Planting The Seed + 3 Questions-April
Let's consciously prepare the ground, sow seeds, cultivate, and harvest what matters to us in each season of our lives.
The Harvest – Is officially launched today!!
This is a good thing because of last week's mishap with the link.
I cannot believe that a link can still take you out after roughly twelve years in business! Thank you if you were one of the many people who emailed me to let me know.
If you have already subscribed, woohoo! I am so excited to have you join me. The first Harvest post is below.
From today, Weekly Words has become Planting the Seed, and this is still free.
What is The Harvest, and why have I planted this seed?
Make a cuppa. Let me tell you a story.
In 2020, after the #BLM protests, I knew that my activism would be based on bringing more beauty into the world. It is easy for someone with an intersectional identity to spend energy hiding from view or fighting to be seen.
I have done both; both are exhausting and necessary at certain times.
Yet, I know that my activism involves creating safe spaces for people to show up as who they are and contribute what they can to make the world a better place for more people.
A few years ago, I made a pact with the universe that if I could find a home where I could feel safe and nourished by beauty, I would always do the work of making others feel at home within themselves.
We bought that place, our farm, at the end of 2020, and now I am living into my end of the bargain.
It is so easy to focus on what is wrong in the world, and we must do what we can and where we can, but let's remember to add what nourishes us so that we can keep doing the work of being kind.
In all times and places when people have experienced the unthinkable things that people do to each other, poets write poems, singers sing, writers write, and artists create art.
Because these things matter.
And that is where ‘The Harvest’ comes in; this is what I am creating.
It is my way of growing a little more beauty in the world, not only by sharing the physical act of learning to grow beauty through flowers and regenerative farming practices but also by changing the landscape about who gets to write about nature.
In her genre shifting book, Soil – The Story of a black mothers garden, Camille T. Dungy writes:
“Some of us are pulled toward stories of hope and renewal. We’re at peace upon the land. But because of erasures from many of the narratives about the great outdoors, the idea that Black people can write out of a deep connection to nature – and have done so since before the founding of this nation – comes to many people as a shock.
I found only six poems by Black poets. That’s all. In eighty years of the environmental canon.”
When I read this, it solidified for me to take the nervous leap into writing about my evolving connection to this land, my reverence and fear of nature, and the timeless lessons and answers we can find there.
We will be moving to the farm permanently this time next year, and having a community of nature souls and delight diggers to share the journey with me will be nourishing on so many levels.
I would love for you to become a founding member of The Harvest. Together, we will create something safe and beautiful, grounded in beauty, delight and curiosity.
Become a founding member if:
You are nourished every time I share what is happening on the farm, and you love the idea of having a more intimate relationship with me and my flower farming journey.
You delightedly live vicariously through me every time I share Farm News!
You are committed to personal growth and pictures of cute alpacas.
You want to be ignited and encouraged to create and build something new in your life, learning as you go.
You love being at the start of things and being a part of new growth.
You have been reading my Weekly Words for a while and want to support my writing and my transition into flower farming and land regeneration.
For less than a coffee a week, as a founding member, you’ll receive the following:
Planting the seed: Insights, musings and learnings on how to navigate life and leadership. Coaching questions and journal prompts to ignite self-coaching, reflection and action.
Cultivate: Exclusive founder gatherings and seasonal coaching events.
Farm News: Intimate access to my flower farming and regenerative farming journey through regular updates and visual delights
Fertilise: Ability to engage with me and post comments.
Delight Diaries: Surprise audio delights from me and nature, and I’ve started writing a little poetry, so who knows…?
Thank you for supporting me to change the landscape figuratively and literally with my hands and words.
3 Questions - April
Over the years, I have toyed with creating a Delight Diary because, you know, stationary. I am unsure if I ever will, but even writing it down excites me. Please feel free to use this month's 3 Questions just for today. But I invite you to create your own Delight Diary, writing down three things that delight you in a week or one thing that delights you each day.
This simple practice creates a little energetic healing in our wounded world.
What has brought you delight this week?
Who has bought you delight this week? Tell them.
Who can you share your delight with today?
When times feel dark, find the light. Dig for delight. Soothe your heart.
Wishing you a weekend of digging for and inhaling delight. xxx
The Harvest
During the weeks of waiting for the auction, I would speak to Romanello, the deceased owner, promising him that I would add more beauty and trees to the garden he had spent forty years nurturing. I thanked him for the incredible soil and asked why he had not planted a lemon tree. He was Italian and lived in Brunswick, Melbourne, where every Italian and Greek migrant had planted at least one lemon tree when they arrived here. How had he missed the memo?
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