I have spent 12 years growing as a hobby using every inch of a 50x150 foot lot in the city in near every spare moment during my full time career. My curiosity, respect and desire was only balanced by my lack of space, time and commercial application. One spring Sunday, I was shoveling 2 yards of mushroom compost by hand into the garden when I was brought to task for not attending some form of religious service. As a glib response, I quoted from Frank Lloyd Wright "I attend the greatest of all Churches. I put a capital N on Nature, and call it my Church" to the utter dismay of my challenger.
That night I had one of the most vivid and transcendental dreams of 7 disciplines of focus for sustainable living (and my own part in it). But a bit like Samuel Taylor Coleridge writing of "Kubla Khan" I woke up with the all emotions felt in the dream, but without the ability to translate these feeling and understanding into words. I knew there were 7 disciplines that required study, and balance. Yet I was unable to put words to these dream concepts and emotions. Language just seemed to fail me.
What I did remember was that each discipline had multiple meanings and were complex concepts dealing with harmonious agriculture, self awareness, life and balance covering both agriculture with personal development.
In the morning I sat down and tried to write them down. Was it air or sunlight or weather, was it animal and insect and was that eagerness or hope there. When I finally gave up, this is what I had.
- Earth
- Air (Sunlight/Weather)
- Water
- Microbes
- Plants
- Animal
- Human Stewardship (what humanity can create)
Though I know it was not 100% right - it still reminds me of those feelings and the dream and a continual wish to develop a further understanding.
These 7 disciplines require a lifetime of study, understanding, not just for myself, but in a greater good of all. Mediation, contemplation and self awareness. So I wanted to add the concept of a place to do this - not in brick and mortar structure, but of Nature and Balance. Not a destination, but a journey. Hence the number 7 and the idea of "Chapels" as both disciplines of study and spirituality was born.
A note: Many times in my life, I have wondered on some of my unique personality characteristics. Ancient people lived based on cycles and time was counted in these. In today's world tend more towards linear (past, present and future). I realized that I am extremely linearly minded, measuring almost everything in linear progress vs cycle. This makes finding and maintaining balance exceptionally difficult for me and the antithesis for sustainable agriculture. I considered naming this Ho′zho′: The Navajo Concept of Balance and Beauty both a central feeling from the dream and my particular area of need. 7Chapels though lent more to though and contemplation and a continuous path towards Balance and Beauty