Earth Week Monday

This week is Earth Week, and I plan to do some reading each day, and take one action that grounds me in unity with the Earth.

Agenda today:

1. Reading

2. Talk to Mother Nature

3. Take action

1. Reading: 

I decided to peruse the Quaker Earthcare Witness website a bit each day this week. Today I'm reading from Soil: Begin with the Beginning, by Tom Small and QEW’s Publications Committee, 2022, about regenerative farming.

We Belong to the Land

To regenerate a sense of the sacred requires yet another kind of return: to a mostly lost, forgotten way of relating to the elements—the way of the Lakota and indigenous peoples in all lands, for whom all things are imbued with life and spirit. Mitakuye oyasin. All our relations. We are one. We begin from and belong to the land. We begin from the soil of our human ancestors and our non-human elders who gave of themselves to “build soil.”

So how shall we, the present generation—most of us uprooted from the land, no longer indigenous—begin?

• »  If you farm or grow some portion of your own food, practice regenerative agriculture. Build soil.

• »  Buy local food, from farmers who practice organic and regenerative agriculture and from marketers who care where your food comes from—such as food co-ops.

• »  Eat in season, to show respect for natural, cyclical processes of germi- nation, growth, ripening, and return.

• »  Also show respect and gratitude by not wasting food.

• »  Use no pesticides or artificial fertilizers, which suppress soil organisms and disrupt the dynamic balance of soil communities.

• »  If you have a yard, replace turf grass with healthy food for your family and for sharing with all your relations: the creatures of soil and air. Remember: insects and the birds who depend on them are in grave danger. And both of them depend on the native plants with whom they evolved.

• »  Walk lightly on the Earth. Avoid compacting the soil or tilling it, which destroys soil structure and disrupts the vast networks of fungi which protect and nourish.

• »  Lobby your Congressional representatives and local officials for legislation supporting regenerative farming, such as Sen. Cory Booker’s Farm System Reform Act or aspects of the Green New Deal.

• »  Live deep in the soil of your spirit until, like a seed, it is time for you to come forth.

2. Talk to Mother Nature:

A couple years ago I came across this post: How I Use Gardening as Mindfulness Practice, and I love this bit:

"I speak to Mother Nature (like, literally). Like a totally normal, balanced person, I have entire conversations with Mother Nature when I’m out in the garden. I tell her how beautiful the sky is today. I tell her how good the sun feels on my skin. I thank her for our beautiful, fertile soil. I tell her the dandelions smell particularly sweet today. I tell her she’s doing a beautiful job growing my tomatoes. And no, I’m not getting all woo-woo spiritual on you here—talking to Mother Nature is just my way of being able to acknowledge all the wonderful, blissful things about being out in the garden. You might speak to God. You might speak to yourself. ... Either way, I think there is real value in speaking your gratitude aloud. It’s also another way of making sure you are aware of your surroundings—after all, you have to see and appreciate something before you can be grateful for it.

So, today, I will go into the garden and have a conversation with Mother Nature.

3. Take Action:

Today I decided to connect with other Quakers and send them the QEW article I just read.