Garden of the Mind

Photo by The Curated Feast

“We are living links in a life force that moves and plays around and through us, binding the deepest soils with the farthest stars.” – Alan Chadwick

Imagine that your mind is a garden. The opportunity always exists to tend the weeds gently or with pesticide. To gently encourage a variety productive plants to grow and bear fruit, or to encourage a monoculture.  In the garden of your mind, you are called to observe keenly each day. To walk the paths. To feel the seasons.

I remember when I first became a gardener. It was 2010 and I was clueless as to the timing of any crop of what it might take to grow. I learned so much that first year, and in founding the @lakeforestcollegestudentgarden and getting my hands in the dirt, I was set on my journey towards a deeper inquiry for the foods we encounter each day. I was hooked on photographing farms and food. This was what led me to @thecuratedfeast, certainly.

From the mysteries unraveling in contemporary soil science to the simultaneously human and celestial history of soil, this crumbly substance in which the garden grows is inescapably primary to any garden of the mind. So today I honor the soil’s fundamental role in my own daily experience of nourishment. 

A thousand thanks to the organic and regenerative farmers out there. You are all soil superheroes!