DailyGood

For the last 27 years, DailyGood newsletters have offered a daily email that inspires you to respond to life with creativity and kindness. To join a community of 152,451 subscribers, subscribe here.

Mar 3, 2019

"The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all...Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life." --Wendell Berry

Reconnecting to the Soil, to Heal Ourselves and the Planet

"For thousands of years Black people have had a sacred relationship with soil that far surpasses our 246 years of enslavement and 75 years of sharecropping in the United States. For many, this period of land-based terror has devastated that connection. We have confused the subjugation our ancestors experienced on land with the land herself, naming her the oppressor and running toward paved streets without looking back. We do not stoop, sweat, harvest, or even get dirty because we imagine that would revert us to bondage." More in this thought-provoking piece.

Part of the work of healing our relationship with soil is unearthing and relearning the lessons of soil reverence from the past.