What does this really mean? For us at Heal Thyself Gardens it is about learning how to creatively stack functions in our daily lives, on the farm, and in our businesses, and finding new and old ways to go beyond maintaining and just sustaining ourselves and the land in order to start the process of deep healing in all areas of our lives. A renewal of all things, and relearning how to Thrive. In our society, we are taught how to consume and throw away things into a receptacle, which then gets dumped into the Earth. Out of sight, out of mind.
At Heal Thyself Gardens, we have made a conscious choice to remove ourselves from this norm and begin working hand and heart with the land upon which we live. The beautiful, mineral rich land upon which HTG resides has been ravaged for decades for her resources, mined down to the bedrock in some areas, her hillsides blown up to look inside for precious minerals, and waters damned and rerouted to other mines and sold as a commodity. Now, as her caretakers, we are working to bring back life to these areas, to heal her wounds and give more than we ever take, and Leave Her Wild. By using the fallen timber, redirecting rain water, compost from our gardens and daily lives, and her own microorganisms, we have been able to assist her in rebuilding top soil and bringing in life where there was just barren rock.
In turn, she has provided us with diverse wild medicinals that are increasing year by year, waters to swim and play in, and a safe and secluded place to grow our own food and medicinals for own nourishment and healing, and a beautiful home to raise my children and establish my homestead. The bee and butterfly population has increased significantly since our endeavors began and the enjoyment of seeing the hard work, actually WORKING, heals my own wounds and bring tears to my eyes thinking about it. I feel it is an inside job first and foremost, a shift to make consciously by learning how to love ourselves and the planet in which we live.
By choosing to regenerate ourselves, we can not help but start to regenerate the land upon which we reside. We are interwoven. We can not thrive without our Earth thriving. We must do it together and therefore it is more than regenerative agriculture, it is regenerative living.
Tamara Thorn