soil is home. it’s the place where we can take root and find nourishment, rest, and renewal.
Different plants have different needs when it comes to soil. Some plants need a lot of chunky material so the roots have room to breath. Some plants need rich soil that retains moisture. Some need something in between.
Our needs are just as varied and when we support our needs rather than deny or limit them, we create the nutrient rich soil we need to thrive.
soil is home
Do you have a place where you find rest and renewal? It might be your home but it might be a park, the library, even a coffee shop. It’s important to identify the places that bring you rest and renewal, especially if your home isn’t one of those places. When we identify the places that do, we can then identify what it is about those places that nourishes us and find ways to bring those elements into our surroundings.
Name what nourishes
What nourishes you might not nourish me. What nourishes me is plants (obviously), my people and pets, art, books, music, richness and variation of texture, shape, and color. Things that nourish you, should leave you feeling energized and open, ready to receive the world. What nourishes us should pull us in and maybe spark our curiosity, awe, or creativity - it should enrich and enliven what we value.
soil is rest
In the darkness of soil we can rest like a dormant seed. The soil of our lives should provide the space we need to truly rest - to truly breathe. Even if it’s just one room or one corner of one room. Rest can be so much harder said than done in our culture and if “doing nothing” gives you bad anxiety, that ain’t the way (at least not right now.)
Active rest might work better for you. Plant care can be active rest and is the structure for many of the practices we engage in when you work with me.
Soil is renewal
The soil comes from all that came before us. It’s the hopes and dreams and fears and a million other moments of what was, all broken down, mixed up and ready to be made new. When we plant ourselves in soil we have cultivated with all the things that nourish and renew us, we have truly begun to create our conditions to thrive.