Klarity Blog

“All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth”…some people wish for 2 front teeth. I can’t imagine…

My wish has always been the same, always always “Peace on Earth.”

I like the way my consciousness has shifted and metamorphosized in preparation of this global gift being realized.

My wish went big when I realized that having my own needs met didn’t do it for me.
When I wished for things, they always came.
When I wanted, I always got whatever it was.

Then I looked around, listened to the news, listened to my friends, and something felt icky.
I wanted Peace and Pleasureful wishes granted for everyone. Nothing less would do.

My view has been very wide, and global for a long time. Now it is getting personal while integrating locally and globally.

In June 2008, I came to San Francisco to complete my Masters of Science degree Orientation in Integratvie EcoSocial Design, with Gaia University.

This is my opportunity to express the story and songs I have been living and breathing for years in my travels and work as a Permaculture Design Artist. In the past 2 years, something has become clear to me. I see and know peace is not only possible, it is prevailing everywhere, even now. Where one would question this statement, one is looking at appearances.

I am starting to get that much of my life, I have looked more deeply into the potential of appearances.
I have seen the Spirit that unites us. Nature taught me this. Nature really is the nurturing, loving Mother of my whole life. Nature is the wisdom behind Permaculture.

It is my wish to see a Permaculture Design fulfilled across our planet.
Geoff Lawton is already doing a great job, as is our global family, where they are living in harmony with all life and nature as friend and ally.

I am living in the Bay area, connecting and interconnecting, writing, and exploring bringing a cohesive design to all life here. It is going very well. Life loves life. All I do is share Clarity.

In the time I have been here, 4,000 organic veggies have taken root planted on San Francisco’s City Hall lawn, Kat Steele of The Urban Permaculture Guild, has invited me to see the Frida Kalo exhibit at The SFMOMA ands we heard Fritz Haeg share his slideshow of lawns transformed to Victory gardens across the U.S, and we all laughed with him that these are supported as art projects. All is beautifully documented in “Edible Estates; Attack on the Front Lawn.” Yes, I bought the book.

I have been to an all-night, camp-out, sleep-over at The Exploratorium to watch the Total Solar Eclipse. The art, dance and cultural events going on all night were amazing.

Daily Acts is a group creating and hosting tours and workshops that unite us all in the conversation and in action. I toured The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and took the Brock Walk with Brock Dolman, only to be lit again by his profound mastery of all things common sense and watershed-related! Lori Grace took me as her guest to OAEC and to see the Sebastopol City Hall lawn transformed into native grasses and sheet mulch on a hot and sunny day. (Thank you Trathen Heckman, Rick Taylor, and Ellen for all your work on these and more!)

Now I write, cook, dance, hang at all 4 Cafe Gratitudes, and go to church on Sundays at The East Bay Church of Religious Science, when I am not teaching my neighbor kids yoga or going to the mountains with them for hiking up shady oak-lined trails. They had never heard of yoga and had never been hiking before. Life is good. All is well.

Being the change, being really clear, Claire of KLARITY.org …from Oakland, California…for today.

Like a dream=====I find myseld waking=====what was that?

18 years of visioning, seeking, finding, loving the mystery and the clarity along my way.
Always MY WAY.

Now MY WAY is yielding to the present, and not so much roller-dozer-ing to realize peace on earth.
I wandered wondering where it was. That was a question only I could answer. Even though I could have said ‘WITHIN,’
I needed to go around the world to find the safety to go within. Others had done it. I had witnessed many brave Souls who stood for truth and there I saw my way. I remembered my way.

Now, I realize Peace is prevailing wherever human Beings are Being in harmony with nature.
Now, 2008, Spring brings growth, newness, sprouts really.=====what will they be?

Growing my Authentic Beingness from shadows of yesterday’s imposing illusions===
I find something new. Watching the world awaken to a sunrise of possibilities, I want to rest, take a breath…
Then do my Heart of Yoga on the beach again at 7am,
visit Sacred Maliko Gulch and
walk the labyrinth again amidst the playful children, graceful kukui trees & silence-speaking orchids,
talk with friends in heart-to-heart conversations about their own discoveries today;
life is so rich.
Paint a rooster again, and picnic by the 13 horses standing in the cool shade under the grandfather tree on Baldwin Avenue, eating my homemade koala chocolates with Reishi mushrooms that open my Heart some more!

A new Earth is rising from the pond scum of humanity’s evolutionary wanderings,
rich, fertile, deep good scum feeds the flowering, and
a blossom ascends as many-petaled as a lotus, and as majestic.
Vibrant life, rallying for the sun’s rays.

Are we becoming aware we are a Human Family, or is it just me?
And now my bearthday. Today. A Taurus Dragon. A Heart with wings. I’m free.

I am 44.

I feel as if a losing war’s been won for me…
Thank you very much to those who have shown me their way so I could find the peaceful pleasure in mine.

hi everyone! happy new year. i am working on converting my downtown
front lawn into a garden and would love any tips and or recycled
products to use. I need mulch, anything creative to build raised beds,
manure, old bathtub or barrel, etc. i am also open to trade/exchange.
look forward to connecting with you! peace.

The HOW-TO offered by Linda Buzzell-Saltzman, member of The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network,
author, Eco-Psychotherapist, and co-founder of The Santa Barbara Organic Gardening Club:
 
Good for you!  Here are a few things I’ve learned the hard way.
 
Don’t eliminate the lawn all at once unless it’s very small. 

With a hose, lay out a shape (something nice and flowing looks good) that leaves some lawn in the middle. 

Then cut out the sod between that hose and the driveway/sidewalks.  Usually it will roll up like carpet if you have a good shovel.  Then next year you can take out the remaining lawn in you like. 

In the meantime, stick a bird bath or bird feeder in the middle of the lawn and you’ll look “designed,” which is important for a front yard if you don’t want the neighbors to complain.
 
Now that we’re getting the rains, it’s a good time to go scouting for stones, which tend to wash down into roads,
where the city or roads people will at length be required to haul them away, so you’re actually helping by removing them.

This gives you good raw material to build up the sides of raised beds if you like, to create terraces, or just to mark paths or the border between the lawn and your veggie/flower garden.
 
Another items that washes up this time of year (literally) is driftwood, which you can also use for raised beds if you like, but of course it deteriorates with time and may contain some salt.
 
Manure is available from many local horse farms. 
Mulch is available from tree trimming companies (saves them from hauling it to the dump). 
Barrels are actually pretty cheap – under 15 for a pretty big one. 
But maybe some folks on this list will have stuff to give you.
(You can always put an ad on The MPN when requesting what you need or have to share. mpn@klarity.org)
 
Happy Gardening!

Aloha from Maui!

Moving on to a new year, cherishing the whispers of “Merry Christmas” still ringing in my ears.

2007 was a time of awakening, like a really loud not-so-pleasant alarm when you really would like about three more hours of good solid shut-eye! Some of the world continued in its patterns of hitting the snooze button, attempting to perpetuate business-as-usual, but no…the truth is being seen and going back to sleep is not an option.

At least that was my experience.

My dear friend of 16 years, Jonni, visited for three weeks from NYC and reminded me what it is to have a close friend here in person. Her presence really gave my Spirit new life. What a comforting feeling to enjoy Maui with her through new eyes on the beaches and in Hana, or just hanging out at home. She brought her talent as a director to our filming Maui and Permaculture for Current TV and our own projects.

I made four trips to Los Angeles from my home on Maui,
My two cats, my 14-yr-old girl-dog and I moved into a luxurious Bali Bungalow called the “Crystal Cottage” on Maui’s North Shore. With the guidance of Marian Scott, we have just finished the 13-acre Permaculture Design map for the land here with its lush wild grasses, coconut trees, bananas, papayas, & solar and rainwater catchment already in place. There are 2 homes on the land, mine and the land owners, so we’ve included 2 food forests and an orchard, ponds, and the zones are outlined for future implementation step-by-step.

In Los Angeles, I drove the Biodiesel shuttle for Topanga Earth Day,
stepped in as Photographer for Santa Monica Earth Day at the 3rd St. Promenade,
drove a Biobeetle rental car and loved every minute,
gave an hour and a half presentation on Permaculture Design and showed slideshows of examples from around the world to The Four Seasons Beverly Hills, to 14 Dept. heads and their General Manager.

I went to Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City (www.agapelive.com), every chance I got!!
Such a beautiful group of inspired Souls and a message and singing that invites fulfillment!

The Maui Permaculture Network kept growing with functional art and garden workshops, and events, a Stone Soup party and we had fun creating a clubhouse at the local Postal Plus in Paia on Saturdays. Talk Story Circles brought fresh ideas for a local food coop, and a local currency for Maui. Maui Community College had a series of speakers on sustainability, and I gave a class on Permaculture Design and other eco-clarity ideas I have found in my travels. In August, 26 people came for the KLARITY Permaculture Around The World slideshow at Hale Akua Shangri La and I returned there six months later to serve in the kitchen for The Ram Dass retreat for 95 participants.

This gave me an opportunity to share in the talks by Dr. Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, and his amazing, talented, angel of a wife, singer/songwriter/Agape International Choir Director, Dr. Rickie Byars-Beckwith. They were treasures to hear and to sing along with. Their message was so easy to embrace and melt into. “Life is good!!” We laughed a lot, and sang some more. There were sweet readings from Dr. Howard Thurman, and thoughtful stories to ponder. My heart heard the alarm go off and jumped out of bed for this, day after day, at 5am!!

The Ram Dass retreat included yoga with Mark Whitwell every morning, 2 hours with The Beckwiths, and a session with Ram Dass in the afternoons. The food was an artistic and Soul-nourishing gift from all accounts (Thank you Cindy and Lamertia!)
It was an uplifting week like nothing else. Ram Dass had us swimming, or rather, dogpaddling in the pool with him the last day and that’s where he fielded questions for his last session of the retreat! He just seemed to float, no struggle. There must be something to this. Be Here NOW!! All week, the message was clear, Love is right here, right now. I felt it!

2007 was a bold year for discernment of how to proceed in a new way. To facilitate a big jump in my own evolution, I have made a commitment to my well being that is deepening every day.
This includes:

* …Savoring Mark Whitwell’s book YOGA OF HEART, and practicing what I learned in his simple simple class.
I am giving Yoga of Heart a chance to penetrate my life, my breath, my body and my relationships, firstly with myself.

* …Three months on the Body Ecology Diet to restore the most brilliant inner ecology and support my highest vibration of Love.
No sugar of any kind and lots of really delicious raw and basic whole foods…and coconut kefir, that’s fermented coconut water that tastes like champagne but better!

* …Permaculture Designing, Art & Writing stories & songs that illuminate my passions as they lead me to peace within, on Maui, and on earth!

* …Opening to what is emerging, a new world, aligned with nature’s wisdom;
 my own Open Heart connected and growing within our global family.

2008, a new year, a beautiful new clarity.

May blessings pour into your life like the rain here in Huelo, steadily, with sunrise rainbows and
spontaneous sunshine-filled blue skies too.

Sending love in waves that ripple to
where you are, Claire

Bioneers and Rocky Mountain Institute offer much inspiration and practical wisdom towards real solutions.______________________ See link at___________________________ http://ecodesign.bioneers.org/node/16 ______________________________________ Here’s an excerpt:_________________ The best technologies can’t substitute for water and nutrient cycling, nor for atmospheric and ecological stability. Imagine hand-pollinating all of agriculture. Our best technologies can’t substitute for natural processes of assimilating and detoxifying all of society’s waste. With 10,000 more of us humans arriving every hour, what’s in short supply these days isn’t people. It’s nature.________________ Natural capitalism, the alternative we propose, uses four principles that can offer business increased profits; in many cases, dramatically increased profits. At the same time, this system addresses many of environmental problems facing us. For instance, global warming is an artifact of an economically inefficient energy policy. Just doing what’s cost-effective in energy would largely abate the problem of climate change. __________________ The four principles are: ______________________ Harnessing advanced resource efficiency to create profits by eliminating the need to pay for extraction at one end and pollution at the other._____________________ Eliminating the concept of waste by redesigning industry along biological lines, closing loops in the flow of materials, and not producing persistent toxins.____________________ Changing the business model to encourage these two shifts by rewarding both the provider and the customer for doing more and better with less for longer.______________________ Reversing planetary destruction by restoring natural capital. Any good capitalist reinvests in the capital that’s in short supply.____________ Together these principles enable companies to behave as if ecosystem services, the natural capital, were properly valued. Of course, where the rubber meets the road is in real-world case studies of successful projects actually implemented by companies, many of which we have worked with to achieve their goals._____________________

It’s true. 55 days around the world is a trip beyond words. Did that just happen? ____________________The jet lag was mind-altering. The change of scene, culture, accent, power adaptors!!, and money every week, or more, was very cool. It was like being in a movie, but living it in real time. It was a very long movie. ______________The highlights stay with me; The long walks I took to enjoy each place…I worked 10 -20 hours per day, so the precious few hours I had to engage with each place was limited to about one incredible walk per week, and what fun it was.——————– There was Melbourne’s outdoor photo exhibit by the river, ABOVE THE EARTH, a startling collection of aerial photos that capture the beauty of our global family, the wealth of fascination that nature offers our little race, and the spectacular mess we’ve made of things, with messages of hope and guidance under each photo. This exhibit’s focus is on showing us that we and our planet are worth us all getting together for, to turn things around. We can do it! ________________Then, there was Brisbane, the ferry to the farmer’s market, fresh sausages, leafy greens, crisp apples, Irish musicians playing a tune for change in the hat, the taxi to the healthfood stores to fill my cloth bags with organic goodness: teas, veggies, tahini, almonds, and “crisps” (potato chips), so I could fill my fridge back at the hotel. Candy bars and minibar junk were pushed aside. I am sure the housekeepers were surprised to find a huge head of lettuce where once there was a Red Bull and Flake chocolate bar. Organic food was hard to find, but once I found it, I also found some excellent resources for each city; (yoga classes, music), some bright and helpful staff, and the best food anywhere. I loved the riverside botanic gardens, the students I met waiting for the high-speed ferry, and the funny birds that look prehistoric but nip into the city trashcans unabashedly.___________________I missed visiting with my friends in person, but managed to spend a long satisfying time on the phone catching up with my Australian friends, to hear how their lives have evolved since I was here last year and to catch them up on my worldtravels, my questions and my discoveries along the way. The Australians I know and love are all very active in creating solutions in ways that we grow food, build homes and community, and live sustainably, so it is always thrilling to me to hear of their progress and experiences living in this cutting edge way. (www.rivendell.com)______________________Onto New Zealand, where I was blessed to make an extraordinary friend, Jennifer, who had just moved to Christchurch on faith, with her husband and six children, and she was thriving with her new business, Mindsync. www.mindsync.com________________Returning to New Zealand, I find I am refreshed and reminded of the magic of being human. It is the sparkle in the eyes and voice of every “kiwi” I meet; the taxi drivers’ warmth and stories of their background’s, the ever-helpful hotel staffs, always good for a laugh or advice on a good restaurant, or a heater in the middle of the night. Even in spring in Christchurch, it was a bit on the nippy side. I made good use of the hotel sauna to heat my bones. Oh, what a cozy night that was at The Heritage Hotel. What a nice hotel: Walking distance to everything.____________The botanical gardens in Christchurch were brimming with tulips, and a black swan joined me for breakfast on the bench. ________Auckland gave me a chance to see 2 friends and walk long enough one evening to get really lost, in the rain. My map got wet and it was getting soggy, falling apart. The roads were twisted on the map like spaghetti, but somehow I managed to get back to the hotel 2 hours later than planned and soaked to the skin. That was funny, since it was the night before I was to fly to Italy the next morning, and I remembered I got lost in a NZ rainforest last year, the afternoon before my flight out of New Zealand. I guess it is a tradition now; Get lost the night before leaving New Zealand. I can’t think of a nicer place to get lost. I love New Zealand._______________5 FLIGHTS to get FROM NZ TO ITALY…See Damanhur blog below for my week off in Italy—Oh my, getting to Italy was a 37-hour saga that included 27 hours on 5 flights and a lot of movies on the best airline, Emirates, with a 2-hour stopover in the Dubai airport, with separate mosques in the airport for men and for women, a shopping corridor set up like a Disneyland for very serious shoppers….This was lost on me. I am not a shopper. There were marble floors fit for a queen. I sat right down on that shiny marble mosaic floor and peeled myself an orange! …before flying through London and Frankfurt back to Turin, Italy. Damanhur gave me a joyful break…then Oct 11-28 I was in London, back to work. Yes! I love London. What a great city: My cousin, Fiona and her fiance Bryn, had me over at their excellent flat for a few nights, my cousin Paul met Fi and I for a great Indian feast near Covent Gardens one night, then it was off to stay at the Danubius Hotel. The poor place seemed to fall apart little by little, day by day, sadly, but what a luxury to be near London’s Regent’s Park, the zoo, Hyde Park. It was perfection: the night’s walking through St. John’s Wood, walking under the street lights across Abbey Road, just like George, barefoot-Paul, Ringo and John in his white suit, walking from Abbey Road studios to the pub with Rick Kurek, my long lost friend who moved to London last May. It was great to hang out with a dear old friend after so many days on the road swirling in the newness….We listened to his new music (www.rickkurek.com), 3 great songs, and took a taxi cross town, and managed to enjoy the heck out of London, laughing about how we have been together in San Bernadino’s “World Famous Mt. Baldy Lodge,” Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Memphis, Nashville, Santa Barbara, and now London. Wonders never cease: The wonder of life’s ongoing mystery and adventure. _________________Yes, that was me on the London tube making the eye-contact-less, stoic Londoners giggle as I announced amongst so many squished riders with their faces jammed in someone else’s armpit, “So this is how you all get to know each other….” One of the trains was not working, and so my ride to the airport for my roundtrip-flight-in-a-day to Aberdeen started out with a 7am sardine can simulation ride on the London Underground train. I made the best of it, and getting them to laugh made the whole trip totally worth it……..I am half Scottish, with 13 cousins in the UK, so I even took a plane for a day to Aberdeen, Scotland, to visit with my beautiful aunt Joyce and cousins Hilary and Andrew. They had me over for lunch on their farm which was a great relaxing 7-hour visit, even if I flew from London just for the day. We had homemade bread hot from the oven, and a big bowl of veggie soup. We took a walk across the land’s green pastures, down the dirt country roads, past the cows and the rolls of freshly-cut hay. That was a much-loved quaint bit of family connection in the dizzying schedule.______________In an unsuccessful attempt to ease the jet lag, I stopped in NYC for five days on my way back to Maui. I lived in NYC for seven years, 1984-1991, so I spent some quality time with Jonni and Rick, two of my favorite people on the planet. They are both exceptionally talented and accomplished artists, and compassionate, exemplary human beings. I am so grateful for their friendship and the comfort of authentic loving friends in a sea of 22 airport security screenings and endless strangers….How blessed I felt to return to NY as a writer and photographer, after graduating from NYU in 1989 with a BA in writing and songwriting and performing. _____________________________Life is good. Living my dreams is really good. Traveling the world as a writer, seeing much of our human family in less than two months gave me a new perspective, a meaningful appreciation for how we are effecting the globe with our endless advertising, shopping, packaging, and movement. At the same time, every city had a thriving wave of awareness and conscious people shifting the balance in our collective favor with their commitment to non-Genetically modified foods, Spiritual awakening, strengthening communities and bringing music to the public. Art, music, and wellness can change the world like nothing else._________________________________ Thank goodness I am home and have started planting my organic garden and fruit tree forest….How many trees would I have to plant to make up for the carbon from my 22 flights? __________________________I loved the opportunity to travel as a writer, truly loved every moment. I love traveling so much, but was it worth that much carbon to fly five and six people around the world? I’ll be chewing on that one for a while, along with coconuts and starfruit from my trees here. It’s great to be home on Maui.__________________________________________________________ ____________ Before this trip, I prayed to be of service as a writer, to create global good effects______I can only guess it was a Divine Plan that swept me in and out of the lives of so many loved ones and new friends, like a dandelion seed on the wind. _________________Carrying me ever higher. _____________Thank you to all the Divine realms that supported this world-loop deloop, and my writing and photography on this trip. I loved the adventure. I love writing and capturing moments for all the world to see.