The past weekend I attend the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California. This is my fourth time to come to the conference. I come here for new hope and inspiration and I always get it.

This year the wisdom from young and old, at the lectern and in intimate conversations inspired me to do more.

Here are a few things I can share now before I travel back to Texas:

At a Buckminister Fuller Challenge presentation I learned that he called for a design revolution to “make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage to anyone. He is known for his concept of the trim-tab the small tab at the tail end a rudder of boat or plane that when moved just right at just the right time can turn the vessel around. He used this metaphor to demonstrate how relatively small amoumts of leverage, energy and resources when strategically applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.

I also learned that we must do a better job of learning from nature rather than always taking from nature. It’s clear we are depleting the resources we have come to depend upon. Nature shows us the value and genius of diversity, redunancy and variety.

“Nature had done everything we want to do without mining the past or mortgaging the future,” says Janine Benyus, Biomimicry scientist. Dayna Baumeister, a biomimicry expert presented “Life’s Operating Manual” the conference. She noted that in the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth, we humans are a very young species and we can learn from our elders, the fishes, insects, birds, reptiles and plants how to adapt, interconnect, stand strong and go with the flow as we listen, learn and collaborate with all our relations on this planet.

More details coming later. And I promise to get down to basics of survival soon. In the meantime, start your garden, set up your rainwater harvesting system, visit the farmer nearest your home, get to know your local practitioners and spend more time with the ones you love.