Last night we prepared part of our garden, pulling last years roots and adding compost. My wife planted peas this morning before work. So the new season of growth begins. And with this new season a new clarity is in the air.
I recently posted about becoming a farmer and this image is growing more dense, shadow thoughts taking form, possibility and potential shifting into reality. I have been contemplating the purpose of home. We as humans crave both freedom and security. These two ideals are often difficult to bring into accordance. Part of me wants to be free of the burdens and responsibilities of being a home owner, especially a yurt owner who commutes a hour each way to work. And part of me doesn’t ever want to rent again. So I have been thinking about how to bring these two cravings together.
The solution is to have my home work for me. What is the point of having a place in Nature if I spend all my time working and driving to a different location? I get to walk in the woods on the weekend and sometimes not even then as I am so busy doing all the things necessary to maintain a mortgage. We pour all the money we make into paying for it. If home is just a place to sleep between work shifts, a place to decorate as an expression of my creativity, and a place to store my stuff without having to deal with upstairs neighbors and landlords, then the price is too high. Home should be more than that.
I need my home to be where I work. I need the land to provide a living. And at the foundation of this, I need to be a good steward of the land, making it a better place than when I came to it.
Any home we build will out live us by hundreds of years. The land is as close to permanent as humans can perceive in reality. We can not and never will “own” land or “own” a home. We are just caretakers and stewards for a time. And for our care-taking and good stewardship, we get a place to call home. I also think though, that with clear intentions, respect for the environment, working closely with the spirits of place, we can have the land care for us in return for as long as we maintain the relationship. As with everything on the Druid path, we need to focus on the relationship.
So today the peas were planted. This weekend, more seeds will go in the ground. Together my wife and I will create a plan for the long-term, a plan for working with the land and building a relationship that allows us to grow enough food to have it be a viable business. We begin slowly and work steady towards that vision. At the very least if we can’t manage to develop a business, we should become much more self-sufficent, reduce “waste”, and most importantly, work with the land and the spirits of place to build a life filled with connection and beauty. Home will be a relationship that nurtures us in return for our nuturing it.
The Animist Druid 