Saturday, June 30, 2012

Falling in Love with the Land

Hello Family and Friends, I hope everyone is doing well and surviving the heat :). James, Kora, and I have been well - hunkering down in the A/C today, sheltered from the heat outside. It made for a good day of reading and writing. It is concerning the latter of these, however, that I write today. James has been encouraging me to share some of my personal writings (poems, essays, etc) with you. I get nervous sharing my writing with the world, but I will give this a try... just this once and see what comes of it. I am beginning a collection of essays focused around environmental issues. This is one of the essays in my collection. Enjoy.

"Falling in Love with the Land"

 No one ever writes about falling in love with a piece of land. All the love songs, the love poetry, the hallmark cards - they all talk about a man loving a woman or vice versa. It's all pretty straight, and lacking in diversity if you ask me. Why not love lyrics about loving other kinds of people, beings, places? We as a society are so focused on ourselves. And sadly, I think we will only continue to perpetuate this human focused perspective. (Please forgive the environmental "doom-and-gloom" in the next couple of sentences... I promise it only lasts until the next paragraph).  As the world's population grows we will likely become more anthropocentric. There will likely be more human suffering and we will be more sensitive to it. Dwindling resources have the potential to result in resource wars, and the question will never be - what can we do to protect the environment so that it can sustain people? - but it will be, what can we do to feed the person whose land has been so ruined by unsustainable human activity that it can no longer produce?

I am not generally a pessimist. It's strange now, even as I write this, I feel a hope within... a hope nurtured by friends, family, and the place I am in love with. All these issues do not seem as scary or dire if you have a little place in your world to which you can escape... a place which has somehow escaped the grasp of the problem. For me that place is my parent's backyard in Georgia. It's heaven on earth in my opinion, and there is no other place as beautiful. People would probably tell me that it doesn't look like much - nothing spectacular. But just as we all find beauty in our human partners, I find beauty in that piece of land. I know its contours, its tendencies in inclement weather, its dancing, its voice. I am overwhelmed by the beauty of familiarity when I revisit my parents' backyard. I am smitten. In humans, scientists say beauty lies in symmetry. But in nature, I would have to say beauty lies in the imperfections. They say that imperfections are what we come to love in our human partners as well. In nature, however, the imperfection is the love at first sight. It's the tree with a strange, unique color in the fall, or the tree with the wildly crooked branches, or the flower that popped up in the crack in a sidewalk, or the bird with an off-tune song. Of course in nature there is also beauty in the symmetrical and expected. But it's the imperfections in nature that captivate us and nature's way of reminding us that she's there - her call for attention, her confident assertion of her presence, as well as her plea for help, her way of asking us to care for her.

I recently saw a live oak whose limb protruded out over the water's edge in just such a way that it provided the perfect bench for the lonely passerby. The branch looked awkward, imperfect in every way. But the branch presented itself, and I sat. Upon sitting I realized I had not noticed any of the other live oaks around me. By sitting on this branch, this awkwardly beautiful branch, I saw, not one tree, but the whole forest, not one forest, but a greater reality than myself.

We are all capable of falling love with a place, and changing the course of our environmental future. Even for those of us who do not take the regular walk in the woods, it is possible to love a place- a natural place. All one must do is be observant of his/her surroundings. Once you do that - nature will do the rest. She is a seductive mistress, and she will present herself to you in wildly inappropriate ways. However, unlike some mistresses, once you notice her, she will never go away. She will be with you for life - ever faithful and loyal. So reader I beg of you seek nature's imperfection with an open heart and let yourself be loved.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Food Justice Certified in Grist

The Food Justice Certified label was covered in a Grist article. Check it out!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Recommended Reading

Sarah had to read My Green Manifesto by David Gessner for a class. She enjoyed it, so I picked it up. I'll forgo giving a long review but will say that it spoke a great deal to us as people who became environmentalists during childhoods lived in less-than-pristine areas of Georgia. The book asks us to fall in love with the places that are right outside our door, even if they are not perfectly preserved. Then, we should fight for those places instead of considering them beyond hope. If we all did that, we might really get somewhere.

Also recommended is the article Dramatizing the "death" of environmentalism doesn't help urban people of color, or anyone else, from March 2005 on Grist. This is another great read about needed shifts in popular environmental thinking.

Enjoy!


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Pent-up Farming Energy and Sourdough Bread

As every gardener out there will tell you, this warm winter has brought on the itch to plant a few weeks early this year. Since there's still the chance of freezing weather for the next four weeks or so, I'm turning to this terribly neglected blog as my outlet for pent-up farming energy.

But first, for those who have wondered about our friend Liz, we have good news to report. Liz made it through the surgery as well as anybody makes it through a double lung transplant. She's doing great! A couple weeks ago she left the hospital for an extended stay at a rehab facility. Thanks to all who sent, and continue to send, good vibes of all kinds for Liz.

So spring. It's almost here. I actually have two reasons to exercise restraint in the lead-up to the planting season. Sarah and I may be moving before the end of the growing season. She's graduating from Duke in May and looking for work outside of Durham. So, what would we do if we had to move in the middle of the season after starting the patio garden? I certainly don't like the thought of leaving a patio garden mid-season. So along with my itch to plant, I have a worse-than-normal envy of those with land.

Here's some sourdough starter. I've forgotten to photograph a loaf so far.
Since we don't have land, we're getting more serious about another activity. Cooking and baking. Sarah and I have been discussing how community food security and the sustainable agriculture movement depends so much on maintaining cooking knowledge within communities. If we're going to follow Michael Pollan's advice and eat ingredients, we all need to know how to produce a meal from ingredients. Right now we're trying bread baking and hope to try canning a little later in the season.

Well, I think that's all for now. Look for updates on our kitchen experiments and see whether or not we're able to hold off planting until we have a permanent home. I'm guessing not.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Please help our friend :)

Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a lovely holiday break! My dear friend Liz Rieckmann has been waiting for a lung transplant for some time now... and on Tuesday she finally got one! Yay! If you could please keep her in your thoughts and prayers... we would be so appreciative. She is in serious recovery right now, and needs all the good vibes she can get :). If you also feel so inspired there is a website to which you can donate to her. Please donate as little or as much as you are able. James and I made a New Year's Resolution that we would try to donate a small amount each month for the year of 2012. You are welcome to join us in our resolution, or simply donate whatever you are able. Please visit her website at http://www.transplants.org/donate/lizrieckmann. Thank you all so much for your love and support!

-Sarah

Monday, January 2, 2012

A New Haven Wedding and Parsons Christmas

We took a road trip to Connecticut for the wedding of Sarah's friend from Tucson.

Fun picture at the wedding

Christmas Eve at the Parsons house

Trimming the tree

Family photo