Inspiration for Sacred Earth Integrations

Many synchronicities and much guidance surrounding the addition of Sacred Earth Integrations has come to me over the last few weeks. As this energy, with the unmistakable signature of “inspiration” was flowing in, I realized that an offering that combines the spirit of Oneness and the practice of connecting to the earth wanted to be born. It is now a newly listed option that those who resonate with me can select from my menu of offerings.

The funny thing is - I’ve been sharing this knowledge all along, I just didn’t see it as something quite needing a special area on my website. I was gently urged by my guides to make it official.

It was then that I remembered the writing below. It came through me with such strong energy that I couldn’t stop writing until it was finished - one late summer afternoon - while sitting in our front garden on our permaculture farm in Tennessee. I didn’t know it yet, but this would be our last summer on the farm. What I also didn’t know was how the Truth was ready for me to see it in those early days of my awakening… the tenets of A Course in Miracles are contained within this writing - I can feel it’s energy when I read it. I realize now that our connection to the land, understanding that everything must coexist and that we are all connected, is analogous to - and mirrors - the entire structure of our Universe. What’s more is that WE created this to help us remember our True Nature. I consider this “An Ode to the Perfection That Is” - and it is this reflection in the garden that made me pursue my certification in Permaculture Design, but that allowed me to really hone in on the spiritual aspects of it. I am eternally grateful that I remembered.

“An Ode to the Perfection That Is”

There's a place for everything in our garden. That's why I love it so much.

It’s called a “Back to Eden garden”. What that means is it is deep mulched (up to 8” in places, but we could always add more), and it’s a permaculture space (think Permanent Agriculture) where we allow anything to grow. There are no chemicals or pesticides used, ever, and it is teeming with life. Because of the deep mulch, we don't need to water as often, and it encourages LOADS of worms and other beneficial critters (including those that can’t be seen with the naked eye). The mychorrizal (fungal) network is astonishing. Each layer of mulch is eventually decomposed to rich, dark humus; and we just keep adding more layers of mulch to the top to continue the transformation.

Everything lives in harmony.

In our garden you’ll find some annuals: peppers summer squash and peas to name a few; but you’ll find mostly perennials (these are the yummy things or they’ve got other benefits) that grow back year after year. We have cherry tomatoes that reseed themselves yearly. We get SO many that there are always too many to pick, which means we have “sacrificial” tomato plants where we can re-home the hornworms and allow them to transform into beautiful moths so they can pollinate as nature intended. We also have grapes, blueberries, comfrey, rose hips, chickweed, dandelion, curly dock, Egyptian walking onions, pokeweed, iron weed, cosmos, buckwheat, passion vine, figs, red and white clover, frost weed, kale, lamb’s quarter, sage, goldenrod, butter weed, Shasta daisy, Black-eyed Susan, strawberries, mock strawberries, bee balm, lemon balm, mint, cowpeas, black beans, pumpkins, rosemary, bay leaves, plantain, salsify, creeping Charlie, morning glory, ground cherries, Virginia Creeper Vine, pumpkins… whew! That’s just in the garden - I've left many things out. Our orchard has a variety other species planted into the tree guilds - many medicinals, flowers, native shrubs, and herbs.

There actually is a place for everything.

When something grows a little too close to a seedling I’m nurturing or it threatens to take over an intentional planting, I pull it out and lay it on the ground to decompose: instant worm food. The same thing goes for the plants that can be used as “chop n’ drop” mulchers: comfrey, borage, plantain and dock to name a few. These plants have long taproots that loosen the soil and penetrate deep underground where nutrients are dense. This is a zone of the soil where other plants (with roots closer to the surface) cannot access nutrients. The taproots on our chop n' drop mulchers mine these nutrients, bringing them up into their leaves so that when they are “chopped” and the leaves are “dropped”, the nutrients are now available at the upper surface of the soil where most plants’ roots have access. These amazing plants like to be chopped because it mimics being eaten and they thrive in this situation.

Everything lives in harmony.

Do I have bugs that eat my plants? Sure do! But this chemical-free haven has reached homeostasis. There's a balance between the bugs and no one plant is ever ruined. We have an opportunistic plant that I have yet to identify - I'm sure it's considered a "weed" by many, but what I've noticed is that the leaves on it are preferred by leaf-eating insects. So, by leaving this species abundant in the places it doesn't harm other intentionally grown things, I have a food source for the insects who would otherwise be eating the grape vines, squashes, or peppers.

I've even stopped calling things in the garden "good" or "bad". This kind of dualistic thinking - anywhere in our lives - creates such  rigidity in the mind, which I think is often overlooked because it's such a quick classification method. As humans we are always comparing, aren't we? But in this garden everything is in harmony. This simple change in perspective releases so much of the stress - the fear - that lies in growing something beautiful.

Sure, this garden isn't manicured. To do so would rob it of it's "natural" qualities that wildlife finds alluring. It may look overgrown to the untrained eye, but it is teeming with life from the depths of the soil to the top of the tallest pokeweed. Goldfinches, hummingbirds, bluebirds and chickadees are just a few of the grateful visitors that feast here. Then we've got the insect pollinators: bees (honey, carpenter, and sweat - to name just a few), wasps, mosquitoes (yes mosquitoes - the males pollinate and do not bite), fireflies, crane flies, beetles, hoverflies, houseflies, butterflies and moths. We once re-homed a ring neck snake here, we named her Rosemary. It's astounding to just walk through the garden and see what you find.

There is nothing sprayed here except for a yearly probiotic tea on the fruit trees and the soil, and that's important to this synergistic system. To spray chemicals designed to kill "weeds" or mildew or certain insects takes away from the diversity that is the key to the balance of life. Just a little weed killer in one corner seeps into the soil, destroying the life there: microbes, earthworms, beetle larvae - including fireflies - all gone. Instantly. And if it's overused, that seeps into the water and travels so, so far - affecting so much in it's wake. You can't build an abundant garden in Love while taking actions based in fear. Remember that.

In the mornings I walk amongst the flowers, the insects, the life. The smells are incredible: damp earth just starting to be heated by the day's first sunlight, dirt, herbs. I hear birds signing, insects buzzing. I notice the moisture-laden webs spun with precision and beauty amongst the leaves. My children go foraging in the garden daily and (occasionally) show me what they found to eat before gobbling it up. Sometimes I just catch a hint of peppermint on the air as one of them walks by.

There is a place for everything here - all living in love. In harmony. It's simply beautiful.