"Permaculture Guild and Kiwanis Partner for the Spiritual Resilience Project" - New Myth #104 by Willi Paul Studio / Planetshifter.com

The three ethics of Permaculture are earth care, people care and fair share and form the foundation for permaculture design are also found in most traditional societies. Ethics are culturally evolved mechanisms that regulate self-interest, giving us a better understanding of good and bad outcomes. The greater the power of humans, the more critical ethics become for long-term cultural and biological survival.

* * * * * * *

Permaculture Willi ("P-Willi") loves to show her friends around the Climate Change Club (CCC), a green and wired community outpost near the river. Made with refurbished windows, cob furniture, a green roof, it even has a rain catchment system, a 34' wind mill, and a solar panel array. The Club raises food for the food bank and serves the town as their seed library. Central here are the Share-Well Incubator program and a global video conferencing system.

P-Willi was the catalyst in recruiting the local Kiwanis Club. She knew this was a great fit. When the Kiwanis volunteers brought their tools and smiles to the CCC project site several years ago, the community action values of the two groups just meshed.

At the grand opening of the Climate Change Club, the Kiwanis representative proclaimed: "We are passionate about making a difference. Helping kids grow and succeed is at the heart of everything we do. But how we do it is just as important. We believe our neighborhoods and our world are best served when people of all ages and different backgrounds work together to share their time and talents."

" What does Kiwanis stand for? " P-Willi is texting her pals at the Guild.

+ To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.

+ To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.

+ To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business and professional standards.

+ To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship.

+ To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service and to build better communities.

+ To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and good will.

* * * * * * *

The Spiritual Resilience Project -

One of P-Willi's friends lives in a deteriorated downtown neighborhood, in an abandoned three-story mansion near the CCC. Kiwanis and the Permaculture Guild are working with the folks there to revitalize the property. A powerful action source for this partnership comes from Spiritual Ecology, a field that joins ecology and environmentalism with the awareness of the sacred within creation. For P-Willi, the principles of spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve such environmental issues as depletion of species, global warming, and over-consumption, humanity must examine and reassess its underlying attitudes and beliefs about the earth, including our spiritual and physical responsibilities toward the planet. Spiritual Ecology is a call for ecological renewal and sustainability that depends upon spiritual awareness and responsibility.

The Spiritual Resilience Project involves turning the old mansion into a Perm-Tech Incubator with space for start-ups and residences. The Kiwanis Team is working on funding and permits at the City while the Permaculturists are tackling the green roof, recycling plan and community garden.

"Blending the Kiwanis and Permaculture values will be number one," relayed P-Willi. She is testing the video conferencing link to an expected 2000 participants from around the world.

"Ok we have a bunch of regenerative agriculture and green tech folks online that want to say hello and pitch their bizz plan," Willi exclaims! Only a few of these groups will be invited to contribute to the mansion renovation and become a part of the start-up ecosystem.

* * * * * * *

The next day, volunteers begin replacing the windows and installing solar panels at the mansion.

Perm-Willi calls it " Sweat-Tech."

It's always "demo day" at the Climate Change Club!