our new life

Its now one year and 12 days since our last day in the office. One year and 12 days of freedom, of not forcing ourselves to do something we didnt believe in. Doing stuff we didnt care about. And we are still alive today. We did not starve. We discovered how little we can survive on. All those stuff we thought we needed. Cab rides, new clothes, new stuff in general. No need. Travel was still a priority and we would do whatever it takes to do it. But its like we got our priorities right this time.

What is it about working in the city that makes use forget the basic things that make us happy? Its like everywhere we turn, we see people depressed about their jobs. Complaining about how they hate their bosses, their work. Too stressed. No time for family etc etc. And they say this while driving around a car they took a 70K loan on, living in a condo they took a 600K loan from, paying 800 for a maid to wipe the shit of their childrens bum. We all create our own commitments. We all put limits on our own lives. We do. Most singaporeans I know do. Come on. Its not as if we are struggling villagers in the 3rd world earning US100 a month and supporting a family of 8. We're lucky enought to not be those. We are the ones who have to have our regular spa visits, our handphone upgrades, our big plasma screen tv and shopping extravaganzas in Bangkok and Hongkong. We are the ones who for the sake of impressing the boss, stay in the office till 8 or 9 o clock, forsaking our children at home while they play and bond with the maid. So we can keep our decent paying jobs to afford our regular trips to coach, nine west, and once in a while trips to LV or Prada.

COME ON LAH!

A friend of mine today commented on how much money is at the top of most singaporeans priority in lives. I mean, we need money to survive. But how did it come to be that we let money dominate our lives? We have become so blind to whats important that we just follow social norms without listening to our hearts anymore. I just really hope that more people will wake up to matter, live life instead of just getting flushed through it.

The story of stuff

A very succinct, clear explanation to what is so incredibly wrong with our mass consumerist world today.

Click here to watch The Story of Stuff
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Wake up people!

we are earth

I just read something really beautiful from this book 'The Atlas of Body Mind & Spirit' by Paul Hougham:

"Our bones are rocks, calcium and phosphorus, chalk cliffs of our internal scaffolding. Our body fluids are 70 percent of our weight, just as the oceans cover 70 percent of the planet's surface. Our breath is matched with incredicly accuracy to the specific compositions of the planet's atmosphere. Yet we rarely stop to think of the sheer strangeness of physical existence. The focus of our concen often ranges from everyday issues to ongoing dilemmas and challenges. In order to appreciate the human form, it is useful to contemplate its wonder and absurdity."

Basically what it says to me is reiterating what all the yoga/meditation/earth books/Avartar film and learnings are also saying. Which is... we are not apart from nature. We are part of it. And that everything that surrounds us is just an extension of ourselves, and we are an extension of the universe. Its as if the liver thinks its independant from the rest of the organs, not realising that its needs all the other organs, as well as the cells, the fluids, the bones and every other part for it to survive. Seperation between things is just a notion we learnt from childhood. An illusion. And if we are able to be awake and see past this illusion, if we are able to let go of attachments, desires etc, we will be able to face life fearlessly.

Our journey since we left our jobs about a year ago now, has just been about putting together little pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle. And frighteningly, they are all fitting together somehow. From our initial discovery of the beauty, sublime of nature in the english country side. To living side by side with nature in growing organic food. To learning how to tread more softly on this earth by watching what we consume. To realising the pleasure of living frugally and simply. To awakening our inner selves through meditation and yoga. And to realise the lightness of one's heart through helping others in need.

I find it incredible that all these experiences are culminating into one truth. Which is we are not separate from the rest of the world. We are part of it. Part of the earth, the weather, the animals, and so intrinsicly connected to one another.

Some people found Avartar's plotline predictable. I'm not sure what else was there to expect really. The message is and was clear. And yes it may have been said before in other stories and films, but it's one that requires reiterating over and over until we all get it. One should know that the film isnt really about some far away planet named Pandora. But it's about the last precious nature we have left on earth. James Cameron deliberately made Pandora daytime an unmistakable resemblence to a rainforest. Probably the Amazon as thats one of our biggest 'lungs' of our planet right now. And at the Oscars, the visua effects people who won the Oscar for visual effects said in his thank you speech which I say to everyone as well 'The beauty you see in Pandora is actually here on Earth!'. And when I watch Jake Sully fall in love with the magic of the forest, I remember how we fell love as well with the forest back in England. Its almost primal, comes right from within. With every breath you take of that fresh air, to the range of sounds you get closing your eyes and listening to the creatures. We are all just energy. Flowing from here to there. We are all really one.

And yeah, lots of people go - Aw thats nice. But how do I apply that to my 'normal' everyday life?. That's the problem isnt it? 'Normal' everyday life is actually quite distorted. Normal to us because thats all we know. But not normal at all. Take travel for example. Sitting in a metal box, going 60km per hour while you yourself only need to gently step on a paddle, while the machine is burning liquid fuel extracted unbashedly from this earth (depleting fast too) is erm... not normal. The result is a nation grossly overweight from not walking anywhere, ailments all over, legs the size of tree trunks from no movement. So my advice... do the 'normal' thing and walk. Or cycle. When we walk or cycle. We experience the natural air around us. We are not separated from the outside world. We are reminded how much we are connected to one another. Also, we have the freedom and flexibility to stop, go, turn around, wait almost anywhere want. And that's life. We have the ability to change our lives and we need to remind ourselves of that. In cars, we follow stricts codes of conduct, rules, traffic. All required of course but when we are stuck in a jam, cant go forward, too late to turn around, hitting an ERP gantry that will make we pay more money, we feel like we're stuck. Unable to have any control. No flexibility to go sideways or do something different. We conform. We become robots. And we die slowly. Either of fumes, stress, obesity or just emotionally.

So yes, thats one example of 'normal' life where most of us deem as normal is the very thing that will kill us.

But can we all go back and live in trees like the N'avi people? Absurd question? Perhaps not because I wont be surprise if one day, whoever's left here on Earth would have no other choice anyway.

Here and now

So..............

We've decided to stay in Singapore. At least for this year, 2010. Ask us 3 months ago if we would ever decide this, it would be an easy NO. But things change, nothing is permanent. We are not who we were even just a few moments ago.

But staying here doesnt mean that wwoofing has stopped. In fact, we're still doing it, here on our home soil :)

With GUI, Bjorn is working on designing, implementing and maybe running a rooftop organic farm in one of the schools here in Singapore. That's like - all Bjorn's ever dreamed of doing. Urban farming is perhaps the only option for us to be more self sufficient than we currently are (about 5 to 10 % only at the moment) so this opportunity to work on it here is like a dream come true literally. And for Singapore, it will perhaps be something no ones ever seen before. If it works out, it can be a template for all our rooftops on our island. Imagine the mindsets it can change once we realise that its possible to be close to our food again. And not rely on air flown, pesticide & chemical laden, unfresh fruit and veg. Once urbanites taste the freshness of their own labour, smell in the intensity of their own herbs, feel the difference in their health and diets, more and more things will start changing as well. We've lost so much of it in the last 100 years of history. And we're at the epoch of getting it back again.

Today we're going to be helping to deliver left over organic veg from pasir panjang veg market to an old folks home. So instead of it going to the bin, it will go into the dishes of our elderly, who perhaps already have accumulated chemical and toxins in their bodies from living in Singapore for the last 70/80 years. It will do them good.

And oh, I discovered while reading this enlightening, yet alarming book - The Hundred-Year Lie. How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health by Randall Fitzgerald. That flouride is poison. Its been tested to kill rats in labs, give cancer and and whole load of other diseases. Most of western Europe has banned it from their waterways because of this. But America and SINGPORE has it in our tap water. Claiming it prevents tooth decay. Now, applying it on your teeth via toothpaste, it makes sense. But ingesting it..., unless u gargle your water each time u drink it, doesnt make any sense?! Also, the aluminium industry & ther fertilizer indutry benefits from flouriding our waters coz the by-product of factory smokestacks operated by both industries is a toxic waste called silicoflouride that contained lead, cadmium, arsenic and other toxins (today an estimated cost of $8000 a truckload), flouridation enabled both to make money by selling the waste for use in public water supplies. HOW GROSS. So if u drink your local tap water, pls find out if it contains flouride, and swiftly get a filter that removes it if possible, because we are indeed slowly poisoning ourselves. (Or rather, our government is poisoning us)

And I leave u with a seedling of a bean that we sowed 1.5 weeks ago, and planted out 4 days ago at Bottle Tree Park, GUI's base for now.

May all beings be happy!