whole person, whole planet paradigm, our potential is limitless.

What is important to your kids and teachers at the intersection of arts and sustainability? Please illustrate with experiences from Daily Acts.

The smell, touch and taste of the world being born. It's not just about hearing about sustainability, but bringing them on a tour of a backyard ecosystem and cracking open their paradigm as to what is possible. It's feeding them edible flower petals and honey from the hive as the chickens and ducks roam about and they eat exotic berries, standing in the cooling shade of an edible ecosystem. We take students and teachers to living, breathing models in communities.

We help them plant neighborhood ecosystems. One high school student Ben, helped us plant a 3,000 square foot forest garden at the Cavanaugh Center in Petaluma as part of a water conservation project we did with the City. After that he took a Permaculture course and was blown away. He sent me a nice letter about how much it shifted his perspective and path. Just as it did for me when I got exposed to a fecund landscape of healthy relations.

What metrics are you using to measure the impact / effectiveness of Daily Acts and your other work?

Measuring how we spend our time is a critical practice for effectiveness. It also honors the thousands of volunteer hours we receive which is an important measure as well. Of course financial outcomes. We measure the number of citizens we educate, the partners and leaders we inspire and support. Through feedback forms we measure our impact on people who attend our programs. For our work with municipalities we are measuring the water savings with landscape transformations.

There are several households in Daily Acts Project Homegrown which measure all our inputs and outputs from food grown, to species diversity to garbage, recycling, water and energy use, all to get a full cost assessment and show how rich we can live and how much benefit we can generate while radically reducing our waste and emissions.

We track the media and comments we receive and take careful note of the less tangibles like the inspiration and vibrancy in people's eyes when exposed to these solutions and empowered to step up.

What is your leadership style? Is it harder to open up to kids or adults?

I do my best to live what I dream and talk. To inspire it in others by encouraging them and to commit to shared pathfinding. Then align and unleash them. I'm pretty hands off on the management side of things. We aim to build a team that empowers folks while being aware of weaknesses but focusing on how our strengths overlap to strengthen the whole.

I haven't noticed or had a easier or harder time opening to either. Finding and sharing your voice is always a humbling and empowering process.

Do the kids' interests and visions change from the country to the city? Are there different pressures?
I'm sure they do, though I wouldn't consider this an area of my expertise.

Tell us about your creative tools for global/personal transformation?

I use the same tools in my personal life, the garden and the organizations I'm involved in. By rooting our efforts in timeless principles and crafting appropriate practices, you can always pathfind the richest and most appropriate response. I have three tracks that I study and seek to build competence and consciousness in – Spirituality, Leadership and Ecological Design with a Permaculture emphasis. On the leadership side Stephen Covey's work amazes me, Peter Drucker, the Rockwood Leadership Institute for our movement and many others.

I teach a Personal Ecology course which helps people integrate these three tracks while evolving their own set of practices. A great and basic tool is having a mission statement to guide your focus. I have a quiver of missions, a personal one, one for our organization and one that captures the essence of each important role in my life such as my relationship with my wife, family and friends, our garden and home. It acts as part of a compass that can guide and center us and help us make the best decision. As a framework, I like Stephen Covey's vision, discipline and passion aligned behind your central purpose.

My core practice is sitting on a lil wooden stool every morning to stir out what I'm vexed with and stir in what I'm blessed with and then to center in a new day, connection to nature and what is most important to me. As mentioned above, a good set of tracking tools that measure what is important to you is vital. Peter Senge's core principle of self mastery is about how you deal with the uncomfortable space between vision and reality. This is where the magic's at. I could talk about this FOREVER, but it's Christmas eve and I gotta get to celebrating my relations!

We made it!! The Green Movement is a success!! What do you see now in your home town, Tra?

I see a spark in people's eyes, purpose in their actions, an infectious enthusiasm and luv of life spreading through the landscape. Lawns have become delectable, edible ecosystems, fed by greywater, rainwater catchment and a sense of stewardship. Renewed by the fertility of local waste streams. Of course there is no longer any waste. I see pervious pavement and curb cuts that recharge stormwater. We use radically less energy, water and materials, but the quality of life and community connection is now what's abundant. Cottage industry has sprouted up everywhere.

The crafts of tending life, canning food, fermenting your own tasty beverages, making beeswax candles from backyard hives are all alive and thriving. Where we can't meet needs locally, we have regional relationships and limited but treasured goods from far off places. More than foreign travel, people crave and seek to deepen their connection to place, where they are, when they are.

Life has shifted as we have redeveloped local skills, use locally and regionally appropriate materials to meet our needs and have turned a monstrous waste stream into an elegant and creative culture of creative reuse. People more often choose to turn their lights and life down as we gracefully and ethically descend peak everything. And there you sit under the soft-glowing beeswax drip of another hive gift, bathed in the light of a well-lived, well-luved and well-designed life.

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What distinguishes Green Sangha activism from other kinds of activism?

• One Body
  A poet wrote, "Throughout the universe One Body revealed." We are the earth, sky, oceans and the entire planet. Of course we love the planet. It is us!
  
• Clarifying Motivation
  Love (without boundaries) is our true nature. Motivation comes from the recognition that we are not separate from any aspect of life. We are love without boundaries serving itself.
  
• Compassionate Action
  We see in our lives the same greed and confusion that we oppose. This helps us to have compassion for others. We fight the confusion that causes suffering, not the person who is confused. There is no "other" to fight against anyway; we simply meet ourselves.
  
• Questioning Ourselves
  We constantly live with the questions of what is authentic, loving, and appropriate action. We're willing to not know and be open to other points of view. We know we could be wrong.
  
• Being With What Is
  We meet injustice without becoming lost in it. An over-identification with injustice leads to despair or rage. Alternately, meeting life in an intimate yet spacious way allows for a more creative and potent response.
  
• Holding Stories Lightly
  Who would we be and how would we act without the story that reality isn't supposed to appear the way it does? Without a story, the sense of a separate "I" dies, revealing our true nature as love without boundaries.
  
• Integrity
  As spiritual activists, we stand together in our commitment to be that which we are trying to bring about in the world: peace and love.
  
• Holding Roles Lightly
  We hold the role of activist lightly, while thoroughly engaging in the work of the activist. We are more effective when we act from our true identity as Life itself, instead of identifying with our roles which are a mere fraction of our true selves.

Source: Green Sangha Principles

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Connections:

Green Sangha| Contact

Daily Acts | Contact

Please also enjoy PlanetShifter.com's Interview #1 with Tra.

Willi Paul, Art and Sustainability Consultant
415-407-4688
willipaul1 at gmail dot com
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