To Cultivate Life

What do you live for?

A friend of mine posed this and several other compelling questions to me the other day. As I sat and strained to come up with a creative and inspiring answer, the same simple idea kept circulating in my head; “to be a catalyst for a better future.” I felt compelled to explain more but left my answer there and let the conversation move on to other things. But as the days went on I kept coming back to this response thinking more deeply about what it really meant to me.

To be a catalyst for a better future…

What kind of catalyst? What kind of future? A revolutionary? Or a visionary? No, not exactly. A better future for who? Myself? Yes, but perhaps it’s a little late for that. Do I want a better future for my children? Of course, but not just for them. What does a better future even look like? More money? More peace? With so many ways to answer this, I needed to reflect back on what really lived inside me and not just what sounded right in my head.

So this question, “what do you live for,” and my corresponding answer, keep bringing me back to my passion for food and agriculture. For there is no better example of the relationship between humankind and the Earth, than that of food and agriculture. In its most simple form, agriculture is humanity’s attempt to do what the Earth already does herself, which is…

To Cultivate Life.

Unfortunately we, or at least many of us, only seek to do this for our own gain. Failing to do so in a way that brings harmony and balance to the complex web of life we are a part of. Our sight falls so short, we do not see the plate of food as seeds sown in the soil. Instead it is simply a source of hedonistic pleasure or a handful of chemical sustenance that, to many people’s dismay, is necessary to live.

So what kind of catalyst? The kind that helps shift the current ecological imbalance that is far too concentrated in the human favor. Equilibrium is a tenant of universal order. Whether it is found in mere moments during a chemical reaction, or over the course of millennia in the gravitational dance of celestial bodies. Eventually, the imbalance is corrected and equilibrium is found again. So if we are not the ones to make this shift, then the Earth will do so herself… and it won’t be pretty.

So what kind of future? The kind in which people, flora, fauna, and the Earth herself find harmony once again. Synergy must be our future. We, the people, are the dislodged cog in the finely tuned machine. We must find our place again if we want a future at all. This comes not only as a cause for the environment, but as a progression in the evolution of humankind and the evolution of life itself.

We are the problem, but we are also the answer. Think of the many wonderful things we are capable of, both as individuals and as a people. Think of all the gracious things the Earth provides for us. Such as sweet strawberries on summer afternoons. Thrumming mountains topped with panoramic views of ancient glaciers. The lullabies of chirping birds and buzzing bees. The deep, heartfelt connections found when lost amongst the trees. Such treasures laid out to us all in this garden of Eden. And we would risk it all, just to make a buck.

But all is not lost. The solutions are right there before us. In the strawberries and mountaintops, in the birds and in the trees. Our sight is simply too short to see. Notions like sustainability are not worthwhile when built in singular systems. We must let go of such ideas, and cultivate deeper connections to the paths already here, but may be hard to see. I see these patterns and pathways, veiled in daily distractions and consumption. And I am not the only one who sees. Which is why I, and those others with the long eye, must be a catalyst, the change makers, the revolutionaries and visionaries, the heralds of new times, we must be that change we want to see.

For this is not just duty or responsibilities, this is purpose. This is why I came to this world. this is why I live.

To cultivate life…