studying permaculture alone, keeping motivation level high, building community

I have been studying PC for a while now. I was introduced to it twenty years ago when I was 18, and for quite a few reasons, I decided not to pursue PC wholeheartedly. Basically, to make a long story short, it just seemed like it was something that was too good to be true and there must be something controversial about it and someone someday will debunk permaculture. Add to that the notion that, in the mini PDC that I took, (I think it was 4 saturdays of 4 hours each) the instructor kept on emphasizing the importance of Observation, observation observation. He wanted us to meditate in a tree on the property that we were designing and I just was not ready at all for any of the wooo wooo of meditation at 18 and I wanted to get in there and do stuff right away. I didn't even have a property to design, but still I wasn't going to be bothered with observation over a whole year on any one property before I got my hands dirty. Fast forward 17 yrs and in April of 2011, I joined this forum. I tinkered around with PC until about 10/2013 and then it was full force I AM BATSHIT CRAZY ABOUT PERMACULTURE. I still am batshit crazy about it, but I am tired of doing it all by myself. I have one friend who I can talk to about it, my wife a little bit and my son very little. 99.9% of my interaction with PC is just me and my Computer, dreaming about my permaculture. Basically, it is really simple. I am searching for that community and I really am banking on finding it when I turn in my resume to this landscaping company that helps turn boring normal yards into edible landscapes. Please wish me luck or pray or dance or whatever it is that you do to help make this dream of mine become a reality. Just to make ends meet, I took a job selling door to door cable, internet, telephone, and home security. It is definitely not in alignment with what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am just sick and tired of saying the word and hearing "I know you love it, but don't exaggerate." I wanna thank Paul for bringing me back into the fold and lighting a fire under my ass. I owe him so much gratitude. I am taking the PDC online at permaethos.com, and I am just tired of dreaming about it already, doing it all by myself. That is my rant, and I know it doesn't flow and is not written all that well, but I just needed to get that off my chest. another thing: Why does my computer say that Permaculture is a typo on this forum?

Good for you. Try to find some garden clubs or an allotment garden in your area where you can meet like minded people in the flesh. These people exist everywhere. One leads to another and another. Plenty of people manage their land in a very natural way, but they have no particular name for what they are doing. They often work in isolation and therefore are not connected to the vast intellectual resources that are more available all of the time. Invite your wife to meet these folks. This might help to dispel worries of cults and such.

If Permaculture isn't a valid word, type it out and right click on it and add it to your dictionary, that's the problem, it's not a part of the word base over the last 20 years! Don't fight permaculture, blend in with permaculture.

We shouldn't try to push it on others, Permaculture should be offered to others as an option that they should choose for themselves, maybe they don't know they picked it, we can point it out later if needed.

I tend to push it, just by the language I use when important matters are being discussed. One of the largest farms in the area filed for bankruptcy recently. The paper printed a lengthy lament. Others who saw the article, voiced the idea that something had been lost. I don't see it as a loss, since this was a poison farm that has gotten in trouble for damages to a neighboring wetland. The land is still in the agricultural land reserve. "Perhaps the next owners will be more financially and environmentally responsible." This sparked some debate, and everyone learned something. I sometimes flatly refuse to eat certain things, based on place of origin. Discussions about this, lead to the subject of poisoned land and food. It then leads to the mention that I have clean, unadulterated food for sale.

i was brainstorming about this last night and thought craigslist!! so i posted an ad on craigslist to study the online PDC i am taking with others at a local library or anywhere else i/we can dream up as a place with sufficient resources to accomodate us. all we need is a quiet room with internet access. sweet!