The day after new years, in a moment of receptive consciousness I had an interesting affirmation emerge in my mind. To understand it as I do, requires elaborating on the idea of edges from permaculture. The saying that is commonly tossed around in permaculture circles is: “the edge is where the action is”. Edges in permaculture are transitions between systems. They exist in both the natural and built environment. The edge between a pond and land, the edge between a forest and a field, the edge between inside and outside of a building, etc.
In natural systems there is generally an incredible amount of biological diversity where two systems meet. This can be used to your advantage (as a permaculture designer) by placing elements in your overall design so they benefit each other. In the built environment, you want to use edge skillfully, optimizing it depending on the nature of what you are designing. For example, in building a home in a northern climate, ideally you would want little to no Northern edge and maximal southern edge to create a passively heated home. This could be accomplished by building your home into a south facing hillside or berm with plenty of windows in the south. That is edges in a (very small) nutshell in the context of traditional permaculture.
I’ve found it interesting to take the principles of permaculture and apply them more broadly to my life. Taking the idea of edge and applying it to my inner landscape, edges make themselves known when events trigger me to react, get emotional, impatient, frustrated, angry, etc. I have come to know that any such reactions are simply unconscious/subconscious aspects of self that are being triggered, giving me the opportunity to heal/integrate/etc. Such a reaction has NOTHING to do with the apparent cause and EVERYTHING to do with my own state of being. Any blame placed outside of self energizes a victim mentality and is completely dis-empowering.
Since it is often challenging to observe such experiences objectively in the moment due to the influencing power of emotions, I’ve been quietly striving to learn ways of handling such moments with more grace. The following sankalpa (thought, intention, or will directed toward a specific outcome) came to me and I’ve been experimenting with it’s usefulness:
“I see you edge and I welcome the opportunity to bring you into the full light of my conscious awareness“.
To me, this brief thought sets a tone of openness and energizes a willingness to experience whatever is necessary to resolve the edge, be it forgiveness, understanding or some other dimension of healing.
Justin