Recipe for Joy

From the most recent issue of Taproot:


"We live in bizarre times, victims of a post-industrial era that, for the sake of efficiency, has segmented our culture into factions--some produce the food, some produce the education, some produce goods and services.  This segmentation fails to acknowledge our need to be human, to engage in daily work that feeds our minds and our bodies and reestablishes our oneness with the earth.  Perhaps more carrots can be produced, more books can be written, more art can be created, more kids can be schooled, more numbers can be crunched and more albums can be produced if one person plants carrots, and someone else writes the books, and someone else paints pictures, and someone else teaches our kids, and someone else cooks the carrots.  But none of us is experiencing what it means to be fully human, where our unique minds and bodies work in harmony with our spirits and nature to create and provide for our wellbeing.

I believe this segmentation of our lives becomes a source of despair.  Our disconnect with our fundamental needs causes us to live without connecting to the earth, to grow ignorant about what is required to sustain life on this planet, and therefore commit crimes of ecological disrespect, which starts when we confuse soil with dirt.

To heal the damage wrought by ecological disrespect, we must begin by embracing what it means to fully be human.  This means spending a few hours resting, a few hours playing, a few hours creating, a few hours teaching, a few hours learning, a few hours nourishing our bodies, and perhaps most importantly, a few hours tending the soil and connecting with ourselves and, ultimately, and most importantly, our planet."

--Shannon Hayes