This project was begun in some form when I first signed up to start my permaculture diploma, in October 2010, before Richard began tutoring in the summer of 2011 and I restarted again with him. And I'm still working on it here in February 2013! Many things have changed since then, but I have decided to make use of the piles of papers I have had sitting around gathering dust for so long, and document the whole process, as it hopefully shows an example of action learning.
At the beginning, living in a busy shared house with my young son I had very little time to myself, and at the start of this two year diploma, I needed to find a way to make some space for the work ahead.
One of the first points on my action learning pathway (see here) was the recognition that I needed to 'create a space for this to manifest', meaning that I felt the need to do some preparation of the ground on which to build my future projects before they could begin. At this time I was an overstretched single mum, without even enough time to brush my teeth in-between washing nappies and walking the dog. (Sadly, not much of an exaggeration..) I was aware of the need to make my life more sustainable, in that I mean I needed to make some changes to better sustain myself, especially in energetic and emotional ways, so that I would be able to maintain the energy and enthusiasm to continue and to be at my best.
I knew for this diploma of mine to take off and carve out a wonderful future path for my small family and I, I would need to make some changes to my everyday living environment.
What these were and are to be, hopefully this project will find out.
As time has gone on, I have come to understand that this concept of creating space for work and family life to co-exist is not quite as straightforward as I would have liked it to be, but more of an ongoing process needing constant tweaks and attention. I think this is why it has taken me so long to write this one up fully. I have decided to re-write the process again now using the design web approach from Looby Macnamara's book "People and Permaculture', which I have recently found a copy of. As I have been going round and round from observing my circumstances to recognising boundaries, to designing and then changing and going round again, I found that the web approach allows me to document all of the different stages in a more clear way.
I have put a more detailed explanation of this design web method of design on the beginning of the next page.
OK! You can link to the next step, the beginning of all of this, here.
At the beginning, living in a busy shared house with my young son I had very little time to myself, and at the start of this two year diploma, I needed to find a way to make some space for the work ahead.
One of the first points on my action learning pathway (see here) was the recognition that I needed to 'create a space for this to manifest', meaning that I felt the need to do some preparation of the ground on which to build my future projects before they could begin. At this time I was an overstretched single mum, without even enough time to brush my teeth in-between washing nappies and walking the dog. (Sadly, not much of an exaggeration..) I was aware of the need to make my life more sustainable, in that I mean I needed to make some changes to better sustain myself, especially in energetic and emotional ways, so that I would be able to maintain the energy and enthusiasm to continue and to be at my best.
I knew for this diploma of mine to take off and carve out a wonderful future path for my small family and I, I would need to make some changes to my everyday living environment.
What these were and are to be, hopefully this project will find out.
As time has gone on, I have come to understand that this concept of creating space for work and family life to co-exist is not quite as straightforward as I would have liked it to be, but more of an ongoing process needing constant tweaks and attention. I think this is why it has taken me so long to write this one up fully. I have decided to re-write the process again now using the design web approach from Looby Macnamara's book "People and Permaculture', which I have recently found a copy of. As I have been going round and round from observing my circumstances to recognising boundaries, to designing and then changing and going round again, I found that the web approach allows me to document all of the different stages in a more clear way.
I have put a more detailed explanation of this design web method of design on the beginning of the next page.
OK! You can link to the next step, the beginning of all of this, here.