The pack and I are just in from a walk over our land, 19 degrees and even lower with wind chill; record lows for February, and me an ex-California girl determined not to let it deter me from connecting with nature this early morning... The Farmer’s Almanac was right again predicting this late February freeze. The intense cold lingers in my face, bracing and tingling my cheeks. Frozen fingers start to bring my longing for warm earth to the page. Despite the cold, we walk the land twice daily. The need to connect with our own land several times a day has become the same as our need to connect many times a day with each other and with God. The relationship, actually, is quite one and the same in many ways.
The Pacific Northwest Garden Show and the one in Portland is this weekend. We will step into the fantasy world of gardens in full bloom tomorrow in hopes of getting some food for the soul and inspiration for creating as well as practical education. After my friend gave me the book “One Magic Square” we’ve been more adamant than ever to provide more of our own food and to make compost bins that actually turn garbage into soil and not just food for nocturnal scavengers to go through.
Lolo Houbein tells dramatic stories in the book about her own near starvation experience in the last world war, ending up at 75 pounds. Supply lines were cut off and those that had land for gardening survived, those that didn’t have them didn’t fare so well. The wise had saved seeds from prior harvests, committed to growing their own food and had a few chickens for eggs and fertilizer.
Monsanto is now responsible for 94 percent of all GM (genetically modified) seeds planted around the world. Houbein writes, “To have the world’s staple food crops narrowed to so few varieties, and to have ownership of practically all commercial seed for these major crops in the hands of one corporation is an unprecedented and frightening situation – especially when you know that this company is also developing the technology for terminator seeds.” Terminator seeds are genetically programmed against reproduction. Once their pollen mixes with crops they will endanger their seed producing capability. This is a disaster of major proportions.
We’ve spent 4 years building the castello (little castle) Adytum and slowly clearing land adding herb and vegetable gardens, fruit and nut trees. This year our focus on the land will intensify. Our commitment to securing and maintaining our own seed bank of non- hybrid, non GM seeds will increase. We are actually considering getting some chickens for eggs as well as to use the mountains of compost our vegetarian kitchen produces every day. We have plans to add a greenhouse, if we can locate one that won’t end up in town when the high winds descend on our hill. We are, in a word, committing: to be responsible for more of our own food production, to be here to take care of the land and animals that will help us to achieve our goals of increased self-sufficiency and to increase in respectful stewardship of what God has given us to watch over and cultivate.
I have read a book many times now called “Monastic Gardens” by Mick Hales. While not from the Catholic tradition ourselves, there are many things that we’re striving to recreate from the monastic lifestyle at Adytum. Hales describes the monks and nuns as “radiating an intrinsic happiness that most of us would envy” despite their monasteries being literally overwhelmed by visitors. Their happiness and ability to handle stress stem from their connection with the land and God. “We are striving for humility in our lives, to draw closer to our God. It is not an accident that the humus or the soil comes from the same word. It is the base from which everything grows. Gardening and my spiritual life go together.” They pray while they work and often on their knees for both activities so central to their lives at the monastery.
Oswald Chambers, one of my favorite deep spiritual mentors shares, “Interest is natural, attention must be by effort. One of the great needs of the Christian life is to have a place where we deliberately attend to realities. That is the real meaning of prayer.”
In the sacredness of the garden, even the humble vegetable garden amidst the dirt, weeds and worms, it becomes an oasis of prayer and a place to restore oneself ~ a place of deep serenity. Kneeling before young seedlings, teasing out the weeds, fingers plunged into the warmth of the earth and breathing gratitude and thankfulness to God, spilling out concerns and fears, whispering desires and dreams all flow together in one harmonious whole. There is no division here of work and spiritual life. That is a model for each of us however we spend our days. Spirituality is not for the weekends alone.
I get more praying done while walking the land than I ever had anywhere else. In the original model, God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden. Walking and talking with God are as natural as breathing; kneeling in prayer before God in church, kneeling before Him in front of the green beans while weeding…it is all one and the same.
We receive our life from the land, the soil, and the plants we nurture there by our careful attention. We receive our sustenance from God in the same way: by careful attention “attending to realities” breathing out our requests and thanks to God and receiving life for our spirit and soul in return from both in their own ways.
Adytum has always been about creating the surroundings that would encourage living a life dedicated to spiritual development, deepening our connection with God and the land. It was interesting for me to discover in the Monastic Gardens book that a retreat house for guests was always built directly after the main chapel building. Early monasteries were expected to provide hospitality for those passing through, pilgrims on the way. They also provided havens where guests could come away from the world as well, to be silent, to think and meditate, to reconnect with nature, with God, with their own selves and the loved ones in life. That is the heart and soul of Adytum’s purpose and the feedback from guests is confirming that our intention, breathed aloud in the construction of this sanctuary, has been fulfilled. I have heard the word “reconnect” from guests over and over.
Donn and I are trying to be the best servants we can: of the land by exercising intelligent stewardship and for our guests treating them as we would treat the Lord Himself were it Him staying at Adytum for the weekend. I love the verse in Hebrews 13, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” Now that lends an exciting element to our position as hosts! Now we get to wonder if anyone under Adytum’s roof is actually extraterrestrial!
Additionally, the Benedictines Hales studied took a vow of stability with the land. They stay with one piece of land their whole lives. I love that concept reflecting commitment, care, nurture and enjoyment. Isn’t that exactly the element present in marriage and in our relationship with God and care of our own selves?
The Benedictines realize the importance of having a balance in life between the body, the soul and the mind. “Working with the plants, one gets to know their essence and understand that they are not just a commodity. The gardener becomes rooted to the ground, which is part of God’s creation…This is why we have to revere everything in the earth.” We agree a thousand percent. Monks hold respect for the soil as an essential element of God’s creation. Soil becomes us. We again become soil in the circle of life. Abe Lincoln said he was made of the field behind his house. Humbling… He also said that the footprint of the owner is the best manure. Footprints laid down in walking meditation and prayer, better still.
We have been dedicated to organic and green methods at Adytum from the beginning, unwilling to use chemicals, pesticides, herbicides or to pollute the ground water insofar as we’re able. Everywhere you dig on the nearly 16 acres will yield shovels full of earthworms. I can feel the life of the soil under my feet as I enjoy connecting with the land many times a day, regardless of the weather.
We have also, like the Benedictines, cultivated a profound awareness of the birds and animals that share this sacred mountain with us. This used to be called Birley Mountain. It was an impassable tangle of Himalayan Blackberries, Salmon berries and forest. We have slowly carved out pathways, preserving habitat with vegetation by steams and brush piles for birds, insects and small mammals to protect them from the ever present raptors, the hawks and birds of prey.
Each time a tree was removed to allow Adytum to rise, we gave back by creating a feeding station and putting up nesting boxes. I’ll never forget meeting an adorable little owl in Gatlinburg, TN at the home of infamous day trader Dennis Bolze, who was hurt when the tree he nested in and called home was cut down and he hurt himself falling out. We met him with an eagle and a hawk who had both suffered injuries at the hand of man and would be cared for the rest of their lives in a sanctuary.
We must cultivate more awareness. Even with my own brush-hogging, using my little Kioti tractor to eradicate the persistent berry vines between plantation Fir and Alder, I nearly destroyed a beautiful nest full of tiny, speckled brown eggs that some industrious bird had woven suspended between the strands of two bracken fern. Never again will I try to clear land without considering the nesting season and realizing some birds build incredibly close to the earth.
We have gotten very clear direction about how to proceed with the management of the house and land here at Adytum. That direction just happens to align closely with the model set by the Benedictine community and we embrace it as a sustainable way of life for us, our guests and the land. We are cultivating a life on our knees, literally and on the knees of our heart as we seek to practice the presence of God here no matter what we’re engaged in or day of the week it is. There is no separation from us and God, or us and the land; we are all flowing harmoniously, feeding and being fed, nurturing and being nurtured, sustaining and being sustained in spirit, body and mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment