Digging In Your Own Dirt
This is basic magic. As you grow your own carrots (as an example) you are thinking about your good food and looking forward to the first crisp bite, still a little dirty, fresh our of the Earth. Even if that carrot managed to somehow grow in the warm Earth and contain no nutrients, it would still be good for you. The feeling of eating something grown in your own scrap of Earth makes it powerfully good magic.
Luckily, it would be impossible for a carrot to grow without containing some pretty awesome nutrients. The carrots you harvest will be fresher than just about any carrot you can buy elsewhere (your local farm stand is the next best bet) and therefore had less of an opportunity to lose nutrients to aging, processing, transportation, etc. Add that to the connection you have established by caring for the Earth and the carrots… well that carrot will far outstrip the store bought carrot in its inherent value to your body. This may not be provable by hard science.
**Allow me to digress a moment: I love hard science and the work that scientists are doing and have done to unravel parts of this mysterious world. And I don’t believe that it is the be-all-end-all of information. There is plenty out there that happens regardless of what the science says should happen. So I will source plants and healing information using good research techniques and scientific data. I also will look for other information – miracles, magic, and anecdotes. Because those things are real also, even if (perhaps especially because) we can’t quantify them.
That said, I will return you to the blog post.**
Part of the nutrition in a metaphysical soul nutrition – based on your connection to the plant you grew. Some is just common sense – if you were out gardening that means you weren’t in front of the TV, crammed in cubicle under poor lighting, or sitting in a McDonald’s. You were out in Nature, getting your hands dirty, and feeling the sun and wind on your face. This is good for you. This is nourishing in many ways. Part of the nutrition is from awareness – as you tilled earth, planted seeds, and watched them grow to carrot-goodness you watched the season and weather more closely. You didn’t just know that it was hot out. You saw those carrot tops wilt with the heat of the day. You connected to the Earth, to the World, on a more real level. You didn’t have to look at Weather.com to find out what the weather was doing. You were out in it and that connection and awareness creates better health.
This is a long and rambling thought about the benefits of gardening. I am finding it hard to distill something like Gardening to a more cohesive thought pattern. Perhaps because it is bigger than language. Perhaps because I find working in my garden to be healing and holy – deeply sacred. It is hard to put the sacred into words.
But trust me. Now is the time to start planning for next year, so find a corner of your yard, start saving for some window boxes, do a little research. And when the spring begins to show it’s warmth (right now it seems like SO far away) get your hands in the dirt, plant a few plants, care for them, and see where it takes you.