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I was lucky to be raised by good parents who loved me and taught me to think for myself.
I left home at 17 and moved to Oregon, where I became involved in forest activism and became a dedicated, tree abiding, forest dweller. After working for a few years, with diverse family, under fairly intense circumstances, involving frostbite, infiltration, giardia, and much more, I realized that what I wanted was some shelter, by some water, to tend plants, and to have a family. So, after having resisted the corruption of the system, I shifted to finding and supporting positive alternatives. It wasn't a simple or fast process and it's actually still going on. After extensive travelling and research and networking I settled into a very isolated area in Hawaii at the age of 20. I had been given a tip by an elder as to how I might find a certain beach and valley in which one can drink the water from the stream and in which there are over 30 different kinds of fruit.
A valley where there are goats to hunt, fish to catch, shrimp to net, birds to snare... and ancient terraces throughout hidden by the forest and all amidst mountains of mind bogglingly beauty. This was all many miles from the closest road and had no cell service but there were and are several dozen very rugged people living there who I came to know as my family over the next 13 years... It was after all this time, after planting and caring for innumerable trees and caring for over 30 gardens of varying size simultaneously that I finally had the opportunity to fully connect with my greatest love, the beautiful Irie Sky Love, in the intention to create a child. I ultimately feel that the decade I spent in nature was like the experience of a mystery school that gave me true life experience and time and place to reflect. I believe that I have now left behind the experimentalism of this mystery school's renunciation in order to proceed with the most effective of what I have tried. With the intention to start a family and become a householder came a new phase of life for me.
Almost immediately, I secured the promise of some work on a farm in California and Sky and I went for the chance. Living in nature had made me fairly strong and being used to very simple, rugged conditions served me well over the next year as we were taken on as the full time workforce. During that year Sky became pregnant and continued to work full time only dropping out after about 14 hours in the day. During harvest I was awake and working 20 hours a day. We finished the first year and moved back to Hawaii to recuperate and share in the birth of our baby girl whom we named Gaia. We bought into land and worked hard to establish permaculture. It took us over a year to realize that it was a scam but were able to get our money back out after some persistence and we had had free occupancytheat year so that really boosted us.
Sky reignited her clothing design business and we took a trip to Thailand and Bali to coordinate an ethical supply chain for her products. We ultimately did another 2 long-seasons of work on the mountain, to raise a more realistic amount of money for land and development. Having finally finished and having now aquired in the amazing district of Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii, a small area on the earth we are now in the process of sustainably developing this property and I'm excited to be able to share the essence of our process.
Our goal is to create a space that generates it's own food, water, shelter, and love. We are openly embracing the best of technology and grafting it onto the grounded roots of ecosystem. The location we've chosen is only 1/5 of an acre and so must be intentionally done to be very space efficient.
What we are doing is within reach for many people financially and many of the basic ideas apply everywhere, not only with Hawaii. We thought for a moment that we were going to be beyond worrying about money because of the huge amount of work we had been doing but that was illusion. The unnatural market for delicate herbal commodities proved to be unstable, as I saw, by the massive crash in the price of our organic commodities.
So as you can tell, I'm very much into honesty. I think that the ethically awake thing to do is to wriggle ourselves into positive relationships, with the world at large right now. We have huge energy so lets not fight let's mix and realize our highest potential.
So as a landing spot for that energy we're here to have a place that produces it's own food, water, shelter, power, and so forth into far more complex needs like love.
And so thank you for your time in reading this but want to put out there that I'm so happy for everyone who is working towards creating the crypto currencies and whatnot because I've got a lot of respect for that. I hope you guys get blessed. With just a little more oxygen it seems we're entering the dawning of a new age. I hope to see the best of the old and the best of the new in my lifetime. I pray we'll be able to overcome all obstacles and proceed on the way of love and that we'll grow into a new level of cultural maturity while we're at it. I hope to know that we're fulfilling our destiny and the will of the planet. I'm looking forward to watching the pollen of humanity waft into space. Hang on tight, I've got a feeling this ride is going to be wild.
Nice to read your story ben.. Glad I turned you on to bitcoin.. try some paragraphs in you next post 😜
right! Paragraphs... got it
Kalalau baby. ;]
keeping it dl jp!
Great to read your story Ben! I am so glad we are all homing in to Puna 🏡🌴💖🌌🌏🙏💛