Working With Nature

I am going to start off this essay with an admission.  When I started my DP, I was living in an apartment, and had never taken the time to truly look at my habits, nor did I think of the impact I was making.  I was not good at recycling, and gave token service to stewardship of our planet.

But perhaps because of this essay, or perhaps because I moved into a home with some actual property, I began to change all that.  Firstly let’s talk about the local environment and impact.  On the property I came to, there were several areas where  the plants and trees were stunted, ill, or just unable to grow.  Several species of detrimental weeds and brambles were slowly taking over.  The reason I found out… water.  Not the lack of it, the opposite in fact.  The property had insufficient drainage and  instead it pooled around the perimeter.  It caused the plants to rot at the roots.  As the plants died, the ability to use up the water was reduced even more, and the cycle continued.  So  began to look at the requirements the property needed to be healthy again.  We repaired the drainage first, and allowed the water table to rebalance itself.  We removed several invasive species of plants that were not native to the area and we brought in organic compost and nutrients to help the root systems of the trees and plants.  All of this awoke me to the need for a partnership between the earth and people.

We began to do a lot more research in homesteading, and living green.  I installed compost areas for our reclaimable organic matter and reduced the amount of usable material that was going to our local landfill, and began using it on our own property.  We set up gardens and began to grow our own herbs, veggies, even our ritual needs such as sage for smudging, and tobacco for offerings, all come from our gardens.  The spin off benefits of this were less need to go to markets in the car, and our son is learning where food comes from.  Along with this we ensure to maintain the property in an environmental manner.  Grass-cycling the lawn clippings and fall leaf matter back into the soil instead of bagging it and throwing it out provides a natural fertilizer and nutrient content.

I also took a look at how much waste we produced in general garbage.  Much of it was plastics, and cardboard.  While the plastics were recyclable it still represented a combines trash day of three bags a week for a family of three.  Sorting and recycling took care of half that, and we dealt with the other half by looking at the packaging that comes into the home.  Buying from a bulk store for things like beans, pasta, and the like reduces the amount of packaging that enters the home.  Using our own shopping bags was another huge one.

Within our home we also made a few changes.  We had a home energy audit done and it noted several key areas that were inefficient, and was causing us to burn more oil, for heat and hot water.  We addressed them as well as ensuring the appliances we use were energy rated for efficiency.  This reduced our electrical consumption by nearly 50 percent a month. 

So this addressed the natural awareness about everyday life.  I also began to spend more and more time out in nature.  I am in the Navy and that is often a challenge for me.  I sat and listened to the birds and animals, trying to learn to hear the world around me in a more meaningful manner.  I especially find areas where sea, rock, and forest meet quite inspirational. There is a raw energy there that if you allow it, will charge your mind and senses. I spent many afternoons in this area utilizing the two powers meditation.  I began to teach myself to identify the local tree and shrub varieties, and hope to take some guided “edible wild plant” walks in the future.  These are offered locally.  While I have not had a communication as such from the natural world around me, I think that a friendship is developing.  Since these practices have begun I have noted more and more wildlife coming to the property to visit.  We have had racoons, small hers of deer, grouse, hummingbirds, butterflies and a small clutch of ravens to name a few. I like having the ravens visit, and spend time trying to form a partnership with them, often offering food especially in the winter when it is scarce.

In all of our rituals we take the time to acknowledge the earth mother, and pray for her well being.  Many of the working we do involve plants, seeds and seedlings that attendees can take away and grow themselves.  As a grove we have adopted a stretch of highway that we clean of litter several times a year.  This is a great partnership with the city, and also allows some Grove name recognition.