Monica Raphael

Who am I and what am I looking for?
I am very to you for sharing your inspiring books. I read about the Earth Charter and feel inspired to use it in its ‘science of home’ sense, a charter to live by in my home compassionately considering, and protecting the whole living community. I will make a picture frame from the introduced jacaranda we will cut down to plant natives that will support local wildlife better.
I want to read Stephen Nachmanovich’s Freeplay as soon as possible. I’m afraid play has diminished in my life. Were it not for my dogs of 18 years, now gone, I’d have lived in a play desert. Still, I want to relearn how to play so as lessen my intensity in striving for some too strongly desired outcome. I’ve bought a ridged loom and intend to use it to make natural fibre (cotton and jute) nets to protect my apple trees without plastic netting. I intend to weave Noro style window panel coverings with the thick phyllaris grass from my partner’s farm. I intend to weave phyllaris and spiky hakea tree guards to protect saplings from grazing kangaroos.
What inspires you?
Clouds, their colours and shapes and especially when they form patterns. The natural whole body harmony of wild animals in motion. Moss, their whole wide world encompass in minute and the knowledge that this softest of plants dines on stone and rock. My partner, his kindness forever surprising me. This, for me, whom I thought was lost from loving … till now, 50 years old. My body’s expressions of healing, the subtle rhythms and movements, the extraordinary kaleidoscope. I am a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, blissfully engaged to this the world of this work. I am a pacifist, a Buddhist, a vegetarian, a seeker of a better way of life that is within my environment’s means. I love to think about materials and was hoping by now I could by a kit that would include a substrate containing mycelium that I could grow into any piece and design of furniture I’d like.