Background

First Peoples’ philosophies of abundance and respect are credited for their centuries of peace before colonization. Their experience can help us overcome the causes and effects of mainstream indoctrination. Living and striving only for oneself or one’s family, in competition for a perceived shortage of resources, has resulted in hunger and poverty for multitudes, while the few with the most are disconnected from their communities. Illness and disease caused by lack of good food, health care, money, time or ability ~ lack of community drains the vitality of our civilization. And we can fix it, together...

Earth is going through changes, and Her changes require us to change. We need to protect our crops and grow them closer to us, but most importantly, we need to learn to live together in a new way and support each other so we don’t lean so heavily on Mother Earth. She’s given all She has, and deserves our love and respect!

Why Our Heart Gardens?

In Our Heart Gardens (OhGs), we can meet three intrinsic human needs – community, dignity and food security. Indoor organic  gardens in repurposed buildings and malls in communities around the world enable year-round fresh healthy food, tended by people in the company of others as they work together, surrounded by living walls of the plants that feed them. In the More Beautiful World we weave, we are entertained, engaged and educated by a diversity of visitors, and others online and shared on big video screens, as well as on personal devices. Instead of money; meals, fresh produce and/or bus passes give value for value given. Within cities, mass transit links OhGs, helping to generate higher ridership, frequency, dependability and improved security. Creating a kaleidoscope of diversity, OhGs enable people to feel at home in a large city, and it’s not far to go to be somewhere exotic.

The smell of fertile earth is not only pleasurable, it has medicine in it (mycobacterium vaccae)… Especially when enclosed within a building, in just 15 minutes the pleasurable rich aroma of fertile earth can relieve symptoms of Anxiety and Clinical Depression all day. This element of the concept was inspired by Crow Surgeon, a poem I wrote after witnessing successful surgery by a crow on an earthworm! This is never the wrong medicine; it has no bad side-effects, and you can’t overdose!  Everyone can enjoy and benefit from it – drop in to OhGs for breakfast and be happier at work! …looking forward to your return!

Our Heart Gardens is envisioning an inclusive
opportunity for affiliation.
I am inviting Co-Creators!
How do we do it?

Large OhGs 

…in repurposed malls, hotels, arenas and civic buildings, zoos and university campuses, depend on resources, location, needs, talents and skills to focus their efforts. They may include much of the following: 

• • large area(s) surrounded by living walls where people gather to work, share, learn and play
  • indoor and/or outdoor growing space(s) with appropriate lights, systems, plants and fish/animals
  • large parking lot with many stalls converted to growing space (movable planters)
  • mass-transit connection
  • government services access /collaboration
  • a food hub, kitchen(s) and/or restaurant(s)
  • artisan studios, linked online so students and mentors can find each other
  • child, elder and differently-abled engagement
  • rehearsal /presentation space
  • Sweat Lodge, sauna, Red Tent /Moon Room, bathing facilities
  • arts & crafts, laundry and sewing rooms
  • clinic space for scheduled visits by health specialists and doctors (psychologist, MD, TCM, DC, podiatrist, nutritionist, nurse and midwife, etc.)
  • alternative health practitioners and aestheticians whose free /cost-only services help people, and help them to begin their practice or practice their gifts for the good of the community
  • composting, soil mixing, transplanting and gardening (with workshops /training programs)
  • exercise machines to convert our recommended daily exercise into power (POP = Power of People)
  • offices for planning, administration and circle gatherings.

Small OhGs –

unique combinations of gardens with POP facilities, retail outlets for produce and products created at the OhG; family baths and /or meeting places in Seniors’ Homes or libraries; clothing alterations or upcycling; composting and soil making facilities – enabling small like-minded establishments to be affiliated with the global network.

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Sharing Circles are another valuable element of First Peoples’ culture. Management, provided and informed by inclusive interconnected circles enable all participants to be fully heard with consideration and respect. In OhGs, we create a new culture, new etiquette and new ways of thinking. Considering and agreeing on them together; we learn and practice how to follow these new ways with joy and laughter. The 16 Guiding Principles developed by Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr are a good foundation: Starting from within, working in a circle, in a sacred manner, we heal ourselves, our relationships and our world. 

Connections broken by colonization and the demands of life today can be rewoven, recreated with the help of Wise Elders and gifted participants, teaching while living and doing ritual, storytelling, ceremony, or simply listening while preparing or sharing a meal. 

Our Heart Gardens – OhGs! Places with opportunities to make friends and learn about new choices, expand our experience of life by sharing ours with each other. Our Elders, teachers and leaders, sharing skills, wisdom and experience, are honoured and supported; their gifts and stories are savoured, shared with our youth to help immortalize them in video and song. Our best practices spread throughout our More Beautiful World. 

THE VISION:  

(from the original 2014 vision)
Each community core has a large OhGs, open all day, every day. It is a safe place where good things happen. It shelters the vulnerable and gives shift-workers, insomniacs and people in recovery a good place to go. Elders, as much a part of things as they wish, are in a safe place. New moms with child-care needs, people who are hungry, homeless or travelers in need of a bath are welcomed and encouraged to help in the gardens, cafe or work areas. Abundance grows indoors and out, and everyone has all they need, and more. After working in mainstream offices, services and stores, people come to socialize, exercise, study, eat a good meal and catch up with the rest of the world before going home to, or with their families. There are no more lost and lonely ones, except by choice, and the outreach continues… 

A Retrospective – “Since the Pause” – Vision from June 2030. 
A more recent Vision, considering the situation we have found ourselves in.

Goal:  Elemental recognition of OhGs as sanctuaries – safe places of sane actions.

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Four Families, Plus describes how OhGs could impact the people in a small city. When you’ve had a look, click over to the Contact form and tell me: How would OhGs affect your life? Your city?

I see the nodes of the network forming. I see the gathering of imaginal cells /selves pulling together the elements of the great Butterfly /Phoenix /Dragon, Child of God(s) we collectively are… I see OhGs possibilities actively forming, needing interweaving.  The networks too, like OtherNetworks.org, Origin.org, TheConversation.cc, S7, Ubiquity University, Earth Regenerators, and others.

To engage with the Network, please click on the links above (visioning how each fits /contributes is part of this ongoing work.
Coming: the OhGs Communi-Tree that keeps everyone in the know – with bios with intentions and visions with logos &/or pictures.)