The green journey

The green journey is really about entering a new part of the inner-self; a voyage of discovery of distant lands and cultures, so to speak.

There are strange tongues and new words that hitherto you may have only heard but now start to explore; what are eco-friendly homes?

This page was last updated by Bernard Preston on 7th March, 2023.

It is like a tram doing a large-circuit of a strange city; you can get on and off at various stations, each inviting but you cannot visit every district and suburb in a week. In fact, it takes a lifetime and you are still not done exploring.

Quite possibly you are still at Grand Central Station, watching the trams flashing past; and quite bewildered.

One tram has a flashing sign; it's on the way to Solar City. Another is inviting you to global warming; and the first stop you see simply screams out about the "melting ice-pack."

And yet another is beckoning to "greater well-being."

One is inviting you to what is really a very old square simply known as "Prayer" and yet another is just called "The Garden." Perhaps the first stop beckoning is sign-boarded Permaculture and the second Sustainability; and yet a third Nitrogen Fixation. 

Endless trams continue to intrigue and frighten you; where will it lead you, if you dare step onto one of them? Yet another of life's cul de sacs, or will some of these bring meaning and fulfillment?

One thing is certain; please, would someone please stop the world? I do want to get off; I am so tired. Is less really more?

The green journey

The green journey is a voyage within, and many, even most never make it. It all sounds so difficult, like climbing Everest, or sailing the North-West passage. Yet, to your surprise, you see hundreds of people stepping onto this tram or that; they are obviously familiar with the scene at Grand Central Station, and quite unphased by the throngs.

They have already started the green journey, yet some still look very hesitant but with a push and a shove, they are on board; and off the tram speeds.

Where shall I start, you think? Which tram shall I take? Do not rush but also do not wait too long, or you may find yourself left behind. But you do want to get on the right journey to begin with; look until you see a sign that resonates with you.

For me there were two beacons that beckoned. The first was, if I did not look after my body, where was I planning to live? That resonated; in fact it shocked me out of my reverie. And the second was, you do want to sit one day under the trees you once planted and watch your grandchildren grow up, not so?

There will be other beacons beckoning you, so you just step on the tram that has got your name on it. For me, it was the one called "Life without Medication."

A life without medication and leaving behind a habitable world for our grandchildren rank high on our list of priorities; they were the first and second stops on our green journey.

Perhaps you are just sick and tired of taking so many pills. This one to do that and another to counteract its side-effects; yet a different drug to deal with the nagging pain in the tum, or that terrible virus. Your body aches all over, and you are only forty.

Life without medication

Or perhaps you are deathly afraid because two of your friends have just been diagnosed with a breast tumour, and your mother seems to have the early signs of senile dementia, and she is not even sixty-five.

Or your spouse has already had one coronary ablation, and now he is going in for open-heart surgery and you are afraid. You know that takeaways are all too often on the cards, and you cannot stop smoking yourself, so how can you nag at him?

Mysterious and elusive wellness, and being free from the illness and pain that lurk, seemingly on the horizon, and then, bingo, a tram rumbles into the station, and it has got your name on it; it is called the green journey, and the driver is hooting at you, waiting for you to climb on.

In short, caring for our bodies is a spiritual duty; in the words of St Francis of Assisi, treat Brother Ass kindly.

Type "life without medication" into the Site Search function above.

A personal ailment

Perhaps your green journey may begin with a personal ailment. My own was a concerning tremor in my right hand; I could no longer easily bring a spoonful of soup to my lips without spilling. That led me to a station aptly named "Broad Beans for L-dopa."

Growing, reaping and freezing broad beans so that I would have a daily supply of dopamine from my food instead of taking medication became central to my journey.

• Broad bean tips
• Risk factors of Parkinson's Disease
  

Solar city

Solar city is a stop you will find at our green home; there is oodles of free sunshine just waiting to be collected, stored and used.

Suddenly inexplicably a smoke stack pouring carbon-dioxide and other noxious smelling gases into the atmosphere has invaded your mind's eye. You cannot escape it; we are poisoning our world by burning fossil fuels.

You have been carefully looking the other way, desperately but still that smoke stack offends; and then someone posts you an email showing the melting ice-pack and you realise it is for real. Then you look at your grandchildren and guilt smites; what legacy are you leaving them?

No longer can you evade it and you start to make inquiries. Could your second vehicle be battery-operated? Is it safe? Do they break down? How far can they go? And could I stomach those ugly panels on my roof to energise my home, and charge my E car? Instead of going on that cruise to Alaska this year, should we instead visit Solar City?

You choose your own personalised voyage; make the green journey your private mission.

Choice foods

Choice foods are half the trip to a quality, long life. They are a top destination at Bernard Preston's travel bureau to the green journey.

• Recipes for Swiss chard
  

There is one place that is really nagging; granny and gramps were such serene people and I have memories of walking with them down into their secret garden. There she grew beautiful flowering shrubs and a host of choice nutritious foods; and he was always busy with his compost piles and fruit trees. His bee-hives gave off such a evocative scent and the promise of divine honey.

There is a new debate now on; just how nutritious and ethical minimally-processed plant protein is. What's your opinion?

They both lived to their upper eighties and you have a fear that neither of you are going to make it to seventy; perhaps not even sixty if that bypass does not go well.

But it is the little sampler that granny had stitched and framed next to her bedside that really gets under your skin.

Oh how wearisome the world is and how the superficiality of those around us so often seems. Can I really give up watching so much TV, just play bridge once a week and get stuck into the garden? Would it bring me Granny's serenity? She sometimes called it forest bathing.

Would that organic food really cure me of all that ails? Could it even prevent many cancers, angry bodily inflammation and the neurodegenerative diseases?

Do I really want to start the green journey? Maybe I'll create my own one that is just right for me.

What would it do to my back? Perhaps it would mean umpteen more visits to the DC. On the other hand it might actually make me stronger.

Could I really do those exercises he is been nagging me to do all these years but I really could not be bothered? He keeps saying that they only take two minutes every morning before getting out of bed.

Even so it is bad enough making time to brush and floss my teeth. I'll just find another two minutes. But I am so busy, so rushed, I really need thirty-hours in a day.

"Actually, you do have the time," chimes Jiminy Cricket. "You just have to change your priorities."

Shall I take the Garden Tram? The first station is Growing Swiss Chard. Yes, I think I will. Tomorrow I will buy some seeds; and some broad beans. I have read that sprouted they have twenty times the dopamine, the happy hormone; and will protect me from Parkinson's Disease.

• Can you eat sprouted broad beans?
  

The greening of the self

In far more profound terms, Joanna Macy's version of the journey is about opening our hearts and very selves to the natural world; she calls it the greening of the self. It is only now beginning to filter through how homeless we would feel and in fact are beginning to experience, as we ruin our precious Mother Earth.

The fact that there will soon be more plastic in the sea than fish and those crossing the Pacific describe the ocean as dead, seems remote. But when ten dead sperm whales are washed up on our shores, their bellies filled with polyethylene, we begin to grasp the severity of it all. What kind of an inheritance are we leaving to our grandchildren, or is that a topic far too painful to consider?

If each of us began with just one tiny thing it would make a tremendous difference; a first step. Recycle a beer-can, not drop a battery in the garbage or plant a bee-friendly legume. Deciding never again to purchase an incandescent light bulb and to recycle some plastic; all would contribute.

Greening of the self is a great concept^[5]. We are beginning to realize that the whole world is our body; the Amazon jungle and the oceans are my lungs.

Capturing and storing rainwater

Abundant clean water is worldwide increasingly becoming a problem. Building a new dam that will destroy a wetland is coming under the spotlight on a planet losing its biodiversity daily.

Capturing and storing the rain is our water innovation project, a central feature of our green journey; it has proved inexpensive and reasonably simple.

Capetonians have discovered the meaning of the phrase "water-shedding," as it has been forced up their noses with great discomfort. Yet a 30,000 litre underground reservoir would solve the problems faced by every family; it was a major step forwards at our eco friendly home.

Only for two month in twelve years have we needed water from the municipal reticulation; ours is pristine and very cold, stored underground. We drank it without filtration for the first seven years with no gut issues; E. coli tests proved negative.

This is our rainwater harvesting model.

Bernard Preston

Bernard Preston's green journey through the polders of Holland might interest you; it is only available as an ebook on your tablet or Kindle.

The green journey is just waiting for you; like Pilgrim's Progress there are pitfalls along the way. That is what makes it fun.

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