Photos, Solar and a little Gaia Worship

Photos

Here is a link to see more photos of the house.  These were taken by our friend Blueberry and were taken just after we moved into a 95% done house.  We are now 97% done.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ShelterInstitute/SmallFootprint?feat=content_notification#

Solar

There will be a free talk on active solar at Shelter Institute this coming Saturaday January 30th.  Give them a call if you are interested.  Revision Energy will be there to talk nuts and bolts and I will be presenting our house and how we came to live in a solar home.

Just as a disclosure I have no financial interest in any of the companies on this blog, but if anyone wants to take a financial interest in me that would be OK.

Gaia worship and simplicity

I recieved a comment giving me compliments on my blog with the suggestion that I don't let it get sidetracked into Gaia worship.  I have been pondering that over the past several weeks and I don't see that happening, but here is the problem.

We can all change a light bulb, use less energy, drive less, eat local, live in a small house, ditch the television and do every thing that all the "green" books tell us to do.  This is certainly a great step, but until society has a cosmic shift, call it a spiritual shift, we will never attain what is needed to truly live in harmony with our world.  Modern society has lost a connection with the earth, which is one reason it is so easy to trash the place.  Whenever, through out history, one group wants something another has they justify their actions by making the rationalization that they are better, or that the other group is not civilized.  They hide behind a religion or government to deflect the shame and guilt that the actions have created.  I would dare make the assumption that most of the population of the United States could not sit in nature for 30 minutes and just be there.  We have shielded ourselves in a maze of concrete, steel and glass that isolates us from that which gives us life.

What we need is more Gaia worship and less Gaia destruction.  What is Gaia???  It is that which sustains our lives, gives us life and provides the inspiration in all that we see as beautiful.  I do not think that we need to set up a Gaia Worship Religion, nor do I think that we need to change or challenge anyone's spiritual beliefs.  What I see as necessary is a refocusing and an integration of our green actions with our spiritual beliefs, what ever spiritual beliefs those are.

I will try hard not to let this blog become a Gaia worship blog, but I will encourage people to make that spiritual leap to simple living.

Namaste