Regenerative community design

That is the big question on my mind today. Inspired by my move to Gilbert Arizona in the fall of 2020, I’ve slowly but surely followed my gut and curiosity towards a path filled with gardening, waste reduction, and greater connectedness with the living earth and my fellow neighbors.

As I began to cultivate my own property, repurposing lawn space as farming space, I joined my neighborhood’s Facebook group and was thrilled to see people were already connecting. I met my neighbors in real life, borrowed some tools, and mowed a few of my their lawns to add the grass clippings into my compost.

And I started to develop a vision.

Imagine if my neighborhood produced all the fruits, vegetables, and eggs we needed without any additional expense to the community. Imagine if it produced more than we needed.

Imagine if we produced a surplus of everything we needed — including energy — which could be sold or traded.

Would we still seek to make money? Would we start to find more time for our hobbies and passions?

I’ve asked hundreds of people how they would spend their time if they didn’t have to make money, if all their needs were met. And I’ve had it asked of me many times.

Over the course of these conversations I have found that the majority of us are overly focused on finding jobs in order to afford life. But that’s completely backwards, isn’t it?

What if life didn’t cost you anything? What if you lived in a neighborhood that produced a surplus of everything it needed, and you could earn money simply by becoming good at whatever you felt most called to, and contributing it to the community? Energy exchange.

The Internet has afforded us the ability to make money doing anything. But our local communities are severely lagging in the opportunities they provide us. It’s nobody’s fault, but anyone can change it in their neighborhood, town, etc.

Anyone can redesign their community regeneratively.

I’m on the path to learn how.

🎵

we need to

we need to

we need to rebuild

we need to rebuild.