7 years on the blockchain today! How has it affected my life?

Thanks to the efficiency of @hivebuzz I was made aware this morning that I have been on this blockchain for a total of seven years now and it got me thinking about how two of the most pivotal moments in my life since then happened right here on this platform.

While the blockchain has provided the decentralised playground it is of course the people occupying it who have been instrumental in guiding me to where I am at and I am super grateful for every one of you. Without you I would probably be panicking right now about all this global boiling and hoping they are going to bring out a new vaccine soon! Perhaps I wasn't that naive but certainly I still had false illusions crafted by a lifetime of ignorance and materialistic living.

The wise people of this platform have gently course-corrected me and helped expand my horizons in line with the changing times.

Looking back

Seven years ago I was living in a community in Bali, paying rent in exchange for my film skills and working around the island with my drone to make some extra cash. Here is one of my many HDR photos from this period showing our eco pool at sunrise.

Esteban was one year old at the time but this didn't stop us from climbing volcanoes in our spare time. Mount Batur at sunrise here, 2016.

My drone skills took me all over Indonesia and I was blessed to experience tropical islands ordinary people simply never see.

Here I am in the Widi Islands, North Maluku (white guy in the bottom row) hunting for islands worthy of development by millionaires.

I had never seen the perfection of untouched nature before and was very excited to be there.

Despite the obvious perks it wasn't a particularly wholesome life, running around hand to mouth, trying to make ends meet and keep my family legal in the visa department.

I felt most at home in the gardens of our community.

Helping out with the many jobs and dreaming about a life in which the plants were mine to look after.

Being with the people who worked the land was such a pleasure, despite not speaking the same language as them. Their energy alone was enough for me to know I also wanted this kind of life.

But how to get there?

Well, the Universe had the answer.

I met a great many amazing people at the edge of this valley but one in particular changed my life instantly.

An english man living in Borneo happened to be checking in and our paths crossed. He needed a drone and I had one. So we chatted for a day and in that time he asked me what I was doing with my life.

I explained how I had been making films on youtube & facebook for the last few years, trying to inspire people to live in a way which was more harmonious with nature.

I mentioned too that I no longer used the banking system and his ears pricked up with a smile.

He taught me about bitcoin first and then about STEEM & steemit.

And on the 2nd August 2016 I joined up.

Within weeks I was incorporating the branding at that time into my work, instantly seeing some decent rewards.

Esteban spent a lot of time sitting here while I figured out what was what.

Not a bad spot to sit really, on the edge of a sacred river valley.

I developed my own little group of aspiring whales & dolphins. Basically a curation trail. At a time when we didn't have too much in this realm.

Ultimately I made a bunch of money over the next few years watching the price of STEEM go from $0.07 to $10. I had around 10K STEEM at the height of the bull market in Dec 2017, achieved by doing what I was already doing, but on a different platform.

The world was my oyster in that moment. Anything was possible now and I dreamt of much more than just riches from under this most magical canopy.

Wish I could tell you that I moved all my STEEM into a stablecoin at that point and waited out the bear market like a sensible experienced trader, but it doesn't happen that way does it. Like many at the time I was trapped in the belief it would continue going up, so I watched it fade away until I could take in no more and in a panic tried to diversify into other coins, but this didn't help at all. Obviously.

The thing is, I don't care about any of that. Money is just energy which helps us flow and it isn't half as effective as feelings. So the important thing here is that my experience with steemit awoke within me the dream of a way out. And that alone was enough to get the Universe clicking into action, flowing me effortlessly to the place where I am now.

Which by the way, happens to be a place where I can pick this lot within 200m of my home and sell it to a local restaurant, while still having plenty left for us!

These images were taken this morning.

Home made pesto and half a loaf of walnut bread seen here. Walnuts foraged from this village three years ago.

Just to complete the story of my old life, the final job working for the rich was this one, a solar farm construction drone-lapse film three years ago:

I invested the money into crypto and dug in for the long haul, understanding now the name of this game is good investments and patience.

And from that moment forward I used this platform as my guidance for what to do next.

Pivotal moments

Sabrina's mother got sick with cancer so we moved from Bali to the south of France in early 2018, feeling certain the presence of our growing family would aid her recovery. Which it did.

At that time I changed my facebook banner to look like this, partly because I believed in bitcoin's future and partly because I climbed that summit without shoes and now live in the village you can see beneath it.

It was difficult at first not knowing anyone here and I remember the winter of 2019 clearly for one reason. It was the winter I discovered the Grand Solar Minimum. And by "I" what I actually mean is that someone on this platform told me about it. Wish I could remember who it was? They led me to Christian at @iceagefarmer who educated me on what we can expect from our weather over the next hundred years and in an instant everything changed.

I realised we needed land and the right kind of skills to manage it effectively. And I needed to pass these skills on to my children!

Over the next few years I manifested that which was required and now I can say with certainty, I have enough land (and foraging skills) to look after my family no matter what is happening in the world.

But one of the things which has been pivotal in helping me achieve my dream is electroculture. And I think you can guess on which platform I heard about that. Thanks @woelfchen ;)

So yes, the GSM & electroculture have basically changed everything for me and both these things came from this platform.

Thanks also to the very few friends from my old world who bravely followed me here.

Finally, thanks to this blockchain I don't work any more. Not in the traditional sense anyway. I work on my own stuff all the time, I share what I am up to with you and the HIVE keeps on stacking. I power down as rarely as I can to pay for electroculture or other life essentials. Nothing more.

I have crypto investments now (thanks to what I have earned & learned on this platform) and I also have some trading skills which have at times been a great help on this journey. Like the moment I had the foresight to cash out half my LUNA when it peaked, just before it hit rock bottom. We lived off that trade for a long time.

It's a pretty awesome life all things considered and while I cannot really say I owe it all to a blockchain I can certainly say I owe it all to the people who use it.

Thank you one and all for this most excellent seven year ride.

Long may it continue!

Love & Light everyone 🌱

Photo taken in the Widi Islands 2016, just before it all began!