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brighter days are coming

not to be a hedonist but. pleasure IS the whole point, my loves. we are made for pleasure. humans have not survived out of spite or sheer grit or simply to make more humans. we live for pleasure. the pleasure of licking the last delicious crumbs off your fingers and feeling sunlight on your skin and massaging a loved one's shoulders. we're made to fill our bellies with delicious food, to nap in soft grass, to touch each other in joy and comfort.

there is no shame or guilt in our bodies doing what they were made to do. and we are made for pleasure.

straight up we gotta stop relying so much on electricity. the sheer amount of electricity we use is unsustainable. yes even solar panels yes even wind mills and water dams. indigenous ppl all over the world keep telling ppl how much the earth is being destroyed where they live just for the resources to produce them.

we need to find new ways of doing shit that doesnt rely so heavily on electricity (or utilize too much of one resource- like if you need wood to do something on a mass scale, ofc it'll cause deforestation.)

i'm not saying remove every single installed solar panel and never use electricity again, but we have to drastically change our lifestyles so we aren't constantly relying on so much electricity bc eventually we wont be able to produce as much, and then what? no more food in cities that rely on conventional farms that use electricity to harvest & process that food? no more ventilators in hospitals? jfc the lives we made are so fragile

I am learning to live in synchrony with the sun, taking my showers in the afternoon when the solar heater has warmed the water, charging my phone during the day instead of at night, going to bed sooner and rising earlier to save electricity.

I am learning to live in synchrony with the seasons, spending more time outside in the summer, and more time inside studying in the winter, planting my seeds when the time is right, making wild garlic pesto in the spring, picking berries in the summer, collecting chestnuts as laundry detergent in the autumn.

I am learning to live in synchrony with myself, giving myself time to rest, accepting that the downs are a part of life as much as the ups, trusting that a period of low motivation will be followed by periods of inspiration and high energy.

I am learning that viewing life as cyclical instead of linear makes me feel more at ease with the inevitable changes that take place all around me.

if you’re interested in mutual aid and aren’t sure where to start, i can’t recommend enough joining a local Buy Nothing group. in a nutshell, it’s a totally free gift economy— people give from their own abundance and ask for what they need. it’s indispensable as a recent grad household— we got the majority of our basic furniture, as well as an AC unit through the group— but what i find particularly wonderful are the ways other forms of community aid popup through the group.

i’ve seen people organize meal trains for strangers. people fleeing from domestic violence have gone from a suitcase of possessions to a fully stocked house in 48 hours. home hospices being set up with goods from six different households. cookbook lending. distribution of windfall apples and tomato harvest overabundance. grocery pickup for ill folks. people looking out for listings for others. everything from bread to baby carseats to house paint to pet food.

and much of it is done between strangers, often between people who would not recognize or identify with the term “mutual aid”. it lowers waste, goods go directly to people who need them, and it avoids the sometimes dubious morality of the thrift shop circuit. i’d really recommend it.

This cargo ship from 1909 is starting to make zero-emissions deliveries again

Sailcargo doesn’t expect to replace the massive industry. But as companies look for ways to reduce emissions, it can offer a solution that works now. Because it doesn’t use shipping containers—goods are loaded on pallets—it also has some logistical advantages. “Some of these fast vessels have to wait at port often up to two weeks, because they’re dependent on the port infrastructure,” says Doggett. “They need the big crane to unload the container. We do not—we can unload ourselves.”

Doggett, who started sailing on tall ships as a 13-year-old, started thinking about the potential to revive traditional cargo shipping more than a decade ago. In 2014, she and two partners launched the company and later began working on building a traditional vessel from scratch. While traveling, Doggett had also run across the Vega. The ship, built in 1909, had been retired in the 1960s, as fossil-fueled container ships started to dominate trade routes. It was headed for the scrapyard when a family of Swedish shipbuilders rescued it and spent years restoring it; Doggett, who loved the design, stayed in touch with them and eventually made a deal to buy it.

Read more here

Maybe this is a hot take, or maybe this is a super cold take, but

Home ec & Cooking classes are infinitely more valuable than any of the so called "core" high school classes.

one day i'll live in a little house with a little yard and i'll have native grasses and shrubs and a little garden and little solar panels on the roof and i'll write my little books and i'll make my little games and i'll have all my friends over for little parties and maybe it won't be much and maybe it won't be forever but it will matter

ecological wealth > generational wealth

i will never get tired of saying this: i deserve princess treatment, not just by those around me but most of all by myself.

a day at the bakery 🥯

Buy cheap art supplies. Draw and paint just to throw the pages away. Write in notebooks and documents only to file them away never to be edited. Sew and sculpt only to donate the results and reuse the materials. Create not for the product but for the process. Enjoy the act of making. Find how liberating it is not to have the pressure of the end result stopping you from starting in the first place.

thinking about this here canal village in the netherlands

honey bee body language guide

a quick reference for understanding honey bees !!!

🐝 approaching you

🌱 they want to know if you’re a flower, a threat, or neither ! don’t swat or get too close to their hive, and you’re not a threat.

🐝 landing on you (often you can see her cleaning herself, if you watch carefully)

🌱 she’s either tired or, on the rare occasion, deciding to sting you. don’t squish her !!! she’s probably just chillin with you, but if you want her off, blow her off. she’ll fall and fly away !

🐝 buzzing becomes high pitched

🌱 think angry bees in a cartoon. you can actually hear the change ! this means they’re getting agitated

🐝 circling your head

🌱 this is a warning that you’re being threatening and you need to leave ! calmly move away from the hive or the bee.

🐝 if you’re close to the hive: sending significantly more bees into the air

🌱 usually means they either want to know what’s happening or there’s a threat to the hive ! you should probably leave.

🐝 divebombing you in a headbutt, bouncing off

🌱 this is the most explicit “if you do not leave, i will sting you” that honey bees have. it’s the last warning !

💞some extras !💞

🐝 laying on the sidewalk

🌱 if she’s alive, she’s either resting or in trouble. she could be diseased or usually, in winter, too cold. some folks feed them honey or sugar water ! i’ve had a few good experiences in just letting them sit on my hand and warm up for a while before she flies off. if not, i leave her somewhere she won’t be stepped on. if you’re afraid to touch a bee but still wanna help, try getting her somewhere safer with a leaf or something ! if it doesn’t work, don’t feel too guilty. they’re like cells in an organism, some are always going to be dying as new ones are being born.

🐝 a BUNCH of bees clumped onto something or flying in a slow cloud

🌱 more than likely a swarm ! bees “swarm” when their hive is big and healthy enough to branch off into two hives, or when they’re moving houses ! you’ll never find a honey bee in a better mood than when they’re swarming. observe them from a safe distance, it’s super cool !

🐝 moving her front legs from her mouth over her face

🌱 she’s cleaning herself ! just like how cats do !

🐝 moving a leg from her mouth to her rear leg

🌱 she’s packing pollen ! she wets it with her mouth and then packs it into her pollen sac, which is basically just hairs on her leg shaped into a basket ! that’s why you see the yellow / orange dots on their back legs. they’re bringing it back to the hive !

🐝 dragging another bee out of the hive

🌱 they’re either moving a corpse or a diseased or malformed bee that will die soon. think of it like your body flushing out bad stuff– the bees are like cells of an organism, working toward the whole.

🐝 standing away from her hive on the landing pad, beating her wings

🌱 she’s fanning the hive !! this keeps the brood and honey at a safe temperature.

💞 feel free to add on or ask about more !! 💞

jalilnajafov on ig

(via)

A snowy Stockholm walk.

I don’t understand why everything is so fast now

by patrickc_la on instagram — bioluminescence within the shores of Marina Del Rey, CA