Let's go somewhere thrilling!

Is treehousecore a thing? Like, not cabincore or cottagecore, but somewhere up and in between?

Some general feelings and aesthetics (please add to the list):

That rush you get when you’re up high

Ladders/rope ladders/rope swings/swings

Leaves/leaves falling

Sunlight streaming down through the leaves

The warmth of basking in the sun

Wind scattering through the woods and streaming through hair

Knitted blankets

Hammocks

Porch gardens

Trees growing through the center of a house

Birdwatching

Sunsets/sunrises from up high

Stargazing

Colored glass jars filled with coffee and sugar and flour and cloves

Iron kettles and hanging herbs

Clay ovens

Lanterns (especially those that have a radio included and are solar powered)

Solar power

Its taking care of nature.

Seriously. It sounds stupid and some days it feels stupid, but I put up bird feeders because I live in a semi-rural area where human activity is decimating the local bird population and options for safe feeding. So I put up bird feeders. And now I have like 83 different birds flocking to my garden on the daily and screaming at my window if the feeders are empty. And I've seen generations of baby birds brought to my garden by their parents because this is where the food is.

And I researched what plants and flowers were native to my area and I spent like $5 on a few different seed packets and sprinkled them around the grass and the sad empty flowerbeds and the lawn because the bees have nothing to eat and that's awful and it turns out wildflowers will fucking GROW the moment you look away, but now every spring and summer my lawn is a pretty little multi-colored bug haven.

And I've even gotten the chance to save a few little bug lives because of it. I've taken in cold-shocked bees and given them a warm little tupperware to recover in. I've fed bugs sugar water to get their energy back to take their food home. I've given dying bugs a sheltered, safe place to spend their last moments.

I planted a veggie garden. And I know I'm very lucky in that I have the space to do that, but also, you can grow a lot of things indoors. My friend has literally the smallest apartment you can imagine but she grows chives in her bathroom and grows five radishes at a time in a pot in the kitchen. Literally five. But it makes her so happy every single time she pulls them up or trots off to the bathroom to snip some chives.

I pick trash up every two weeks. The pick stick was like $4 online and I just put the bag out with my bi-weekly trash pick-up and its disgusting but but nobody else is gonna do it and I've only got finite time on this earth. If nobody else is going to pick up that can, I will. Because some innocent wild animal doesn't deserve to get hurt by human ignorance, and I deserve to walk home and see pretty flourishing nature instead of depressing discarded trash like I feel like most days.

I've left water out for the wildlife and watched hedgehogs, local dogs on their walks, squirrels and all sorts stop by to take a drink, because humans are fucking selfish and we're making something as basic as water so hard to access for anyone but ourselves, but I can fix a little bit of that just by putting out a bowl. Sometimes I don't even have to remember to fill it because the rain will fill it for me, and its kind of like nature's way of saying "you're helping me so I'm going to help you out too." Which is neat.

Like most days I do not want to be living on this earth but my god earth did not get a choice about us living here, and we're ruining it, and it actually feels so good to help stop and un-do a little bit of that destruction.

And you don't even have to try everything I do. If the only thing you've got the spoons to do is buy one bird feeder and you only remember to fill it once a month, its still something. That once a month could mean the difference between starvation and a full belly to a bird.

Again, none of this is obligatory and I'm not saying at all this is some magical cure for depression, but personally these things are things which are helping me slowly find things to keep getting out of bed for and things to feel a sense of self worth and satisfaction over. I feel better both in and about myself when I feed the birds, when I see the bugs in the garden, when I pick up the trash.

I am by no means an expert in any of these things I’m gonna talk about, so keep that in mind! I am just making a compilation of things I know of that we can do to lessen the stranglehold the capitalist lifestyle has on us while enriching our lives, our surroundings, and the lives of others. Please add anything I miss or correct anything I may be getting wrong! Anyway here goes!

Use what you have, fix what’s you can, make what you can, accept from others, thrift what you can, and finally purchase as a last resort.

This is advice I have seen float around here a couple of times that can apply to a lot of things including clothing, furniture, food, and more besides. It’s meant to be done roughly in that order as it applies to what you’re wanting/needing/doing. It’s about preventing waste, promoting self-capability, having a heightened reliance on your community, and consciously rejecting the ingrained habit many of us have to just purchase things or services.

Here’s where you can read about growing an indoor garden!

Here’s where you can read about sewing things yourself!

Here’s an online site for giving and receiving items for free!

Here is where you can find a local Mutual Aid to get things from, learn skills from, give do, volunteer for, etc. (in the U.S.)

Be politically active! (from a U.S. perspective)

Vote for every election. Know your representatives and those who will be competing in the next election. Vote without ignorance and without falling for unfounded claims. While operating within the system that actively oppresses us will not bring about the future we want, it can serve as damage control (preventing worse candidates from taking office) and it can potentially create a national atmosphere more open to change.

Here’s a good article about getting more involved in the U.S. political process.

Here’s a site that will show you how to register to vote, when and where elections are held, and more!

Here’s good advice on finding protests in your city!

Here’s some readings on unionizing! It’s your legal right to unionize!

Here’s a more user friendly site for learning about unions!

Be active within your community!

Developing strong, motivated, capable, knowledgeable, and inclusive communities is the ultimate way to combat the relentless and bleak present and future. When you’ve worked on the things above and have gotten good at it (or even if you haven’t gotten good at it yet), start spreading what you know and what you can do with others!

Give your neighbors, coworkers, and friends some of the vegetables you’ve grown.

Invite your community members to volunteer events.

Talk to folks about how to vote, when you’re doing it, etc.

Take part in Mutual Aids to teach what you’ve learned or whatever you may be an expert in! Invite neighbors, friends, and coworkers when you take part in the Mutual Aid!

Accept your community. Take them for who and what they are. Discrimination is the enemy of cooperation. You have much more in common with everyone in your community than a single billionaire or corporation. We’re all passengers on this spaceship earth.

Do it one step at a time!

Obviously we can’t do all of these things at once. Do what you can when you can, and you’ll start to notice real change in your life!

Our online communities where we talk about our visions and hopes are fantastic, but they have little impact if we don’t actually get up and do the real work that change requires.

Want to be better, and keep hope for the future!

Harbor and nourish that desire to be a better person and to be the change you want to see in the world. You need to be hungry for a better future if you plan to make it through the rough times when everything feels pointless and without hope. Reach out to others when you’re down, and be someone others can lean on when their lives get hard.

2. glue it to your face

My name is Shannon-Hope. I am a half Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc woman. Born to my BC rez born and raised mother. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, were all born on the same rez as my mother.

In May 2021, 215 Remains of my nation's children were found in a mass unmarked grave, at Kamloops Indian residential school.

The very same residential school my family members were sent to.

Today, in this day of reconciliation, I'm asking for financial support. I had a very large tumor, that broke my jaw bone, and required me to have my entire jaw bone removed, and rebuilt from scratch using my left fibula. I also, have Stage 3 CRPS, CFS, and PoTS. As well as the usual host of mental illness that comes with being Indigenous.

I'm struggling to stay afloat, bills are piling up, I'm going days without food. Etc.

Signing up for a month to be a ranger apprentice. First few weeks you spend in a lodge in the forest just learning basic stuff: rules, beginner horse riding, choosing a bow, making your cape, etc.

Then for the remaining weeks you’re under the care of a ranger (Just you or with a partner) and you set out on your horse in different parts of the woods with them and learn the life of medieval/fantasy rangers. You learn to live with what the wild gives you. There’s a hunting permit for a specific number of animals you can hunt (just in case) and you ride around while your mentor shows you the ropes: edible plants, making shelter, fire, cooking your catch, healing ointments. You wake and sleep with the sun, away from civilisation, with nature all around. You get a chance to form a bond with your mentor, or hate their guts. It’s part of the appeal. You get to wear the outfit and gather resources in little pouches and groom and care for your horse. Maybe there’s hawking. Maybe they’ll have little “quests” so you don’t get bored.

Only go in the summer. The winter court will do you no favours. The summer court is less malevolent, but no safer.

When you enter, know that time will not work in your favour. You may lose entire lifetimes within hours. 

Choose a new name, but don’t keep it for too long, otherwise you will belong to it. 

Bring cold iron, wear red.

Carry red berries from a rowan, mountain ash, or holly tree. St. John’s Wort or red verbena flowers are acceptable as well. They will keep you safe, but not for long.

To see through the glamours, place four-leaf clovers in a pouch around your neck. It may help.

Children should wear crowns of daisies. 

If you return home, and your child is different, do not go looking for what you have lost. 

Leave the same way you entered, but never return through the same entrance. The second time, they will know enough to keep you. 

Do not stand in the mushroom rings. If someone you know enters a ring, you cannot save them. 

Never accept a gift. They will want something in return.

Be polite, but do not say thank you.

The food will be the best you have ever tasted. Only eat it if you wish to never leave. 

If you must stay the night, sleep under the rowan, holly, or ash tree. The elder wood will make you tired. Do not close your eyes.

If you hear music, you are running out of time. If you hear harps, your time is up. 

Don’t join the dancing unless they give you a token.

You cannot become one of them, however much you desire to leave your life behind. 

If you see an alder tree, know you will not be lucky enough to go home unscathed. 

Sit under a hawthrone tree or an elderwood tree on midsummer’s eve if you need to find the courts.

Place salt on your windowsills if you make it back, otherwise they will follow you home.