The Healing Power of a Garden
How does one hold the large-scale impact of climate change in tandem with disability justice in a soul-nourishing, embodied, sustainable way?
It begins on a small scale.
It begins with the ritual act of storytelling.
It begins with the power of imagery and metaphor.
It begins with the creative tension of paradox.
Today, I engage in climate change resilience and disability justice through the joyful collaboration of P-Patch Ministries with multiple Unitarian Universalist congregations.
It begins on a small scale.
It begins with the ritual act of storytelling.
It begins with the power of imagery and metaphor.
It begins with the creative tension of paradox.
Today, I engage in climate change resilience and disability justice through the joyful collaboration of P-Patch Ministries with multiple Unitarian Universalist congregations.
Gardens exemplify for me all that is holy and sacred in their quiet, non-verbal, eloquent beauty.
Gardening in Community
P-Patches enable people of all ages and abilities to participate in nourishing the Earth, nourishing soulful relationships with each other, and nourishing the larger community.
Climate change can feel overwhelming and despairing. It can spin me up and out of my body into anxieties and fear. This isn’t good for my brain health. So, I have cultivated a practice of meditating on a poem by Rumi to help me stay grounded: “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
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For me, beauty and love show up through the act of soup making. Why soup? As a sick child, I lovingly recall church members delivering homemade meals to my family while I recovered from surgery. I savored the delicious casseroles, fresh salads and homemade desserts – especially chocolate chip cookies! Yet it was the warm, soul-nourishing soups accompanied by hearty loaves of bread that I remember most fondly. Generous spoonfuls of love incarnate.
Thirty years later, generosity and love in the form of soup reappeared on our family’s doorstep by caring church members. This time, in anticipation and support of a difficult pregnancy as an expectant mother. |
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In my ministry today, Rumi’s poem feels like a personal call and response to climate change through P-Patch Ministries. Fresh produce from the garden brings together the most essential ingredients for healing the soul of the Earth, body and community all at once.
Zero Waste Chef, Anne-Marie Bonneau, perfectly illustrates the connection between climate change through soup making on an environmental level:
"...Project Drawdown, a highly respected resource on climate solutions…listed reduced food waste as the number one solution to stopping climate change. (This is under the scenario of keeping heating below 2 degrees Celsius.)
Wasting food wastes not only the food itself but also all of the resources that went into producing it: water, energy, land, labor, capital and so on. When that wasted food decomposes anaerobically in a landfill, it releases methane gas, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet at a rate 86 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 10- to 20-year period.
With the average US household wasting 31.9 percent of its food, your pot of soup made with this and that before the food becomes waste not only tastes good but does good."
The People's Garden
The simple act of planting a garden can have big impacts -- from building a more diverse and resilient local food system to empowering communities to address issues like nutrition access and climate change.
- Growing fresh, healthy food and supporting a resilient, local food system.
- Teaching people how to garden using sustainable practices.
- Nurturing a habitat for pollinators and wildlife, and greenspace for neighbors to gather, reflect and enjoy.
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“To be of the Earth is to know
the restlessness of being a seed the darkness of being planted the struggle toward the light the pain of growth into the light the joy of bursting and bearing fruit the love of being food for someone the scattering of your seeds the decay of the seasons the mystery of death and the miracle of birth.” ~ John Soos |
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Planting Seeds
This song, "Planting Seeds: A Song of Life" by Empty Hands, Nimo Patel & Daniel Nahmod touched my soul. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.