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Putting out fires vs. planting more trees
Every action you take has an energy signature. Some actions have a “buy now, pay later” quality; they leave you with an energy debt. They short-change what is necessary now and postpone it until later. Not only do they leave you with an energy debt, there is always, as it were, an interest charge. Taking…
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The Myth of the Bottleneck
Because patience isn’t passive Sometimes Monday afternoon feels like it should be Friday night. Thursday at least. Everything is over-scheduled. The calendar looks like a game of Tetris played by an anxious god: ferry runs, presentations, meetings, and the occasional spiritual ambush disguised as a “networking dinner.” You think the bottleneck is out there —…
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Maps and Money
Learning to see what’s already moving Some days it feels like I’m standing in a blizzard of good intentions. Emails, grant proposals, meeting notes, invitations — all swirling so thick I can’t tell what’s moving and what’s stuck. The world turns white, and it’s hard to tell up from down; forward from backward. I had…
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Fair Share Ethics
May 14, 2025 We’re all in this together. I am perpetually surprised at how hard it is to convey a simple idea to people who can only think in complicated ways. The idea at the core of the Lifeboat Academy is just such an idea. We think of it as the farmastery experience. Once you…
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What does it mean to belong?
What if the problem isn’t ownership — but disconnection? Ben Kadel examines what happens when stewardship structures ask people to give long-term care to land and community without allowing that care to return as security, continuity, or future capacity. Drawing on the logic of healthy land-based cultures — where stewardship and livelihood were inseparable —…
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Building the Lifeboat Is the Lifeboat
The pan-dimensional Möbius process As the reality of the polycrisis is dawning on more and more people, we keep hearing the same questions: What can I do? Where do I start? How can I get ready for something when I don’t even know what’s gonna happen? Next week, we’ll be hosting our next DIY Lifeboat…
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To the lifeboats
Our current problems run deep. Our leaders, institutions, and basic assumptions about how the world is supposed to work are all failing us. The problem is so huge that our brains can’t grok what’s going on. The complexity. The scale. And the constant noise! Who can make sense of it all? So, let’s talk in…
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Where are you investing your time?
Daily Reflections 2025-07-02 Jul 02, 2025 The other day, I told a friend that I’m no good at money. She’s concerned that this represents a self-limiting belief about money that’s holding me back. It bugged me for a few days until I finally realized that she heard that as some sort of self-confession, but I…
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Reflections: January 6th, 2021
Jan 7, 2021 I had an interesting day today. Didn’t we all? Mine had a slight twist in it, though. My morning started out with an amazing conversation about death and life and collapse and, really, what’s it all about Alfie. Lately, I’ve been hosting online “navigation sessions” based on the sociocracy 3.0 model. We do…
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A Breadcrumb for My Future Self
Listening for the tuning fork note Dec 03, 2025 Roland’s Facebook memory from 11 years ago popped up this morning: “Just back from Pender in what may have been a life-altering experience.” Boy, howdy, was it — and is it. It got me thinking about intuition. We got Zelda, our dog, because of intuition. I…
