Tilling the virtual soil

Today I was inspired by Van Lewis's essay "What is organic agriculture?" to plumb my own memories and knowledge for a related article. It seems I have come full circle. Not quite a year ago I completed my application to become a contributing editor at Suite101.com by writing my sample article, "Worms under the sink," about how to compost indoors using vermiculture.

This afternoon I began browsing some of my favourite links and web sites for information and discovered that in the process of trying to influence the world, this writer has also evolved! It is time to review, clean house and sweep out the cobwebs. This revelation is reflected in the changes to my top five recommended sites.

Community of ideas

Originally intended to explore practical living in harmony with the environment, this column has not exactly diverged, but certainly deepened its exploration. My themes have cross-pollinated with those of many other editors at Suite101, especially:

• Green Home, by Linda Little
• Nature Sketches, by Renie Burghardt
• Urban Homestead, by Leda Meredith

I have also wanted to add something unique not only to this community but to the Web in general. This difference has come somewhat naturally, as surely as each one of us is an original creation, as certainly as no two snowflakes are the same.

Now this topic, Living With Nature, shouts at me for definition. Within the first several months after starting to write here, I often got confused about what this should be. But now it seems clearer.

The mission

The challenge of living in harmony with nature has practical, scientific, spiritual, aesthetic and social aspects. It is not something we can achieve as individuals, but must undertake in interaction with our natural environment and communities.

It is this holistic vision of human life on the planet that I want to explore, illuminate and inform. Everyone has something meaningful to add. My own ideas are partly defined by my experience of biology, artistic expression and mystical experience, but are not confined to these areas.

The links

As my perceptions and the content of this topic have grown, I have roved the Internet back and forth in an endless quest for information and inspiration. Some web sites drew my attention quickly and have continued to offer helpful resources. Many new ones have come along to outshine some of the old ones. And as time goes on, some of the places that first impressed me seem less fertile than before.

The many nature vortices of cyberspace can be roughly broken down into

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