Sometimes Life interrupts our daily routine, the way year after year we are kept running on autopilot. Sometimes Life rattles us with shockwaves to force us into a different state of awareness. Sometimes Life introduces us to unspeakable death, challenging us to turn a marginalized existence into a meaningful one. Rarely does a defining time [...]
Path to Freedom – Living a simple, yet sustainable life with Jules Dervaes
Published in July Issue of 31tenMagazine.com
With headlines about rising food costs, soaring gas prices, and skyrocketing foreclosure rates that reach directly into everyone’s wallets, as well as sobering reports about the state of the earth’s environment, there is mounting pressure for some relief. [...]
For more than six months now, I have been a wild man planting, faced with having to make tomatoes while the summer sun shines. As the seasonal heat cycles away, my tomato lust has not been satisfied. I had great hopes for those plants.
My expectations–they were reasonable–were to reap at least one ton of tomatoes [...]
I wanted acreage. Millions more like me desired the same. I dreamed of an idyllic country home where I could get away from it all. Yeah, and everyone else with the same hope would be joining in the migration to grab what land there was available. I needed space in which to satisfy my latent [...]
Then two years ago, because of this alien threat to the very seeds of life of our home, I turned radical, declaring: ‘Let’s go for broke! Let’s put it all on the table!” I aimed to get as much food for our dinner table as we could possibly grow ourselves. We were, indeed, very fortunate [...]
Hey! They can’t do that. That’s my food–my life–they’re messing with. They have gone too far now; somebody has got to stop these guys! These were my angry reactions when I heard that US biotech corporations were bent on introducing their freak creations—GMOs–into the food supply. They will do this as a service to mankind? [...]
We have a problem. Have you ever in your travels found yourself lost?
Collectively, our world–with man in the driver’s seat–has similarly been lost, only we are making great time and seeing wonderful, new sights all along the way. Why would we ever stop? We would not even question our direction because our pride would not [...]
Obviously, Virginia, there is an Earth Day. But, saving the earth through this special day celebration–now in its 32nd year–is a myth. With over 5,000 environmental groups around the world taking part in over 184 countries, Earth Day will be impressive but, for the most part, irrelevant. Once over, it’s back to everyday life and [...]
Shh! Listen! In a language all its own, Nature speaks, whispering renewal. Soon, a superb, wondrous spectacle will unfold as Nature performs its spring play of awakening. But, in these heady technological times, primitive acts of a natural force largely go ignored in most circles unless, of course, they spell trouble. When Nature roars disaster, [...]
USA…USA…USA…” Have we found unity? Can chants and flag waving change us? When the element of danger moves us to link our lives together, we do so under an external prod which can never last. Once a crisis passes, there is just no stopping us from getting back to normal –that is, divided.
A rare moment [...]
Whoopee! Wasn’t that a kick? Wow! The earth returned to the celestial point in its orbit which it occupied last year at this time. The January 1st date delegated as the start of our new year has been cause for one great, jubilant party. And there were toasts all around by the merrymakers to wish [...]
Go ahead. Rush around hither and yon to meet that deadline. Circled in red on your calendar, naturally, is the date December 25. Our world is now caught up in the special season of giving. In modern society that means, of course, doing even more shopping than normal. Run ragged the rest of the year [...]
Guess what? Life is already bouncing back to my normal routine, except in the area of the news. Not working in New York, not being a member of our Armed Services, and not having a job in the US Postal Service, I am more free to be my old self again. There’s still the specter [...]
Sometimes Life interrupts our daily routine, the way year after year we are kept running on autopilot. Sometimes Life rattles us with shockwaves to force us into a different state of awareness. Sometimes Life introduces us to unspeakable death, challenging us to turn a marginalized existence into a meaningful one. Rarely does a defining time [...]
Can I stop it? Is it possible for me, one speck, one person, to do anything at all to halt the relentless, overpowering flow of the mighty river which is mainstream modern society? It has become more swift, more turbulent and, thus, more monstrous; and, now, with each passing day there comes the ever-rising danger [...]
What has always been the hardest thing for me to do is to start over. Being settled in a way of life is like lying in bed under heavy blankets on a frigid winter’s morning. Who in their right mind wants to step out into the cold? And, when you must get going, does not [...]
Hours, days, years. A lot of time I have wasted. Some of it has been taken from me; some I have lost by chasing after the wrong rabbit. The most waste has resulted from a lack of real, positive direction. How can it be otherwise when my whole world is adrift with no captain at [...]
To live as simply as possible, to live in harmony with nature. All things are possible to a certain extent.
The modern technological world has made its people its subjects; it has made them ignorant and keeps them in ignorance. We are basically ignorant, ignorant of the basics–where does our food come from? Where does our [...]
