Su Dennett - going lateral, in bare feet and prioritising ritual and patterning over institutional education

Absorb permaculture wisdom from an elder who encourages us to look up to the sky and then act out across the earth, in unison with others and with dirt beneath our bare feet.  Su Dennett lives at Meliodora a 2.25 acre, 35 year old  permaculture demonstration property she has established with her partner David Holmgren.  She is a force - as strong as she is  soothing. This conversation pushes us to connect with self, place & community & to create a life that is small, localised, abundantly rich and with community shared responsibility for the village.  Summary Women being in their power

Growing up just after the war more or less self sufficient as her life foundation

The value of learning through adversity

Her journey to living a ‘feeling’ ‘human’ life

Lessons learnt while living in Europe - growing food and connecting to the earth

Going lateral rather than climbing to the top which is futile and disconnecting

Buying marginal land in the country rather than a city block to avoid a mortgage

Letting kids learn by ‘osmosis’ through doing rather than ‘teaching’

The limitations of the school system

learning about nature and the patterns of life before we learn about everything else

While there are limits to a seasonal life, this does not have to be limiting

Our focus needs to be on the limitless growth areas of community

Learning to be alongside those who think differently

Being alienated from nature requires a pathway to get back in - family and household economies are the baseline for that 

Even the village fool had a role to play 

The intellectual is only one part of us

Avoiding a sanitised world for the sake of a diverse gut health

Living expansively

Begin with bare feet - stop isolating ourselves from the earth

Lockdown silver linings

Removing the back fence to create community

Sharing your excess as a stepping stone to relationships

Looking for the positives in what otherwise felt like negatives - bikes over cars, simple peasant foods, seed sharing, 

Discovering a happier state with simplicity

Exploring ONE thing at a time

A lateral existence

Respecting earth, water, air by actively considering them and slowing down

Womens place is in the home but so is mens and childrens

How much is enough? Why don't we sit on the floor more, live in smaller spaces, 

White mans burden of ownership - but how we transition away from it is the challenge

Learning about our own cultural heritage in order to understand our first nations heritage

Respecting elder wisdom

Reintroducing rites of passage to honour all stages of life 

Building support networks for our youth

Avoiding sanitisation from food to ideas

You cannot become a well grounded individual if you don't suffer adversity - endless happiness is farcical

Fulfilment is about being valued, thinking laterally, be an individual. References Melliodora

Transition towns movement

Retrosuburbia

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