As we head toward self sufficiency we might just stumble through the forest of government entanglement, shadows and obstacles to find ourselves finally reaching the edge, staring into the field that is freedom. Having lived most of our lives in the shelter of the forest, held back, yes, but also hidden from the burden that is total responsibility for self, is there any doubt that we should at the very least be wary of the field?

Sometimes the grip that is holding a struggling person back is temporarily loosed and all of the sudden the struggle that has become the mission is now gone, and in it’s place is freedom and a new mission of progress. Will you know where to go if the opportunity comes to be free of someone else’s care. Are you willing to risk having nothing for the opportunity to have everything by your own accord. Are we really being help back or are we just using the forest as cover because the field seems so risky?

Is life like permaculture where that “edge” between the government corporate community entitlement system and self sufficiency is the safest most fertile place to establish a new system? Can we ease ourselves into the freedoms of the field by building up self reliance using the fertile nature of the edge between the current system and the way of living we are striving to achieve much the way a forest encroaches into the field? Sometimes such slow movement doesn’t create a new and different forest though, it just expands the same old system. Sometimes it might be warranted to just break free of the restraints of self doubt and the repression of servitude to a way of life the doesn’t allow you to be a freeman.

God willing we all live long enough to figure it out, and have fun and many adventures on the way!

 ~ Joe Prepper~