We would like to introduce you to some of the remarkable families we have met on our travels, families that prove that The Revolution Starts At Home! We previously posted about Richard, Michelle and Gracie, who have been inspiring us through their work in sustainability and natural health, and who will be traveling around the world for their project, (Im)permanence: A Film about Global Solutions for Perennial Living.
Currently, we are staying with an amazing family near Quito, Ecuador who are growing their own veggies and meat, constantly welcoming travellers into their beautiful, loving home. They are in turn inspired by the indigenous families of this region who keep their cultural heritage alive, which includes age old planting wisdom and a sense of community. We are seeing more and more of these diverse but sustainable ways of life sprouting up all over the world.
Today we share with you the story of our dear friends, the Steens.
The Canelo Project: Desert Strawbale Love In Arizona, USA
We met sun baked, deep Indian red Benito in northern Thailand on a sustainability tour, with a straw hat and long cigar in his mouth, pencil through an earlobe, casting mud bricks shirtless, in his canvas pants. At the tender of age of eighteen, he was teaching adobe and strawbale building workshops with open heart and mind. The offspring of a celestial couple granted time on earth to help humanity in its dire times of need, we were instantly curious to meet the combination which gave us Benito.
During our 6 month long Road Trip around the USA, the opportunity arose. In a National Park, the heart of the desert, we found Benito and his family, the Steens, creating and loving in Canelo, Arizona. Strawbale builders for over two decades, Athena and Bill Steen revolutionised strawbale building in the US, teaching workshops and writing books, collaborating both locally and internationally to create their muddy straw masterpieces.
Athena’s open soul and hunger for life are reflected in the enthusiasm with which she accepts everyone and thing. Ready to understand and explore the new and unknown, we felt her love in the lifeboat they call home base. If ever we have witnessed unconditional motherly love – Athena embodies it all.
Our time with Bill was as precious as clean air and water, serving us just the right amounts to keep our minds from spinning out of control. With godlike, nimble hands applying earth brown adobe plaster rhythmically in mindfulness, his “Don’t think so much. Just enjoy and relax”, silenced us every time the urge came to leap into complex spiritual dualities and paradoxes. Always the exact phrase word and syllable in place for us to understand on every level.
Their three sons, Benito, Oso and Kalin, are perfect examples of what wise, loving parents who are truly invested in their children’s lives can achieve. From the school of “No School” (as Bill put it), they are articulate, highly intelligent, full of common sense, well versed in philosophy, aware of the wide world and with practical talents to boot. As a young teenager, Oso was already running his own car repair and woodworking businesses, while Benito is an accomplished blacksmith, among other things. Kalin is not yet a teenager but is a genius in many ways who has absorbed the wisdom of his parents. All of them have been surrounded by natural building since birth and to them, it is second nature, along with their inquisitiveness and their open hearts and minds, untarnished by the job- driven scholarly institutions much of the world is prey to.
Their home is a testament to their strawbale and natural plastering expertise, and they continue to run popular workshops. They grow some of their own food and spend their days in the pursuit of learning new skills, sharing them and co-creating a spiritual, joyful atmosphere that permeates all they are. Their work with particular groups in Banamichi, Sonora, across the border in Mexico, is only one example of how huge their hearts are (link).
The Super Steens: Benito, Athena, Kalin, Oso and Bill
A truly inspiring family that changes lives and enriches the world community with their wisdom.
Check out The Canelo Project and the blog, The Canelo Chronicles. New website coming soon!
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