A Thought

Recently, someone dear to me, experienced what I call a Renaissance;  A Great Enlightenment.  And it caused me to remember my own. Let me share it with you.I was living in Philadelphia, in a row home with a yard no larger than twelve by fourteen.   I was raising two little girls who were not yet of school age.  All of my attention went to their care and the running of the household and budget.  One weekend, I went to visit a sister and stayed over in her apartment and there, I discovered one of her books and pulled it down to look inside.  The book was published by Reader’s Digest and was called Back to Basics.  I read just a little before my sister or one of my girls needed my attention, but I turned to my sister and asked, “Can I borrow this?”  Needless to say, I brought it home and read it from cover to cover, even the parts about animal husbandry and building a chimney.  I mean, something in me was starving for knowledge I didn’t know I lacked. The truth of me is that I have always been a “nature” person, needing regular contact in whatever way I could get it.  I was a from scratch cook, and a hands on maker.  I was a nurturer, always.  How had I failed to consider that I knew nothing about keeping my girls, and now a little boy too, fed and warm if things outside my control went awry?  Shortly thereafter, they did go awry.  September 11th happened, and my girls, now in school, couldn’t be reached for a small but agonizing length of time.  And now I knew, if I needed to feed them or keep them warm or give them safe water, I needed to get us out of the city. I needed land. Suffice it to say, we got it, moving to a rural county in South Jersey.  I bought my own copy of that book my sister had lent to me and began.  We had a well, so check. I bought a fire-place insert, had a friend weld legs on it and I built a hearth in one corner of my kitchen, check.  That spring, I began removing sod and laying out garden beds.  I learned to enrich the soil and what vegetables would come back year after year and planted fruit trees and bushes. Check!I’ve moved several times since then, always repeating the process of securing some autonomy.  Today, there are chickens and a rabbit helping me create rich compost and I’ve acquired several raised beds as I am no longer the young woman I was.  Right now, there are onions and arugula seedlings started on my grow rack and more sowing upcoming as I prepare for spring.So, okay Jenny. What is your point with this back history?  My dear one who has noticed the same needs in her life has woken to the idea that we are but one blunder away from hardship and she bought books on home remedies and homesteading, on building the means of growing, heating and harvesting.  She wants to know what she’s been ignorant of and feel some empowerment.  I want that for everyone that reads my blog, especially right now while things feel wonky and unsettling.  It’s easy to go to the library and read some books.  It’s easy to grow a few things in any yard, in pots and whatever vessel is handy.  It’s easy to keep a couple of chickens who need nothing more than food and water.  So, yes, I encourage you to pick something you are able to do for yourself and your family.  Feel the pride of harvesting a few eggs you know are fresh as can be. Make a salad with uncontaminated crispy lettuce, learn how to treat a headache or sore throat.  You will be the better for it and we would collectively have regained some of the knowledge that propelled this country across to the west and through the great Depression and all the other hardships we’d not planned or caused.  Blessings to you all and God bless America.                              By – Jenny Folk