I begin giving thanks to the source, to the indigenous people of the land I’m in, and to the indigenous people of the ancestry I’m from.

Lest we forget, forests can provide for all our basic needs as humans. It may not be easy but it is true, and tight knit nutrient cycles remind us of our arboreal foundations.

This guy (Primitive Technology channel on YouTube) and bushcraft have been a huge inspiration for me. Whether that inspiration shapeshifts into homesteading or what, I have it near and dear to my heart.

In every act and object we interact with to satisfy our basic needs, there is a deep stream, a series of Sources that stretch ineffably into the past and future. While this sounds far out, every act of satisfying basic needs with close nutrient cycles makes that fact more present. I’ve found even the most masochistic minimalist campouts rewarding in that sense: building shelter or heating oneself overnight with trees, it is clear what an awesome achievement four walls and a roof is to be grateful for. Running water? Truly awesome. It does not take much to get by, may we live such that others may too.

Indigenous connection to place is a beacon of such harmonious living. Practical techniques are hard to pickup now as their keepers have been decimated, traumatized by European ancestors who passed on the traumas of their own indigenous ancestors. It is beyond practical techniques however, it is bio-cultural in nature.

As mainstream culture whispers disconnect from the sources of satisfying basic needs, and disrespect for those indigenous who persevere, we must empower the voices that call out in recognition and gratitude of healthful sources and stewards. Thank you soil, thank you water, thank you woods, thank you love and connection to place, thank you ancestor stewards past and future. We can satisfy our basic needs in mutually beneficial, perpetually improving ways. The relationships involved in doing so are not destructive relationships, they are good, and in our guts we know this. We also know in our guts what is not good. May we facilitate firekeepers, may we transmute degrading systems into mutually beneficial ones.

May peace be upon you.