After the night I shared with this group of beautiful humans, I felt thoroughly settled into the safe space created by our facilitators and the cooperation of the community. With a sense of freshness and excited atnticipation, we began the second day of MyceliOm’s Permaculture retreat out in the desert of Joshua Tree.
Day Two
When I woke up in the morning, my travel friend and I heard the digeridoo and followed it up the hillside. In following with the practice of community, we joined the small group of people gathered in meditation facing the sunrise. It seemed like hours that we were there, basking in good music, conversation and company. Through our open interaction, we sustained the space of safety that had been created the night before.
When we came down and rejoined the larger group, it was offered to us to spend the rest of our available time decorating a fully finished cobb oven. For those of you unfamiliar with natural building materials here is an intro:
Cobb – a natural building material made from subsoil or sand – depending on the environment you’re building in, some kind of fibrous organic material – typically straw to weave and create tensile strength, clay for binding and water to mix it all. When dry it is a naturally insulating, highly durable and malleable building material. It also offers a huge range of applications, making it an appealing option for creative types who want to explore its aesthetic potential.
If you are interested in learning more about natural building, and cobb in specific, check out this site. The people who own this company wrote one of the best known self-guiding books on creating earthen homes.
Those of us who were interested in building worked as team; communicating, designing and creating together. We weren’t given much guidance with the exception of this little frog statue:
We began by wetting the existing cobb with clay water to allow it to bind more readily to the mixture we were applying, and worked the material in roughly. That’s me observing the balance of our composition from the picnic table on the left:
After a couple hours, our frog was beginning to take shape. That’s me on the far right working on the frog’s backside:
Finally, after several re-creations and corrections to its balance we had completed our frog together:
When dried, it is as hard and sturdy as any other sculpture. Since there is a variety of ways it can be made, the technique can be used almost anywhere without needing to import materials or use toxic chemicals for its creation, and therein lies its appeal. Having a platform to work as a community made the experience all the more satisfying.
We had to get going before sunset ceremony, so we said goodbye to all our new friends and left the desert feeling enriched with purpose and peace.
Jesus was an advocate for humanity gathering in communion and community, and acknowledging our responsibility as stewards of the planet. Get a clearer understanding of his teachings by reading our book The Word 2.0
Stay tuned for my future adventures in Permaculture!
Much Love,
Sonya
