What is 'THE GRID'?

Most people associate off grid living with solar panels and gardens.  If we really wanted to dig much deeper in the question of what off grid living is all about, we may find that the answer is much larger and more problematic than we thought.  We may find that living off of that grid requires much more than just installing a few solar panels and growing gardens.  

Before we can get off the grid, we first need to know what the grid actually is.  Before I can do that, I must also describe our basic relationship in this physical realm.  The medicine wheel ends up being the perfect tool for describing this relationship.  

Without getting into too much detail, we can at least explore that we should have a balanced relationship between us and the sun, earth, air, water, plants and animals.  The goal is to find a balanced, centered harmony within ourselves and our environment through good health and knowledge.  If we expand this premise further, we are confronted with building a relationships with all these aspects of our existence here to meet the basic necessities of life here on this planet.  I've outlined this relationship in the following graphic.

By showing the relationships with the green lines I can also present each item as a spiritual being in of itself to ensure we work on recognizing their own sovereignty and working on building a respectful relationship with them.  As an adult, represented by the central medicine wheel, it is our responsibility to ensure that all our basic needs are being met and we can do that by exploring each segment of the medicine wheel in great detail and all the dependencies we have with them all.

When we have off spring, they are completely dependent upon the parent to ensure all their needs are being met.  If the parent fails to meet those needs then great trauma occurs up to and including death.  So there is a great responsibility on the parent to ensure all the needs are met.  But this duty does not last forever as it is also the parents responsibility to teach the off spring how to meet their own needs and slowly ween them off of being dependent on the parent and be independent on their own.

Because the parent is already independent themselves, they have access to the knowledge, wisdom and resources needed to raise their baby to become a fully independent adult.  However, that requires physical, emotional, mental and spiritual maturity and with all the trauma and systems in our world, many of us fail to reach that level of independence.  As such, when we move away from home, we look for another parent. What we find is The STATE!

We go to the state as we either refuse or are unwilling to provide for ourselves.  We are the only mammal on this planet that fails to raise our off spring to be independent, so we created a system to look after them despite our own failure.  As a result, we place more and more demands on the state to look after us.  That is why the state continues to grow and why it views us as vulnerable children who need to be governed and protected.  All the benefits and privileges provided for by the state are a way to look after the children, just as an adult would do.  Except the state is a fictional construct.  It does not have a spirit, emotional body, physical body or even an intellect.  But because it resides within our own intellect, I choose to depict the state as being black & white, no substance but pure intellect.  A mask worn by those who choose to fulfill this function, whether it be out of duty, greed, lust, power, etc.  Because of this, it requires people to ware masks and surrender themselves to pretend to be the state and provide for all these services.  It is all done through corporations.  

  

As a result, we end up being dependent upon the state for our very survival.  Any disruption in that infrastructure puts our lives in jeopardy as we have lost the skills, knowledge, experience and even access to the resources to look after ourselves.  

THIS IS 'THE GRID' THAT I SPEAK ABOUT!  Solar panels and gardens just scratch the surface!

All those black lines represent a dependency that we have to the whole infrastructure that the state and its corporations provide for us on a daily basis.  It is our duty to be independent and as such we must find ways to remove those dependencies and return to having a direct one-to-one relationship with Mother Earth, Creator and our environment so that we can be independent, self-governing adults.  The amount of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual work required to accomplish this goal is immense.  However, it is possible and necessary that we explore these relationships if we are going to learn the lessons we are here to learn.  

For me, it is not enough to buy a few solar panels and put in a garden.  This is about being completely independent, which requires that I remove ALL those lines so that I can stand on my own and look after myself!  This takes a great deal of time as there is not many real adults out there exploring true independence.  As such, the skills required to live at this level are hard to find.  Most times we just have to wing it and do our best.  Learning along the way is often required.  Just like our children did when they were learning to eat, walk, run or ride a bike, we too fall down, get hurt and must find a way to get back up.  It is through our struggles and failures that we have learned the most and for that I AM grateful.  

So as we explore real off grid living, we find our strength and faith in ourselves, each other and Creator builds stronger and stronger with each passing day.  It is not an easy path, but it is one that we are willing to walk so that we can experience and learn as much as possible while we are here and ensure that we are not dependent on others for our own needs.  To live in peace makes this step absolutely mandatory as the state can only function with coercion and force.  The violence of the state makes it even more important now than ever before as I refuse to have other people be confronted by violence and force just so that I can have my needs met.  I cannot live with myself knowing that others suffer so that I can have my needs met.  It is covert violence at its worst!