It seems fitting that, as we wait impatiently for winter to depart and for the sun to warm the soil, we anticipate the April 22 arrival of Mother Earth Day a.k.a. Earth Day.
Mother Earth, according to the United Nations, is “urging a call to action.” Before she shakes her iron fist in retribution, driving the human species to self-imposed extinction, she is mothering us gently, telling us to do the right thing by her and each other.
She is nudging us awake with fires, floods, and famine, before it’s too late. “Tend to my gardens,” she warns, “or they will die, and that won’t bode well for you.”
Stern parenting to be sure, but also hopeful and entirely doable. All we need to know about life, we can in fact learn in a garden — quietly, patiently.
A garden is filled with more than just plants, it is filled with opportunities, memories, lessons, loss, and of course love. A garden is a place to contemplate, refine and reflect on one’s life and values.
During the pandemic, I had plenty of quiet garden time to consider my place in the world as well as the very real and terrifying possibility that my time in it may end prematurely.
I considered this realization a gift, one that fortified and amplified my mid-life decision to change vocations and attempt to make a positive dent in the world – or exercise positive influence in it, at least.
In my garden, I have grown courage. Perhaps more precisely, I came to understand that the fierce determination that I once assigned intuitively to mothering, nurturing and defending our children – young adults now – could and should be poured deliberately into mothering, nurturing and defending natural systems.
What does courage have to do with mothering, nature, and gardening? Everything. At least in a world where curated perfection, insatiable accumulation, and celebrity idolization have somehow, slowly, replaced the four basic virtues with ‘bigger, better, faster and more.’
Earlier this week, I was considering a passage in Ryan Holiday’s book Courage is Calling: Fortune Favours the Brave, about the crazy-making and potentially paralyzing paradox of doing the right thing. He wrote, of the conundrum, “You have to be crazy not to hear them when they tell you you’re crazy.”
When I heard Holiday’s liberating words (during a podcast while gardening mid-hailstorm), I experienced a visceral reaction of solar plexus pain – the same intense but paradoxically liberating pain I felt when standing up to bully teachers, coaches or other adults in defence of my children, and more recently, to a non-fan voicing animated opposition to my non-conforming defence of trees and bees.
My take on the moment is that, many of us now live in a world far removed from a simpler time not long ago, when a calm, kind and demonstrable sense of community defined our communities. When a more generous world view upheld a commitment to the greater good, and to doing the right thing in thoughts and deeds, even when it hurts.
Thankfully, urban permaculture, even gardening organically are gateways back to a place in which looking after ourselves, looking after our planet, and looking after each other are not merely inextricably linked, they form the very foundation of societal and environmental repair.
It could be nice to slow down the noisy, ultra-glam, super-charged convertible and power suited treadmill long enough to step off, perhaps clumsily, without falling. If I can do it (mea culpa; I did) and be happier than ever (I am), anyone can.
Let’s be content, brave, courageous and “crazy” together, and garden as if our lives depend on it.
Mother Earthly Activities
- Plant dwarf peas on twigs or baby beets’ in a pot now for Mother’s Day gifting.
- Plant a pollinator-friendly pot of barbecue herbs now for Father’s Day gifting.
- Replace high-maintenance lawn with elegant, easy-care bee-turf.
- Start a slow and small food garden that won’t require too much time, space or money.
- Plant a kid-friendly ‘please eat the berries’ patch of boulevard strawberries.
- Start a free left-over seed bank in your neighborhood.
- Stand up for trees, bees, birds and butterflies.
Happy Mother Earth Week to you and yours, from a tree-hugging bee lover.
Laura Marie Neubert is a West Vancouver-based urban permaculture designer. Follow her on Instagram @upfrontandbeautiful, learn more about permaculture by visiting her Upfront & Beautiful website or email your questions to her here.
For a taste of permaculture, click on the YouTube link below:
(Video - Courtesy of West Vancouver Memorial Library)
