Blog of Zoe at Galien Valley
Holistic: Holistic means Whole-Culture Read about 6 Holistic Skills, Holistic means Whole-Culture I use the word "holistic" If something has the quality of being "holistic" that means that it relates to and supports everything basic that people and communities need: food, water, shelter, nature and science, art and community, economy and ecology, community and culture, love, joy, peace, morals, and overall health (moral, mental, physical, economic, social, environmental, and healing). A "holistic" skill, task, and activity is beneficial in many ways, and not in just one way or a few ways. Holistic means that it's simultaneously beneficial in many ways including to people's health, safety, morals, education, long-term economy, culture, science, art, awareness, love, peace, joy, and more. An example skill, task, or activity that is not holistic is beneficial in only one or a few ways, such as only making short-term money, and meanwhile ruining people's safety, health, long-term economy, education, skillfulness, peace, harmony, fun, and the health of nature. In education, a "holistic" class or "holistic" book is interdisciplinary. A holistic class or book acknowledges that everything is connected to everything else. Holistic action and study look at how one thing or one school subject connects with and affects everything else. Holistic means that each skill, task, lesson, and activity, such as in education, is interdisciplinary and beneficial in multiple ways — and not in just one way, and not related to just one school subject. Holistic means that each skill, task, lesson, and activity is beneficial in many ways, simultaneously, including to people's health, safety, culture, education, ecology, economy, science, art, morals, love, peace, joy, nature, communities, government, language, science, social studies, math, and more. "Holistic" means sustainable and enriching. Holistic means that its simultaneously helping people’s culture, education, ecology, economy, and more (people’s health, joy, fun, morals, peace, harmony, government, science, art, community functionality,
6 Holistic Skills and Activities: On days I do six holistic skills and activities (health (morals-love-awareness-health), science, art, food, landcare, and culture), each of these six activities support not only one purpose and benefit, but also they each support all six purposes and benefits, and even more than the six. Everything connects to everything else. Holistic skills, tasks, and activities consider and show that everything links together. Health, science, art, food, landcare, and culture all relate to and influence each other and also education, the economy, and many other fields. There is no separation. Nothing exists in isolation, alone in a vacuum. See below of an example holistic day for photos of holistic and sustainable activities. I practice the basic holistic skills to help to See definition of community. A.) Holistic Skills B.) Holistic Landcare C.) Holistic Health Care I. Moral Health includes Morals-Love-Awareness-Health: Morals includes love, as in moral love, spiritual love, community love, brotherly love, world love, a love for the goodness in all mankind, and helping mankind. Morals and love include awareness. Increasingly become more aware of good possibilities and opportunities for communities, people, and nature. To be moral is to love and be aware. Morals, love, and awareness boost people's health. Furthermore, morals, love, and awareness sustain and enrich the health of communities, people, and nature. Morals-love-awareness-health is the most important action, motive, outlook, and first step in being sustainable. (Read more about Moral Health at Good Journal.) D.) Holistic Community Culture E.) Holistic Education F.) Holistic Economy G.) Holistic Science and Art Holistic Local Living. Also, "holistic" includes ● During my "Holistic Days" ― for example see my blog for December 2018 (day 28, December 13, Holistic Day 3) ― I practice the six holistic skills, while, for instance in December 2018, I made a digging stick. Read the following. (Additionally, you may look at my Holistic Days page.) "If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself." ― Henry David Thoreau. I brag for humanity: see the many amazing things that every individual can do: Making a digging stick (or other item) in a holistic way is a holistic action relating to skills in many fields: morals, nature / ecology, science, art, food, landcare, culture, education, economy, fun, holistically local, and more. I started with moral health: including to consider how I can support the well-being of communities, people, and nature, such as that I can make a digging stick in a holistic way. Next, I did science, including that I explored nature to find a good sapling for a digging stick. I did science, including that I identified maple trees by their buds. Following, I did the art of making a digging stick, including carving a point on the end of a stick. Plus, I fire-hardened the point and burnished it with a stone. Next, I did permaculture food, including that I used my digging stick to dig edible dandelion roots out of the ground. I had done landcare as I picked out a maple sapling to help thin out a crowd of trees. I even do landcare, as I do permaculture food, such as removing and eating the exotic invasive species, including the dandelion. I supported community culture, including that I did science, art, food, and landcare in ways that pertain to local nature in the community. I supported community education, by practicing these holistic skills. I supported the community economy by practicing these holistic skills. Furthermore, it's fun. It's fun to do holistic activities and to handmake stuff in holistic ways. Holistic includes that it's fun. By making a digging stick in a holistic way, I am a multi-faceted person: I'm a moral person, a naturalist, a scientist, an artist, a community food activist, a land caretaker (I consume stuff from the land, and I give back), a community culture activist, a community education activist, a community economist, a fun-loving person, and more. Buying a digging stick (or other item) from a store skips many or all of the various facets of being holistic. Buying a digging stick (or other item) reduces and belittles a person down to being merely a consumer. I support people being multi-faceted people, instead of just consumers. Every individual person can do many amazing things. ● I do holistic skills to support: I do holistic skills to overcome harm to communities, people, and nature. Capitalism (and other things) harms communities, people, and nature. Capitalism does many harmful things including that it destroys people's and communities' wisdoms, skills, cooperation, and abilities to be locally-self-sufficient, and capitalism coerces people and communities into being helplessly dependent on distant products and resources and continuing an economy that destroys nature. Globalized capitalism is the spread of coercion and helpless dependencies, and not global cooperation. I do holistic skills to help to replace capitalism (and national communism) with economies that bring more justice, equality, and capability to communities, people, and nature. Capitalism is the globalized “free”-market (a.k.a. commodity economy) that is “free” to destroy the world of communities, people, and nature. Capitalism is the largest global human-made-disaster ever. Capitalism is the one disaster that entails many interconnected bad side-effects worldwide: poverty, greed, boredom, loneliness, depression, violence, wilderness loss, pollution, climate change, war, illness, cultural madness, daily grind, bad education, poor economies, people’s disconnection from nature, destroyed communities, etc. Capitalism is a bad culture. Capitalism is a bad culture-education-economy. Capitalism and its culture-education-economy teach people (kids and adults) to be distracted by obsessions of academics, test scores, career specialization, sports, high-tech gizmos, and shopping for globalized products. While people are distracted, capitalism enters communities throughout the world, and takes control of communities, people, and nature, while globalized large corporations become richer. Capitalism is a few globalized large corporations growing bigger and richer, while communities, people, and nature become poorer. Martin Luther King Jr. was against capitalism. He said, "Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.” In every community, establish a self-sufficient community culture-education-economy, in which the community, people (most if not all), and nature flourishes, instead of globalized large corporations and the very few people who run them. To end capitalism (to stop it from doing more harm) and to overcome capitalism's inflicted harm so far to communities, people, and nature, it's not enough to do ecological stewardship alone, and it's not enough to grow permaculture food alone. To end capitalism and overcome capitalism's inflicted harm, we've got to change holistically: change just about everything, including the modern culture-education-economy. To end capitalism and overcome capitalism's inflicted harm, we've got to replace the one globalized capitalism culture-education-economy with many community culture-education-economies. The community culture-education-economy gives people (kids and adults) a holistic community education to take care of the land, run permaculture family farms, and run sustainable local community economies that help people and nature to thrive together. The community culture-education-economy gives people (kids and adults) an education about what matters most: protecting nature (the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil we grow our food in, wildlife, habitats, biodiversity, etc.), people’s health (which depends largely on how healthy nature is), sustainable wisdom, family farms, local small businesses, and the community economy. People need to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat nutritious food. Reading, writing, and math are less important than air, water, and food; but, reading, writing, and math can be learned along with food skills, landcare skills, and community economy skills. A community culture-education-economy helps students to stay aware of their community (and beyond) and helps students to help their community, instead of getting too distracted by capitalism, greed, academics, test scores, job specialization, sports, high-tech gizmos, celebrities, and shopping for globalized products. Holistic community education helps to actively heal and prevent capitalism's harm to communities, people, and nature. Holistic community education encourages students to be moral and responsible by taking care of communities, people, and nature, instead of neglecting them while focusing on academics, sports, and high-technology. Basic holistic skills and holistic community education help to support many good things simultaneously: love, peace, joy, morals, awareness, safety, health, economy (people having enough stuff), social and economic justice, nature, habitats, sustainable education, community culture, freedom to do good, and freedom from harm. Furthermore, basic holistic skills and holistic community education help to diminish the modern bad culture and its numerous global interconnected bad side-effects: poverty, greed, boredom, loneliness, depression, violence, wilderness loss, pollution, climate change, war, illness, cultural madness, daily grind, bad education, poor economies, people’s disconnection from nature, destroyed communities, etc. ● Holistic includes health, joy, economy, education, culture, science, art, peace, community-connection, nature-connection, environment, high-quality simple life, etc. Holistic includes keeping the air clean to breathe, the keeping water clean to drink, and helping the soil to be fertile. Holistic includes helping people to gain joy by connecting to nature and the community, people to live self-sufficiently (and not be unskilled, needy, helpless), and community cooperation to be locally-self-sufficient (and not needy and helplessly dependent on perpetually importing many supplies and resources from distant lands and communities). Holistic includes being healthy because the air is clean, the water is clean, the soil is fertile, the food is organic (non-poisonous), and people spend time outdoors. Holistic includes a culture that includes sustainable education and a community economy. ● Holistic includes a high-quality simple life. A high-quality (happy) life includes unselfish love, peace, morals, and joy, by having sincere and loving relationships with communities, people, and nature. Less important to a high-quality (happy) life includes comforts, conveniences, luxuries, and high-technology. While we need enough stuff (water, food, clothes, shelter, basic tools, soap, etc.) to live and be happy, having more than enough stuff, comforts, and luxuries, does not necessarily make us feel more happy. A primitive hunter-gatherer, who was loving and had enough stuff to be happy and healthy, had a high-quality simple life. A high-quality (happy) life comes from a strong connection to community and nature, improving one's own morals and wisdom and skills, and lovingly helping community, people, and nature. "High-quality" means quality of caring relationships and connections to community and nature. "High-quality" does not mean extravagant quantity of stuff, amenities, comforts, luxuries, and high-technologies. Read about Holistic Skills,
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EXAMPLE HOLISTIC DAY year: 2018, season: Fall Holistic Day - 3 ● Good Journal: I don't usually practice these health activities at such regular specific times in this particular order. But, I am roughly doing so today. Healthy Day (while I live, learn, work) For further explanations of these health activities, Below, photos of the Graceland Labyrinth. The people, who dwell at Graceland Pond (Pond G), use the labyrinth for meditation.
● Nature, Science, Education: 8 AM, 25oF Sunny 10:00 AM, Science: Science includes nature observation and plant identification. Although most leaves have fallen off of the trees, trees can still be identified by their buds, from which new leaves and flowers will grow next year. Below, there is a photo of Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) buds. Also, there are photos of a Sugar Maple sapling (pointed out by a red arrow) and of Graceland Pond (Pond G).
Holistic Science. My whole day is science, education, learning, and teaching about morals, nature, art, food, landcare, and community culture - all six of these activities together help to educate myself and others how to take care of communities, people, and nature.
● Science is observation, questions, research, knowledge, and learning the patterns of nature and how nature works, etc. 1:00 PM, Art: primitive bushcraft digging stick. I carved a Sugar Maple sapling end into a point for a digging stick. Fire-hardening the point and burnishing it with a stone.
Holistic Art. My whole day is art: making a beautiful day of supporting morals, science, art, food, landcare, community culture, community economy, communities, people, and nature, near and far. ● Permaculture Food: 3:00 PM, Food:
● Landcare Log: 4:00 PM, Landcare:
Holistic Landcare. My whole day is doing landcare by supporting morals, (science) learning about nature, ● Community Culture: Culture is a way of life, a way to live, learn, work. 7:00 PM, Community Culture: Holistic Culture. My whole day supports community culture by engaging in morals, (science) learning about nature, (art) making stuff from scratch from nature, permaculture food, landcare, and celebration of community culture - all six of these activities together help to take care of the local community, and beyond. Daily Community Culture Activities For further explanations of these cultural activities, I don't usually practice these cultural activities at such regular specific times in the particular order, above. But, I am roughly doing so today. ● Holistic: "If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself." ― Henry David Thoreau. I brag for humanity: see the many amazing things that every individual can do: Making a digging stick (or other item) in a holistic way is a holistic action relating to skills in many fields: morals, nature / ecology, science, art, food, landcare, culture, education, economy, fun, holistically local, and more. I started with moral health: including to consider how I can support the well-being of communities, people, and nature, such as that I can make a digging stick in a holistic way. Next, I did science, including that I explored nature to find a good sapling for a digging stick. I did science, including that I identified maple trees by their buds. Following, I did the art of making a digging stick, including carving a point on the end of a stick. Plus, I fire-hardened the point and burnished it with a stone. Next, I did permaculture food, including that I used my digging stick to dig edible dandelion roots out of the ground. I had done landcare as I picked out a maple sapling to help thin out a crowd of trees. I even do landcare, as I do permaculture food, such as removing and eating the exotic invasive species, including the dandelion. I supported community culture, including that I did science, art, food, and landcare in ways that pertain to local nature in the community. I supported community education, by practicing these holistic skills. I supported the community economy by practicing these holistic skills. Furthermore, it's fun. It's fun to do holistic activities and to handmake stuff in holistic ways. Holistic includes that it's fun. By making a digging stick in a holistic way, I am a multi-faceted person: I'm a moral person, a naturalist, a scientist, an artist, a community food activist, a land caretaker (I consume stuff from the land, and I give back), a community culture activist, a community education activist, a community economist, a fun-loving person, and more. Buying a digging stick (or other item) from a store skips many or all of the various facets of being holistic. Buying a digging stick (or other item) reduces and belittles a person down to being merely a consumer. I support people being multi-faceted people, instead of just consumers. Every individual person can do many amazing things. "If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself." ― Henry David Thoreau. I brag for humanity: see the many amazing things that every individual can do: Read about 6 Holistic Skills, Z-hub's main page on Holistic. See Holistic Days for photos of holistic and sustainable activities. See Zoe's Daily Blog for photos of holistic and sustainable activities in nature classes and see photos of Michigan nature. See Galien Valley Nature and Culture Program for photos of holistic and sustainable activities in nature classes.
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© 2018 Pocket Pumpkin Press, last updated December 2018
Three Oaks, Michigan, USA