I am working in the garden a lot lately, figuring that good fresh organic food is a necessity in this time of rising prices, shortages, disease and change. We always had a garden, nothing huge, just enough to provide for our family, especially during winter when seas made it impossible to get off the island for supplies.
It is a miracle what happens with the Earth and the plant world and it seems that it is always different from year to year. One year we won an award from Harrowsmith Magazine for most innovative garden...planting on the beach in sand and seaweed and whatever else we could muster up for soil.
There was a movie called "Rain Man" I believe, where a mentally challenged son (played by Dustin Hoffman) and his mother worked a garden. The son became famous because everything he spoke about was related to the garden and resonated with people on all levels. I think he became president of the country that way, people considering him so wise and profound.
This Earth is like that...common to us all. It is our garden, like Chief Moses Martin said when the blockades to stop the logging of Meares Island went to court and won.
It is time to plant, to plant the seeds of the season and for generations to come. Everyone of us is a seed, unique in our vision, desires and abilities...packets of potent energy capable of sowing good in this world.
A seed is the most wondrous creation on this planet, filled with a blueprint for producing more of its species. We can reproduce but beyond that, our lives are full of creation. We chose what to create, what to plant, what to build...an unfolding of potential. We can also chose to just live, enjoy what has been created, protect and nurture what is precious and smell the roses so to speak.
In my garden, like the forest around it, things seed themselves and I just try to help the ones that sustain me like edibles and beauty. I appreciate that and it makes for easier living...a lot less work and it gives me so much.
Yes, we have survival at stake and we do what we need to do and hopefully it is with love, care and respect for all life and does no harm. That is the seed we need to plant, nourish and maintain for us all and for all generations to come.
Seeds can be durable little creatures. One of my favourite seeds are Douglas Fir seeds, that are nibbled on by tiny tree voles, who are also partial to the same fungi that help the trees form mycelial networks, so when the seeds are pooped out, with only the husk digested, they are covered with a "starter kit" of nutrients, inoculated with spores of their favourite fungi, which helps them to grow, even if they are further scarified by fire.
What a journey! It must take some Faith!
Hopefully, all our shared ideas about Life being sustainable, Fairy Creek being a turning point, and humans being capable of collective intelligence, although we might feel they are too fragile to survive, are travelling through the intestines of some giant natural vole, and will grow into mighty Doug Firs some day!
Yes! That IS the seed we need to plant! --
Okay... I see potatoes grow way better at your place than here on Salt Spring; at least for me... But like you, we live year around off our gardens here and seldom buy food items from a store now... I like that! (But I sure do miss the local west coast seafood there!!)
... But to grow vegetables right on the open ocean is a very tricky endeavour--I tried and gave up when I was there; you guys persevered and locked in the magic ways needed for success.