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Apr 30, 2025

"The only way is for people to return to our proper position within nature as one member among all living things. Then we can recover our soul and resurrect the green in these increasingly chaotic modern times."

—Masanobu Fukuoka

All You Need to Do Is 5 Percent

Hang Mai left the corporate world around ten years ago to begin farming in Vietnam. She learned from permaculture pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka that their local practice of burning the land was killing the very critical humus, organisms, creatures, and roots vital to the regeneration of the richest soil – the biomass that determines what will grow and what will grow best. Over time, she also learned that the soil is only 5% of the total habitat of water, air, and mineral particles needed in the Wheel of Life. Yet, without it, nothing will grow, and so tending to the 5% is critical. During this ten-year period, Hang Mai also engaged with ServiceSpace. She relates how she gradually came to realize that small acts of kindness are like the 5% biomass. She says about tending to the biomass, “…it is a simple thing, small thing, but you have to do it daily, constantly, because all of that will continuously regenerate, dissolve, and become the soil.” In the same way, small acts of kindness daily are like tending to the biomass of love in the regenerative field of the soul in which joy, peace, and happiness can exponentially grow.

BE THE CHANGE

Ponder your connection with the biomass of the soil and of the soul. Just hold the space. Then contribute one small act of kindness in your locale to the rich organic matter of the soul. See what grows there.