|
Dear Friend, Recently young women visited us from Olive Crest, a rehab center in Goleta, California for sex-trafficked minors. We appreciate the chance to not only give Olive Crest fresh, organic produce every week but the chance to host the young women here on the farm. Walking around our field one girl said she hadn’t “been in a garden since juvie.” Another girl who wore glasses had pale arms notched with scars from cutting. As you know, this is a challenged time on our planet, when problems seem to pop up in every direction. In the face of this moment, it’s easy to feel demoralized, dissipated, powerless, burned-out, and resigned. Spending time with the young women of Olive Crest counteracts such demoralization and deflation. For despite the burdens these young people carry—awesome burdens that make one’s imagination wince to glancingly contemplate—here they were, harvesting tomatoes, picking flowers, making bouquets and strawflower garlands (pictured above) for their dormitory bedrooms, and playing with the baby ducks. What inspiring strength to emulate! How life—when behind the eight ball—angers for life! And it was moving and humbling to see the girls hold up their arms to us and form hearts with their hands as they drove off in the van. Father Dan Lackie, a Franciscan pastor in Santa Barbara, said that we have “a profound mission at this point in history,” and that mission is to be “architects of a civilization of love.” Part of that work is to give our young people—all young people—careful, slow, uninterrupted, single-pointed attention. And to see that by giving young people such attention, we adults often come away centered and inspired. Sam Shapiro, our friend and headmaster at Marin Montessori School, hauntingly writes of the new reality of “technoference, which can be understood as the everyday disruptive intrusion of digital technology into our present-moment experiences, including our face-to-face interactions, relationships, and solitude.” “There may never have been a time in human history,” Shapiro continues, “when being genuinely present with our lives and the people we love has been more profoundly challenged.” Think about those words! At Whole Harvest Farm, we strive to help upset that trend. In one of her last interviews, the great American Joanna Macy, her aged voice rickety but full of puckish pluck, said: "I can picture people in Buddha fields around the universe hearing about what’s happening on Planet Earth and applying, standing in line for an incarnation on Planet Earth now. Who wouldn’t want to be here now on this gorgeous, gorgeous planet? Wouldn’t you want to be here now?" Macy—who spent much of her life writing, speaking, and acting on behalf of what she called the “Sacred Whole”—also said: That our world is in crisis in no way diminishes the value of the gift of life: on the contrary. To us is granted the privilege of being on hand: to take part, if we choose, in The Great Turning to a just and sustainable society. We can let life work through us, enlisting all our strength, wisdom, and courage. We can proceed, of course, out of grim and angry desperation. But the tasks proceed more easily and productively with a measure of thankfulness for life; it links us to our deeper powers and lets us rest in them. Amen, Joanna Macy. May we all remember how badly we want to be here on this gorgeous, gorgeous planet. May we see the privilege of being on hand to take part, concretely and thankfully, in our collective healing. And may we all be architects of a civilization of love, doing our work with the hardihood and bravery of the young women of Olive Crest. Sincerely, Teddy Macker Executive Director at Whole Harvest Farm
|
