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| I spent the day of the equinox sorting corn soup corn seeds thanks to George & Syd Martin's kind sharing of their precious seeds, instructions and memories at winter ceremonies 2012 |
It’s a beautifully cool and grey morning here in South Florida, the spring season has arrived and with it the excited sounds of the birds whose beautiful songs seem to reach new heights of pitch and melody…
I can’t say that I miss the raw wind, snow and cold that so
easily penetrate one’s final layers of resistance to the winters of the
northern latitudes, especially this year where the average daily temperatures
reached far below any recent human memory.
But I do miss the beauty of the snow, the intricate
interplay of geometry and light we see reflected on a single snowflake, I miss
the warm coffee stops on cold days, and I especially miss feeling the comraderie
of people working together to keep their families and communities intact even
in the face of such bone chilling environmental realities… the fridgidity of
the weather I think helps to cultivate the warmth of people’s hearts…
In many ways, I have found Minnesota and Florida polar
opposites, in terms of much more than the obvious weather patterns. There are so many
people here, four times as many at least.
And the social disparities while they are obvious in Minnesota, are as
amplified in South Florida as the temperature difference on an average early
spring day.
The bio diversity of plant, insects and humans is incredibly
rich and beautiful, but the relationships that exist between us all seem as
fragile as the scanty layer of subtropical topsoil which, fertile though it is,
takes 1000 years to produce just one inch of fine, silty soil over the porous
limestone that is our area’s bedrock (hence the litany of sinkholes that seem
to be opening at an increasingly rapid rate).
Getting to know and understand a new geography is a
daunting, seemingly lifelong task. But
the exercise in trying leads to the realization that our parents and
grandparents, wherever they are from, were grounded in the knowledge of how to
best utilize the gifts of the land and its processes, in a way that also
preserved and ensured their continuity in perpetuity. This regenerative use philosophy, I am now
coming to see, is encoded in our cultural, family and community values,
traditions and the teachings we pass on to our children and loved ones. Many of the things we don’t do anymore
because we don’t have to, are the very things that contribute to our success in
sustaining the ecosystem that we depend on. (Think of the things our
grandparents make fun of us for not knowing or doing anymore… walk to school,
haul water, chop wood, empty the chamber pot, keep a compost…)
For the few who remember and find ways to replicate and
share these treasures of knowledge that others have cast off as “old,” with the
connotation of no longer useful or valuable, our future generations of human beings
will be eternally grateful to you. For
those who can, LISTEN, LEARN & PRACTICE!
Our grandparents do not stay with us forever, so spend time with them
when you can, ask questions, and above all, remember what stories of nature
they tell you… OUR grandchildren will have many questions about the world and
our place in it and they will need to hear us tell them the stories from the
land of our grandparents.
Happy Spring! Wherever we are right now, let's plant
seeds that will feed our minds and bodies with nutrient dense soul food… and
milkweed… please plant extra milkweed for our friendly neighborhood pollinators.
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| Corn boy exploring the permaculture plantings |
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