We are bleeding at the roots. When we are out of touch with the cycles of the earth, the seasons, and the natural world, we lose our relationship with the land, with the air and water and food that gives us life. In the deepest sense, we lose ourselves. When we do not feel connected and nurtured by the earth, we no longer belong to it. Because we do not belong, we do not feel responsible to it.
We shake our head when we watch scenes of devastation on the television or read the newspaper, we say how terrible it is, and that something ought to be done about it. Then we just get on the train and go on with our day.
When we feel connected, the desire to nourish is naturally strengthened. We respect the life of the animals and plants and understand that we are not separate from them. On a cellular and energetic level, you are exactly what you eat. What you eat does not only affect you but also the world in which you are a part.
Every day we make choices about what we consume.
Do we choose a food for our family whose ingredients we cannot pronounce? Its creation requiring rainforest to be slashed and burned so that it may take oil from the palm? It's organisms have been genetically modified in order to withstand the toxic chemicals sprayed upon it. The soil from which it came has been so devastated by this cycle that it cannot provide the nutrients this plant needs to defend. Do we choose the snack that was created in a factory exploiting humans and the land on which it stands? Delivered across the world using hundreds of gallons of fossil fuel? The one which will arrive in a bag to remain on the land for thousands of years, leaching chemicals into our water supply?
These scenes of devastation are not on the television, they’re in our hands.
Could you instead, enjoy a walk in nature and pick fruit straight from the vine? Plant your own seeds and grow your own roots? How hard would it be to meet your local farmers, and show gratitude for those stewards of the land who diversify their crops and regenerate their soils? Those who grow not only for themselves but for the generations to come.
We live in a world of convenience, a world that has separated itself from the circle of life. Since the 1950s and the industrial revolution, we have divorced ourselves from nature. We are realizing now the importance of our return. The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion. When you are able to reconnect with nature and teach your children about the land from which they’ve come, you realize you do have a choice.
Suddenly change doesn’t seem so hard.
This post was inspired by the work of Dr. Sharon Blackie, author of If Women Rose Rooted.
