A personal view of the garden...

Greetings to all of you! Everybody knows except for some few things, there is nothing really new in this so called “new year”. It’s a celebration for most people, but they don’t really know why and for what. Many people feel it’s another start, another journey, but what they are doing seems the same, the many boring long years of obedience and repetitive emptiness inside the grocery store, food chain, hardware shops, business offices and many more. In reality, the only thing that changed are: the name of the month - from December to January, and the sign of the year, from 2011 to 2012.

But this is not a message of despair or discouragement; rather it is a call to really start “something”. It is not easy, but it is also not hard. For this year, me and my friends finally decided to start a garden! In this way, we can minimize our dependence to fossil fuel economy and help in the process of healing ourselves from the sufferings brought by many crises in this time of history.
 

I think it was 3 or 4 years ago since I “imagined” a garden in a community model. With few members at the beginning working together voluntarily, contributing what they can to improve the garden, it will suddenly grow larger and spread. That’s all I can remember. But it is great to have thoughts like this knowing that it is a very important thing to do. A simple step of planting food even at your own backyard can be the most practical solution to one of the most serious crises we humans are facing today- hunger and malnutrition. In the middle of this desolate city run by machines, rubbishes and numbers, screeching drastically thru the wheels of rusty vehicles while breathing smog of industrial cancer, some people are lucky enough to have a chance to plant and grow seeds!

If i can remember few reasons why i desired to grow a garden, here are some:

 

1. To minimize the dependence on transnational oil companies and stop the unnecessary consumption of oil in producing food

2. I want to stop supporting the unjust and oppressive capitalist economy

3. I want to stop supporting Monsanto and other companies that contributes to air and water pollution, human toxicity, genetic engineering, and patent ownership on nature

 4. I want to minimize and slowly stop the damages contributed by using pesticides, herbicides, and other harmful synthetic chemicals used for farming

5. I want the pleasure of growing, taking care of, harvesting, eating,and sharing food with my friends and neighbors

So, these are only some of the problems in the way we grow and get our food today. The promise of modern science and efficient economics. This should never continue. Unless conscious people like us give up (with our young energy, beautiful aspirations and strengthening spirit) the world will end up lost in this self-consuming mega-money machine economy. So before this dystopian state arrive, we will finally decide to turn the course into another direction - in certainty, respect, empathy, and harmony with nature. As a concerned individual, I am helping this group and we will try to make meaningful actions for our community. Thanks to these children, I am very happy to be one of the volunteers and this is my simple action. Let us all grow - in spirit and in creativity.