CURRENT MISSION

To live genuinely with this earth which I am a part of and to work with others do the same if they wish, to have compassion for all beings regardless of who/what they are or what they do, to seek truth and be amazed more and more at the beauty of the simple fact that I exist in this world and universe each day, and through these mindsets, to bring about social and ecological well being for myself and the living world around me ... and, well, to have a good time and enjoy life!

ABOUT ME

I grew up and worked for a decade in Silicon Valley, and in 2011, I quit my day job writing and designing technical manuals to spend more time learning, understanding, writing, photographing, and designing for social and ecological good. It's not been a perfectly smooth road to be honest, but it's been a wonderful experience which has taught me how to better live as a member of this society, planet, universe.

I love being in this world, being a part of nature, and feeling comfortable with that connection and simple happiness more and more each day.

Four different countries have provided home for me while combining art, ecology, and community engagement to open new ways of thinking about our relationship with nature.

My partner and I have been filming a documentary that explores Japanese natural farming as life philosophy, we just finished the English version of the film in 2015! Yay! It's called "Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness" and we are in different places recently with the film, and workshops, building gardens, doing nature art, and generally fostering new relationships between people and our earth.

It seems I'm always busy, but I do take time to slow down and take in the simple and astounding beauty of this world, whether it's personal interactions or sitting in a natural field with a single tiny cloud passing overhead. To me, these are the most important moments, something that, in this modern world, we have to remind ourselves of from time to time...

More about what I do here:
www.pmlydon.com
www.cityasnature.org

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Meeting folks in other countries and doing the same for y'all.

Interests

Arts, ecology, natural farming, urban design, communication through music, the arts, and nature. I also have a keen interest in studying the function and design of the places we live.

I wield a flute and guitar on occasion as well as several forms of photographic recording devices and have interest in utilizing them in various settings.

• arts
• writing
• design
• photography
• documentaries
• beauty
• dining
• gardening
• politics
• music
• guitar
• ecology
• economics

Music, Movies, and Books

One Straw Revolution - Masanobu Fukuoka
Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered - E.F. Schumacher
The Lost Language of Plants - Stephen Harrod Buhner

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Life is amazing, and I believe you can make every day the most amazing thing you have seen/done. Also, every moment enjoyed with the honest, uninhibited company of another human being is a great thing.

Teach, Learn, Share

The best thing I think we can teach and learn is personal experience and what we have gained from that experience.

As for tools, theories, and practices, I can teach flute, guitar, photography, film, arts, internet security, and go on quite a bit about natural farming and nature-connected philosophy as it relates to gardening, industrial food production, urban design, economics, international politics and so on...

You can teach me whatever you love and I'll enjoy learning.

Countries I’ve Visited

China, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, Scotland, South Korea, United States

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