THE LIFELY GROUP

LIFE BEYOND
INDUSTRIALIZATION

THE LIFELY GROUP NEWSLETTER

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About Us

Debra & Larry Redalia

Separately and together, we have been studying and living the subject of this website for more than 100 years. To find this philosophy and present it to the world together is our purpose.

We are both “mid-century modern” in age, born in the post-war 1950s, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

While we were children In the 1960s, the world changed radically. The “establishment” was challenged in many ways with the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the free speech movement, and others calling for “disesttablishmentarianism.” A whole counterculture came into being with subculture of the hippies in the 1960s, which started in San Francisco and became spread around the globe. Other countercultures sprang up with their own ideas, for better or for worse.

We were too young to participate in any of these movements. In 1960 our bodies were five and six years old and by the end of the sixties, we were still only in high school. But both being born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, even though we both lived in the suburbs, we grew up surrounded by massive social change.

Now it’s 2020—50 years since the end of the sixties—and much of the counterculture of the day has been incorporated into daily life in many ways. But industrialism and all its problems is still here.

Being children of the sixties, over our lifetimes we have been exploring many philosophies, ideas, and ways of living that have emerged, and many from the past. Some are workable, others are not. All we need to do is look around at rampant consumerism, toxic chemicals, epidemic cancer, environmental destruction, economic depression, war, conflicts of all kinds, and other problems to see that for all the disruption of our childhood…well, there’s more to do.

What we came to as being the most workable foundation for creating a sustainable future is to look to Life itself for inspiration and direction. Indeed, it is clear to us that failing to do this as a species has led us to today’s problems, and establishing ourselves anew in the web of Life will solve them.

We invite you to get to know us and our ideas and participate in the discussion in any way you wish.

As we write this, the world is now experiencing another disruption. The covid-19 pandemic has affected every part of our society worldwide. Dealing with it has made many problems become apparent that need to be fixed. It's time now to examine the underlying assumptions on which our world operates and bring forth the tried-and-true methods of Life to evolve into a society that supports the lives that make up all Life.

Debra Redalia

Previously known as Debra Lynn Dadd, Debra has spent her life improving the industrial consumer marketplace by identifying and promoting products that are better for health and the environment.

Debra’s first step away from industrial consumerism occurred in 1978, when she was only 23 years old. After exposure to toxic chemicals in consumer products right in her own home led to damage to her immune system, Debra was unable to continue to use common everyday products produced by industry at that time. She could not eat industrial food, or drink industrial water, or wear industrial clothing, sleep in an industrial bed, or use any products that were the result of industrial manufacturing.

No longer able to tolerate most industrial consumer products, Debra was forced to establish a new lifestyle with the few natural products she could find. By doing so she recovered her health and went on to champion a nontoxic lifestyle for forty years.

But this experience also pushed her away from the whole industrial consumer worldview and led her to search for a different set of ideas to guide her life.

Looking for a place to live with clean air in 1985, Debra left the city and went to live in a forest near the Pacific Coast north of San Francisco. Disillusioned with industrial consumer culture Debra began to look for a different lifestyle. She found it by observing nature itself and studying natural science and pre-industrial cultures.

In 1987 Debra met Larry Redalia and since they have together explored nature and spirit and how they could apply what they were learning to improve themselves as human beings living in the web of Life.

In 1990, Debra was invited to establish the environmental ethic for a new company that was one of the first to make green products. At Debra’s suggestion, the original guiding principles called for using nature as a model.

With The Lifely Group websites, Debra is taking the next logical step to go beyond industrial consumerism and create a lifestyle based in Life.

Says Larry, "I really appreciate Debra's willingness and ability to clearly communicate our collaborative ideas to the world."

Larry Redalia

Larry has always preferred to be outdoors in a tree rather than sitting in an office. Even as a boy he would come home from school and head for the hills behind his house for long hikes. More often than not he would come home with frogs and snakes and lizards and even kittens, so his interest was always in the natural world.

About 90% of the work Larry has done has been outdoors in trees and gardens, and 10% has been in construction or remodeling of private homes. He has the knowledge and skill to do pretty much anything that has to do with a house, a garden, or an automobile. He’s good with his hands, and also with his mind and his creativity.

When Larry met Debra in 1987, he felt a shared affinity and immense curiosity in having a practical understanding in life. Like Larry, Debra wanted to know how life worked, what made it tick, and what natural laws could be applied in one’s individual life to participate in the whole of life.

“At the time I met Debra, I was dating a mutual friend of ours,” says Larry. “She took me to a lecture Debra was giving (little did I know she brought me to set me up with Debra). As I was listening to Debra speak I felt like all I wanted to do was help her do her work. Whatever help she needed I wanted to do, to support her in doing her work.”

Larry carried Debra’s books after that lecture and he’s still carrying her books (and everything else!) today.

Since then, Larry has acted as a sounding board for Debra to discuss ideas and make sure they are clear and understandable. He is her “first reader," editor, right-hand man, chief problem solver, and chauffer. Larry has remodeled three nontoxic houses with Debra, planted and tended organic gardens, and is her traveling companion and assistant. And best friend.And lifepartner. And soulmate.

Says Debra, "“Without Larry, I would not be who I am today, nor would I have made the contribution to the world that I have. That he is beside me to do what he does makes it possible to do what I do. What looks to the world like 'my' work, is really our joint creation."

Our Lives Today

Currently we live with Larry’s Mom in a small town in Sonoma County, California. Debra’s body is 64 years old, Larry’s body is 66 years old.

Larry’s Dad died in the spring of 2017 when we were making plans to leave our home in Florida and transition into our next phase of life. After Dad's passing, Larry wanted to be close to Mom to be able to help her, so we moved to California and are living with Mom in her house, along with two other siblings.

We have two rooms—a bedroom and an office—and share common areas with the rest of the family. It’s an area with both trees and sunny patches for vegetable gardens, where we are loving growing heirloom vegetables. Dad had been planting fruit trees on the property for 25 years, so at any given time we have various heirloom varieties of apples, lemons, kumquats, pears, and more. We’re all united to keep Mom at home for her remaining years, which is where she wants to be.

Though this isn’t where we thought we would be at this time in our life together, it has turned out to be the perfect place for us. We’ve found much agreement with our philosophy in our small town, indeed we observe the theory of our philosophy in practice here every day.

It’s an agricultural community in the famous Napa-Sonoma-Mendocino wine country, so there are vineyards and wineries and many organic farms. We have very high-quality farm-fresh food—which we can purchase almost any day at one farmer’s market or another—and wonderful restaurants. Even our local independent hamburger “drive-in” makes their burgers from all-natural grass-fed beef.

Being here has given us the time to focus on making the transition to our next phase of life.

We’re focused now on establishing The Lifely Group of websites and services, and renovating a 1987 motorhome into a tiny house, so when the day comes that we are no longer needed here, we can drive off to any place we choose, and take our toxic-free home with us. It requires a lot of preparation to reduce a lifetime of possessions into living in 280 square feet (for two), but we’re enjoying the challenge and learning it’s not about quantity, but rather having what you need to live the life you want.

We love exploring the towns and rural areas of Sonoma County, riding our tandem bicycle, shopping at harmer’s markets and craft fairs, building and remodeling together, visiting farmers and getting to know farmers, being part of our local community, and learning about and discussing the aspects of Life.

So at this point in our adventure together, we’re happy, we love each other more and more every day, and we’re doing what we want to do together. At a time when most people would be retiring, we’re looking forward to our future activities. So we must be doing something right!

Everything that makes our lives work and makes us happy comes from our understanding of Life and applying it in our daily lives. Any time something goes wrong it’s because there was something about Life we didn’t understand or didn’t apply. And what makes things work again is to apply what we learn from Life.

Creating the Future

We’ve been on a path out of the industrial box and into the circle of Life for more than 30 years. So we have a few things to share.

We’re not perfect and we’re still learning. But we know enough to start putting together the pieces of the puzzle so we can all see the big picture.

And it goes even deeper. We are certain this is the next step in our evolution as human beings and that this viewpoint will solve the major problems we have in our individual lives and the world today.

Applying the Lifely principles we have found to our own lives has resulted in a stable, loving, happy, intentional, expanding relationship, and an enjoyable lifestyle that increasingly improves our health and financial condition, and ever moves closer to our ideal expression of integrating our own lives into the larger systems and processes of Life.

From the results we have experienced in our own lives we are certain that this approach to living is the foundation of the future for humankind and the planet.

Lifely philosophy is not just a theory. It is truly the foundation from which we live every day.

We’re different from most people, but we are alike in our difference. As we talk about lifely with others, we’re starting to see that there are others who are different like us. We’re starting to feel part of a forward movement emerging to a new state of being based in spirit and nature.

Please feel free to contact us with any comments, questions, ideas, offers, typos or any origination you would like to give us.

CONTACT US HERE