Garden Hugs

By Jami Scholl | June 8, 2011 | 4:10 am | Comment (1) |

Photos by Armasa Studios

I am sitting in the Minneapolis airport eating egg drop soup and an eggroll staring out the western window watching planes arrive and depart, arrive and depart, again and again. The sun is warm and I remove my sweater, sleepily replaying scenes and feelings of the past weekend in Portland at the World Domination Summit (WDS). A feeling flows over me that I am not as grounded as I could be.

Although I came to WDS to meet up with others who are defining a life for themselves that is unconventional, creative, adventurous and meaningful and to personally meet Pamela Slim and Danielle Laporte to express my gratitude for the wisdom and guidance given in their books. I was in a continual state of delight, and although my complete loss of voice ended my conversation with Pam, I was always in high spirits for all of the wonderful people around me. (You may read about the weekend on Caleb Wojcik's blog: http://www.pocketchanged.com/2011/06/06/why-you-need-to-go-to-the-world-domination-summit-next-year/)

What I learned in Pamela Slims workshop was likely not what was intended. You see, if you talk to Pam she really listens, with her whole heart, being completely present. Before you go, she gives you a hug. She does this with everyone. She is a hugger, and a very good one. When she embraced me she was completely present giving all of her warmest wishes and a universal love through my skin and into my body. She did this with her eyes closed and a smile on her face, which I saw her do with the two people she spoke to before me, so I assume the same thing happened when she hugged me.

And since I write about gardens, how does this relate to those vegetables growing in the yard outside your door, or at your plot in a community garden? To garden is to grow love. Plants, and people, grow best when tended but not ignored to go weedy, or smothered in overindulgence. We may be guided as a tomato up a trellis, as fingertips break off shoots, being pruned to be strong, productive.  I like to think that I am an indeterminate variety of tomato, ever growing to the sun, pruned when needed to stay healthy and producing tasty, juicy, healthy fruit for those around me.

To hug the garden as Pam hugged me and a multitude of others is akin to being present in the garden, integrating into it, allowing for all the creatures around to be seen in the stillness. Sitting on the ground allows for a person to be grounded, literally. To garden naturally, organically is to be truly present while in the garden in order to see and feel what is needed as this is a small ecosystem which should be lived within rather than take dominion over. Subjugation is what large scale agriculture does by treating food not as a vehicle of love through nutrition and flavour, but through the commoditization of the unripe and the leaching from the soil proper bacterial and fungal life for the health of all in the system. Through the posts to my blog I hope to lead you towards an opportunity to acquire skills, information, emotional support, some laughs and a place to connect with others interested in leading a gardener’s life: a life of love and balance, a life of beauty.

Now that I have cleared my schedule to spend more time writing, I am putting myself on a schedule: approximately 2 posts per week, one of which will be as this one where the garden is teacher, healer, metaphor; the second post will be a day or two before the weekend with helpful garden information, foodscaping information, preservation and other such information to empower you. Sometimes I will include a third post as an alert to special circumstances or reminders, travel photos and reviews of gardens, interviews and guest posts. If you have suggestions for topics to include or garden or Permaculture questions you may email me, and I will consider them for a future post. The topic for Thursday: Mint-y!

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