This sentence (Gaia’s Garden) in Gaia's Garden gave me an a-ha moment. In this section, he's talking about how we shouldn't be mimicking the form of forests, but rather the function (Form vs Function) of forests. This quote in particular made me recognize that everything in life should always be viewed as design elements (Matthew 7) at our disposal. Everything. Always.

For example, I got all riled up because he mentions that city yards are influenced by all sorts of things, including local ordinances. The libertarian in me - spiraling down the rabbit hole of the immoral application of regulation (Plants Need Sunlight to Grow Well) - doesn't like that.

But I guess a gardener with slugs eating their lettuce - especially when it's their bread and butter - isn't too keen on slugs either.

In permaculture, the [phrase attributed to Bill Mollison][4] is "you don't have a slug excess, you have a duck deficit". Which means that there's a natural solution to the problem of slugs. They are a tremendous food source for ducks, and conveniently, ducks have more benefits than just eating slugs. So herein lies the a-ha moment:

Slugs aren't that bad when they're included in the design rather than treated as an enemy.

In the same way, local ordinances (and everything else you don't like, for that matter) aren't that bad when they're included in the design rather than treated as the enemy.

The hard-skill here - the tactic to apply - is to view the world through the lens of permaculture. Let go of seeing things you don't like as enemies who victimize you (Don't let others control your career path), especially when you don't have control over them appearing. Instead, find a way to dissolve the problem (Four Systems Thinking Strategies to Address Problems) by making the element you don't like disappear or otherwise benefit you such that it is no longer a problem.

Citations

• [4]: Citation Needed

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