Beloved culture makers
A business can be a healing form of culture! Within capitalism, which is another way of saying within egoic, conquerer consciousness, which pervades us, inside and out, we can (re)make forms and heal. The reason I know that is because of these three businesses. It feels strange to call them businesses because they are so much more than businesses. Or, we can expand what we think of as a “business” through their guidance.
Last weekend I went apple picking at Earth Seed Farm. (Not technically a business but a place where commerce occurs.) It was so moving on every level to be there. Bowing to these humans and other species for showing me the simplicity of how we make culture. When the docent showed us how to pick apples, this is what she said: First, you can introduce yourself to the tree. Then you ask the tree if it’s okay to pick an apple. Then you pick the apple, and say thank you.
I watched my children naturally understand how to do this and adopt it immediately. It moved me beyond words because this is one gorgeous, tangible, uncomplicated way we understand ourselves as continuous with Earth, with Land.
The people who tend this Land and remind us how to be of Land also call apples “apple-kin” and trees “tree-kin” and soil “soil-kin.”
If you are a bay area person, get there!The reason I went to this farm was because a parent at Bogs’ (3.75) preschool suggested it. This is the kind of suggestions that come from the parents at this school because David, the leader of the program draws in families that feel the need within our culture and within their children for spending as much time with Land-Kin as possible, especially in their early years. David is a rare polymath whose level of respect for children is singular. He invites us families to bring all the unconscious conditioning adults have inherited about how to treat children (poorly) into the light. He does this through his beautiful writing and his simple verbal cues that invite more curiosity and less certainty. If you ever find yourself with a child and a set of circumstances that allow for your crew to be in a season of learning from him, I recommend this place: Little Earthlings Forest School. And if you don’t, I still recommend reading his writing, because that in itself is shining a light toward what is possible.
Finally (for now!): My hot take is that creativity is spirituality undercover. Which is beautifully expressed over at The Dreamside. It’s a collective of four writers who teach writing to us (you?!). They have some beautiful offerings coming up and I want you to know this magic exists, waiting for you and your words to bloom, in case they are calling to! Their substack also delivers so much more than how the word “substack” sounds, imho. Here’s a quote from their site, to tempt you: “We believe that craft exists to give shape to the wildness of our dreaming. We believe that the act of writing is the act of paying attention: it is not trivial, but joyously essential.” Inspirational (life) pedagogy yall!
That is all I have for now. I keep promising my new offering, and I am pretty darn sure that next week is the week. Let’s get pumped! Until then, and right now, and all the time in the past: I love you! I know that sounds wild, but it’s true (and we’re both still wild, even if we forget)!
-Sarah