Earthl on Nostr: Once or twice a week I have to empty the bucket of my dry / biolitter / compost ...
Once or twice a week I have to empty the bucket of my dry / biolitter / compost toilet. What has been perceived by some relatives as an unbearable constraint turns out to be an actual opportunity, a regular rendez-vous to connect with myself and with the soil.
I have been raised with the vision of poop as being this disgusting thing you have to get rid of as soon as possible and no matter how : how magic is it to make it simply "disappear" in a simple flush.
But it does not really disappear, does it? Where does it go? In my western country, I let it fall in drinkable water (wait what???!!), then mixed with lighly polluted grey water (from the kitchen or the bathroom), contaminating all of it. Then this water has to be "treated" by complex centralized water treatment facilities, to be released in the river, to be preleved and treated again to make it drinkabke. Needless to say this process consumes a lot of energy.
Meanwhile the remainings of my feces are put in the fields in the form of sludge not really suited for humus formation. What grow in this fields ? Probably not healthy organic food.
While carrying my bucket, emptying and cleaning it, ie taking care of it myself, it lets me the time to think about what is in fact my most regular and tangible production as a human being. Yes it smells a little (althoug it is very weak, sometimes even non-existent with sawdust) and it carries a lot of bacteria, which come from my body by the way. So what does it say of myself to dispise this matter ? Is my body a polluting agent ? Then am I just this useless, and worse, destructive being ?
Ok I see now how this simple yet regular action that is pooping and flushing integrates in a wider unconscious system of diminishing myself, and incidentally pushing me to redeem myself as a useful compliant part of society.
It has ended, as I realized my poop is not dead, even less death, it is a living material, full of nutrients that my body could not use but that is a great wealth for the soil, and all the living beings inside it. Given the good conditions, those organisms are very capable of treating all the infectious bacteria and turn my production into a valuable addition for the worms, plants, fungi of my garden, all of this within a very decent time.
So actually, I am always this valuable contributor to the chain of life. My poop is a gift. My life is a gift. I am a gift. And I want to share it. I want to love. I want to heal my land, my soil, my soul.
To know more about water treatment decentralization and water autarky : http://eautarcie.org/en/index.html
To know more about "humanure" : https://humanurehandbook.com/
#regeneration #healing #water #humus
I have been raised with the vision of poop as being this disgusting thing you have to get rid of as soon as possible and no matter how : how magic is it to make it simply "disappear" in a simple flush.
But it does not really disappear, does it? Where does it go? In my western country, I let it fall in drinkable water (wait what???!!), then mixed with lighly polluted grey water (from the kitchen or the bathroom), contaminating all of it. Then this water has to be "treated" by complex centralized water treatment facilities, to be released in the river, to be preleved and treated again to make it drinkabke. Needless to say this process consumes a lot of energy.
Meanwhile the remainings of my feces are put in the fields in the form of sludge not really suited for humus formation. What grow in this fields ? Probably not healthy organic food.
While carrying my bucket, emptying and cleaning it, ie taking care of it myself, it lets me the time to think about what is in fact my most regular and tangible production as a human being. Yes it smells a little (althoug it is very weak, sometimes even non-existent with sawdust) and it carries a lot of bacteria, which come from my body by the way. So what does it say of myself to dispise this matter ? Is my body a polluting agent ? Then am I just this useless, and worse, destructive being ?
Ok I see now how this simple yet regular action that is pooping and flushing integrates in a wider unconscious system of diminishing myself, and incidentally pushing me to redeem myself as a useful compliant part of society.
It has ended, as I realized my poop is not dead, even less death, it is a living material, full of nutrients that my body could not use but that is a great wealth for the soil, and all the living beings inside it. Given the good conditions, those organisms are very capable of treating all the infectious bacteria and turn my production into a valuable addition for the worms, plants, fungi of my garden, all of this within a very decent time.
So actually, I am always this valuable contributor to the chain of life. My poop is a gift. My life is a gift. I am a gift. And I want to share it. I want to love. I want to heal my land, my soil, my soul.
To know more about water treatment decentralization and water autarky : http://eautarcie.org/en/index.html
To know more about "humanure" : https://humanurehandbook.com/
#regeneration #healing #water #humus