Andrew MacDonald

CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER

The Elephants in the Room – A Conversation with Andrew MacDonald

Heidi writes

Humans seem to have a propensity to seeing things well from a distance, but not noticing those things which are really close to them. This is valid for judging others – the famous expression: “one sees the thorn in the other’s eyes while not noticing the splinter in one’s own.” And it is valid also for one’s own behaviour: The most obvious things, in reality often are not talked about. The “elephant in the room” may take up almost all the space, but still people pretend it not to be there and they don’t talk about it at all.

There is a forum at integrallife.com, where I participate every now and then. I noticed that the conversation topics covered many things, but left out Covid and the connected problems worldwide. That topic definitely is the elephant in the room there, as well as in other integral communities. How come?

In my understanding of “Integral,” people at that level of development would be open to seeing the world from as many perspectives as possible, to assessing the situation and patterns and to co-creating solutions to the problems. Even after 2 years, only very few attempts were made to propose the topic – which was obviously read by quite a few people, but no real discussion came out of them.

Only the other week I got invited to a new topic proposal by Andrew MacDonald and I happily jumped into the boat, exchanging my views on what was and is going on. Finally someone who is missing the open discussion about the most important issues of our time and who shared some insights if how the trucker protests were going on in Ottawa, near his own small town. Are “integral people” equally prone to be fooled by propaganda as most of the others? Where is their “Higher stage of development” expressed right now?

These were some of my questions and many others popped up. So we decided to meet another time, live on video and record our conversation in order to “break the ice”, to release the elephant out of the room and give it its place in the public.

Videopost for March 2022

TIME STAMPS : WHAT to find WHERE in the video

0:00 Intro Heidi (recorded on January 3rd on the terrace of Hieidi’s property)

1:15 Peaceful introduces himself and starts to explain permaculture

1:35 permaculture is a design system, not only about growing food

2:15 Foundation: what nature already does.

2:50 Peaceful reals the definition of Permaculture. His understanding: the connectedness of things.

5: Peaceful’s experience

6: Obredimed = Observation + Boundaries + Resources + Evaluation + Design + implementation + again evaluation etc.

8:35 Malpas: i.e. plant corn and beats and pumpkins together for mutual benefit.

11:30 Closed loop circuit: There is no waste.

13 Using menure – why not? Why Permaculture creates a more beneficial environment by using the materials already there.

15:30 Ways of taking out of the system. Ways of growing food.

20:15 no-dig policy

22:00 A story about the various ways of gardening.

25:30The main points of permaculture – Heidi’s situation

About Andrew MacDonald

Andrew writes: “What helps people, what helps me, is being together in such a way that what we need tends to show up more.” I’m part of a wider movement to connect spirituality with our difficult existential “great reset” situation. We’re courting the muse we need at this challenging time.

I do one-to-one “Presencing” explorations and convene groups for peers. I offer family constellations to work on hidden issues from childhood, early attachment is a good example, as are issues from the ancestral family. I’ve a lot of experience with men’s issues too and love to work with men. My book Evolutionary YOU is about waking up from the sleep of unconscious loyalty to cultural norms so we can serve what is higher; it tells some of my own experience with that.

If people would like to connect, they can join my list at AndrewMacdonald.net.

RESOURCES

Andrew’s book Evolutionary YOU is about waking up from the sleep of unconscious loyalty to cultural norms so we can serve what is higher; it tells some of his own experience with that.

If people would like to connect, they can join my list at AndrewMacdonald.net.