Midwest Permaculture appears to be the culmination of our life's work, of everything we hold dear and have been working on for the past 30 years.
We are Becky and Bill Wilson and have lived in the small, and somewhat unique community, of Stelle, IL, over this time. (see below)
What gets us out of bed in the morning is the desire to do our small part to create a world, or a culture, that we know is possible. A culture that cares for people and the planet as one in the same.
In our small town we have started or been involved in numerous cooperatives and have served in just about every capacity possible - school committees, community government, event coordinators, community planners, not-for-profit board members and more.
The experience and insights about life, people and community that we have gained from this volunteer service has far outweighed our time and energy invested.
For us, the fundamental questions have always been,,,
Is there not a way that we as humans, all humans, can live abundantly well on this planet without polluting, consuming or degrading it?
And can we find a way to peacefully coexist while we co-create this culture?
Through our life work and as importantly, through our study of permaculture, we have answered these questions for ourselves with a resounding YES...!!!
It is this clarity that motivated us to start Midwest Permaculture in 2006. Permaculture is, after all, about creating permanent-cultures, and to have permanence we must find ways to work and care for nature and each other.
The two of us have also become trainers of the inspiring Transition Town Initiative that has recently caught a foothold in the United States. We feel that the Transition Town approach to relocalization is the people piece of permaculture. It seems to be some of the missing work in the permaculture literature - the community piece.
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