(English version below)
“網地島の未来を育てましょう！（後編）”
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
“網地島の未来を育てましょう！（後編）”
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Let's Cultivate the Future of Ajishima (pt.3) -- July 16, 2016
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” I was given a small gift by a friend before moving to Ajishima. It is a small framed painting with that quote printed over it. I still have it and look at it everyday. I take inspiration from many people and things in my life, however, this quote is one of the driving forces for me to be here on Ajishima now, working to realize my dreams.
It hasn’t always been easy, though. In last month’s column I ended with the story of the islander who thought the future of Ajishima was dark. I can personally understand how the future may seem bleak and pointless to some. At the height of my depression after the disaster, I lost all hope. I doubted my dreams, and worse, I doubted myself. My dreams seemed too big and impossible. I was afraid to fail, so I protected myself from that failure by never even trying anything to begin with.
There was no magic cure for me. No one single thing or event or person or idea solved my problems. In fact, it was a combination of many things: studying natural farming and Permaculture (PC), making connections with like-minded people, surrounding myself with people who cared for and supported me, and taking the tiniest steps towards realizing my dreams. These things helped me see the light through my darkest times.
My motto now is, "Let's Cultivate the Future of Ajishima!" In order to cultivate the future, we have to understand the past, but act in the present. Action is key. Taking even the smallest of positive actions, like starting a vegetable garden, was helpful in my personal recovery. I also drew inspiration from the three core ideas of Permaculture, which are summarized as “Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share.” As I understand it, this means if we take responsible care of the Earth and our surrounding environment, it can support sustainable human development with enough resources for everyone.
I believe we can apply these core PC ideas to Ajishima and create a model for the rest of Tohoku, Japan and the world. After all, no man is an island, right? This quote about the island goes on to say that if one part of the whole suffers or is hurt, then the whole suffers equally as well. Ajishima cannot thrive without Ishinomaki and the rest of the mainland. Ishinomaki is a part of Tohoku, which cannot thrive without the rest of the country. Japan, a large island nation, cannot thrive without the rest of the world. Indeed, the rest of the world cannot thrive without Japan.
We are all inextricably bound to one another and to everything around us. Every life form is integral to the survival of everything else and to that of our whole world. On Ajishima we need to actively cultivate our future. In my opinion, there are specific choices and actions that we must take to realize our future. We must take responsible care in managing our fields, rice paddies, forests and the ocean around us. We must do no harm. When the land, sea and air around us are healthy and vibrant, we can grow and produce the things we all need to thrive. Ajishima can produce much of the food we need. With proper planning and sustainable methods, we can even become self-sufficient in energy and water. We can also work to responsibly grow the dwindling island population, but only within the limits of what the island can healthfully sustain.
When we take care of the Earth, we can then take care of each other. Ajishima ABE was founded to provide safe and nutritious food to the aging island population. We embraced that as our driving purpose when we took over operations. Of course, we cannot do this entirely by ourselves, so we have discussed several plans to attract like-minded people to help cultivate the island’s future. We plan to host interns (like longer-term volunteers) who would help us farm in the morning, have the afternoon to their own pursuits, and then help with value-added products and even meal preparations in the evening. As we responsibly grow the island population, we can eventually establish a farming cooperative. These are quite common around the country here. It allows members to share not only their knowledge and personal energy, but to share the cost of tools and machinery as well.
The sharing of knowledge is key to our future as well. The specific details of what suitably works in the place you are in are part of the hard won wisdom that comes with age. One way I worked my way out of darkness was by talking with the island elders. I slowly began to understand their perspective of how loosing the youthful generations to jobs and modern conveniences on the mainland caused them to lose hope in the future. Yet, I found hope in their intimate knowledge of this island. For example, Ajishima has a unique climate unlike even the closest part of the mainland. Our planting and harvesting schedules are slightly different because of this. We also have an abundance of flora and fauna that most people do not know about. For example, there is a wealth of medicinal herbs all around the island, but to just go pick and consume random weeds by ourselves could be dangerous.
So, this gives us the opportunity to learn and it gives the elders the opportunity to pass on their knowledge and expertise. I am one of the youngest adults on Ajishima (with only a few kids) and therefore feel both honored and duty-bound to learn as much as possible about my island home from our elders here. If there is one thing I have learned it is this: our Ajishima elders love to talk...especially over tea! Even if I cannot always understand their Ajishima dialect, it brings me pleasure to be able to provide some companionship to them and to hear their stories and to share in their knowledge.
Since “Sharing is Caring,” we also try to reciprocate the sharing of knowledge whenever possible by hosting lectures, workshops and even documentary movie screenings on the island. To wit, on July 23-24 we hosted a workshop on “Non-violent Communication” and “Mindfulness” at the “Shima no Gakkou.” [Note: this column originally came out before the event, so the Japanese is written in the future tense. It was a great event! Michie has since posted about it on Facebook.]
With intentional choices and deliberate cooperation we can understand the past, act in the present, and cultivate the future.
Thank you for your support.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” I was given a small gift by a friend before moving to Ajishima. It is a small framed painting with that quote printed over it. I still have it and look at it everyday. I take inspiration from many people and things in my life, however, this quote is one of the driving forces for me to be here on Ajishima now, working to realize my dreams.
It hasn’t always been easy, though. In last month’s column I ended with the story of the islander who thought the future of Ajishima was dark. I can personally understand how the future may seem bleak and pointless to some. At the height of my depression after the disaster, I lost all hope. I doubted my dreams, and worse, I doubted myself. My dreams seemed too big and impossible. I was afraid to fail, so I protected myself from that failure by never even trying anything to begin with.
There was no magic cure for me. No one single thing or event or person or idea solved my problems. In fact, it was a combination of many things: studying natural farming and Permaculture (PC), making connections with like-minded people, surrounding myself with people who cared for and supported me, and taking the tiniest steps towards realizing my dreams. These things helped me see the light through my darkest times.
My motto now is, "Let's Cultivate the Future of Ajishima!" In order to cultivate the future, we have to understand the past, but act in the present. Action is key. Taking even the smallest of positive actions, like starting a vegetable garden, was helpful in my personal recovery. I also drew inspiration from the three core ideas of Permaculture, which are summarized as “Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share.” As I understand it, this means if we take responsible care of the Earth and our surrounding environment, it can support sustainable human development with enough resources for everyone.
I believe we can apply these core PC ideas to Ajishima and create a model for the rest of Tohoku, Japan and the world. After all, no man is an island, right? This quote about the island goes on to say that if one part of the whole suffers or is hurt, then the whole suffers equally as well. Ajishima cannot thrive without Ishinomaki and the rest of the mainland. Ishinomaki is a part of Tohoku, which cannot thrive without the rest of the country. Japan, a large island nation, cannot thrive without the rest of the world. Indeed, the rest of the world cannot thrive without Japan.
We are all inextricably bound to one another and to everything around us. Every life form is integral to the survival of everything else and to that of our whole world. On Ajishima we need to actively cultivate our future. In my opinion, there are specific choices and actions that we must take to realize our future. We must take responsible care in managing our fields, rice paddies, forests and the ocean around us. We must do no harm. When the land, sea and air around us are healthy and vibrant, we can grow and produce the things we all need to thrive. Ajishima can produce much of the food we need. With proper planning and sustainable methods, we can even become self-sufficient in energy and water. We can also work to responsibly grow the dwindling island population, but only within the limits of what the island can healthfully sustain.
When we take care of the Earth, we can then take care of each other. Ajishima ABE was founded to provide safe and nutritious food to the aging island population. We embraced that as our driving purpose when we took over operations. Of course, we cannot do this entirely by ourselves, so we have discussed several plans to attract like-minded people to help cultivate the island’s future. We plan to host interns (like longer-term volunteers) who would help us farm in the morning, have the afternoon to their own pursuits, and then help with value-added products and even meal preparations in the evening. As we responsibly grow the island population, we can eventually establish a farming cooperative. These are quite common around the country here. It allows members to share not only their knowledge and personal energy, but to share the cost of tools and machinery as well.
The sharing of knowledge is key to our future as well. The specific details of what suitably works in the place you are in are part of the hard won wisdom that comes with age. One way I worked my way out of darkness was by talking with the island elders. I slowly began to understand their perspective of how loosing the youthful generations to jobs and modern conveniences on the mainland caused them to lose hope in the future. Yet, I found hope in their intimate knowledge of this island. For example, Ajishima has a unique climate unlike even the closest part of the mainland. Our planting and harvesting schedules are slightly different because of this. We also have an abundance of flora and fauna that most people do not know about. For example, there is a wealth of medicinal herbs all around the island, but to just go pick and consume random weeds by ourselves could be dangerous.
So, this gives us the opportunity to learn and it gives the elders the opportunity to pass on their knowledge and expertise. I am one of the youngest adults on Ajishima (with only a few kids) and therefore feel both honored and duty-bound to learn as much as possible about my island home from our elders here. If there is one thing I have learned it is this: our Ajishima elders love to talk...especially over tea! Even if I cannot always understand their Ajishima dialect, it brings me pleasure to be able to provide some companionship to them and to hear their stories and to share in their knowledge.
Since “Sharing is Caring,” we also try to reciprocate the sharing of knowledge whenever possible by hosting lectures, workshops and even documentary movie screenings on the island. To wit, on July 23-24 we hosted a workshop on “Non-violent Communication” and “Mindfulness” at the “Shima no Gakkou.” [Note: this column originally came out before the event, so the Japanese is written in the future tense. It was a great event! Michie has since posted about it on Facebook.]
With intentional choices and deliberate cooperation we can understand the past, act in the present, and cultivate the future.
Thank you for your support.
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