Slow Down This Weekend

So this weekend we have World Soil Day. Why every day isn't soil day is beyond me, but such are the times we are living in that we have to remind ourselves in these ways of what's important to us!

I was listening to Michael Meade the other day and he reminded me that to slow down is about both slowing, and also, moving down. Put another way, it is about getting off our high horse and connecting to the earth.

After all, the word humility comes from the word 'humus' - the Latin for earth or soil. To have humility is to realise we are part of a huge and complex display of life on this planet, of which we only really know a fraction. To have humility is to acknowledge our limitations as individuals and have a willingness to see ourselves truthfully and perhaps even comically. As soon as I think I know what's going on in this mad world of ours, I am no longer in a position to learn or discover. The same happens when I take my desires, successes or failings too seriously.

Connecting to the soil is about getting messy with life. As the old permaculture saying goes, 'nothing is wasted and nothing lasts.' Soil inspires us to try out new things, bring new perspectives, people and culture into our lives. Just as soil thrives from diversity, so do we. In an increasingly polarised world where we are encouraged to be either this way or that way, think this way or that way, farm this crop or that crop......we would do well to look at soil as a model for a different way of being that is creative, nurturing, forgiving, resilient and regenerative.

If only we would just let nature be, it could show us; if only we would slow down enough, we could listen and learn.

Life is not an eternal summer; there is purpose and beauty in each of its seasons. In winter nature's invitation is for us to be still and be patient. So perhaps this weekend we can invite some humility into our lives, and show reverence and wonder for where we come from. As Alan Watts said, “We do not 'come into' this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree."

And why stop there? We could continue, beyond this weekend, a living, breathing and active ritual of appreciation to the earth in whatever way gives us meaning. Reciprocity with nature is a hardwire to gratitude, which in itself is a hardwire to abundance.

A friend of mine put it beautifully to me the other day, 'The world will start to heal when we realise the land and people are medicine for each other.'