Observe and Interact

Observe and Interact ~Listening Before Acting

They always say the first step is the hardest. But when it comes to permaculture—and life, honestly—the first step is actually the easiest. You just have to stop doing and start listening. So let’s start with the first permaculture principle is Observe and Interact, and while it sounds simple, it’s truly revolutionary in a world addicted to hustle and control.

For me, this principle feels like the moment I slip barefoot into the garden in the morning before the world has had a chance to steal my attention. The way the dew clings to the edges of the kale, how the chickens mutter low in their throats before they start their daily gossip. It’s subtle, sacred, and full of clues.

Observation is an act of reverence.

This is not the kind of observing we were taught in school—clipboards and lab coats and sterile detachment. I’m talking about an Old World kind of observation. A witchy kind. An ancestral, embodied knowing that comes from being with a place, from listening more than speaking.

When you observe from this place, you begin to notice things you’d never see if you were rushing to fix, build, or solve. The way the wind always comes from the north just before rain. The quiet spot in the yard where nothing grows—and maybe shouldn’t. The way your goats prefer blackberry leaves to hay in midsummer, as if they know something you don’t.

This kind of knowing can’t be rushed.

Interaction is relationship, not intervention

Observe and Interact is relational

Once you’ve spent time observing, interaction becomes less about doing and more about responding. You start to see your role not as a manager of land, but as a partner in a living system that’s always trying to teach you.

That patch of soil that stays soggy no matter what? Maybe it’s asking to be a pond. That stubborn slope that erodes every winter? Maybe it’s time to terrace—and plant something with deep roots that wants to hold the hill together with you.

Your job isn’t to control nature—it’s to court her.

A quiet rebellion

In the Lazy Lady Living way, “Observe and Interact” is a sacred pause. A counter-spell to colonial urgency. It’s how we reclaim sovereignty without burnout. It’s how we move from domination to devotion. And it’s how we begin to belong—again—to the land, to each other, to our soul’s timing.

So here’s your invitation, dear one:

Don’t rush to plant. Don’t rush to change. Sit a while. Watch the shadows crawl across your yard. Smell the wind. Listen to the whispers of the soil. Make tea and just be. Your land, your life, and your lineage will thank you.

With dirt under my nails and love in my heart,
~ Krista

Ready to slow down and listen with me? Join our Lazy Lady Living learning circle and delve into soul-soaked permaculture practices, seasonal spells, and ancestral wisdom – with Krista & the Arias family.

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Let the land lead. Let your soul remember. It’s time.