I spent the weekend of Earth Week in The Bay area of San Francisco (Earth Day was on April 22nd, but they seemed to have a week for it), with my friend Erika and her boyfriend Aaron, and there I learnt more about the importance and beauty of community.
I met Erika whilst on a work-study programe at Esalen, a holistic learning and retreat centre in the Big Sur, California. We worked on grounds doing landscape gardening and quite a bit of weeding. And we even managed to find the time to make the below video whilst we were there.
Erika lives in Oakland and is what I would call an earth mamma. She has a deep connection to the earth and is very proactive in watching over and caring for mother earth. She is a chef, a civil rights worker and also a trained douler.
My weekend began on Saturday morning, we went to a hot tub in the Berkeley area, located in the back garden of a man’s house. The hot tub, which has been running for 35 years, is free to enter, but you need to have a passcode to get in and you have to know the man who owns it (or know someone who knows him). Men can only access when accompanied by women (and not for sexy time). It is run on respect alone – he does not take donations or volunteers and if you disrespect his rules or offering to the community in any way, you wont be allowed back. You have to shower before and after the hot tub and it is also strictly silent.
The hot tub is an old circular wooden tub, built in a rustic and lush-emerald-green garden. There are a few Buddha statues dotted around the garden and three big redwood trees. It is totally naked and after you dip in the (really hot!) hot tub, (which is great for relaxing your muscles and stimulating blood flow), you can go and rest in the garden, do some yoga moves, or, just find a spot and meditate. The cold air is good for you after the hot tub, as heat expands and cold contracts; stimulating blood flow and keeping it fresh! I didn’t take any photos inside the hot tub for obvious reasons, but here is Erika kissing a pretend flamingo in the garden outside.
Feeling refreshed after the hot tub, we went to the local Oakland farmer’s market, which is full of organic, local fresh produce and felt to be a good vibes meeting spot for local people. Aaron seemed to know everyone and did quite a few ‘stop and chats’, which were always heart felt in asking how the other person was. Both Erika and I are quite impatient so we did quite a few solo explorations and let him have his chats! Below is a picture of them both at the market.
Stalls adorned with rainbow chard (surely the prettiest!), asparagus, really good guacamole, nuts and other fresh fruit and vegetables (I don’t think I saw a pineapple) were spread around the market place, which was located on a green near the shops. I have got more into farmer’s markets over the years. The food is organic, tastes like it should, and you get to meet the people who actually grow your produce. It is not just some faceless supermarket buy, which has been sprayed with things you don’t want to think about.
Afterwards, Aaron took us to what I thought would be a little tree planting in Oakland. Aaron is the imagination behind Pacha’s Pajamas – a nature-themed children’s pop musical, which has collaborators including Mos Def, Cheech Marin, Les Nubians, Talib Kweli and Lyrics Born. The message behind the project is that we are all connected and its aim is to teach and inspire children to connect more with eachother and nature. It’s a great ethos which I hope will do amazing things! The below is one of the songs from the musical:
Anyway, back to the planting, which was actually ‘Occupy the Farm’ part 2, more or less. (Check what they did with the original here). Occupy The Farm is a movement that:
“…uses a broad spectrum of tactics, including direct action, to reclaim and expand the commons for sustainable farming and community education. We are building a network of relationships with nature and eachother that will sustain us, respect our common human heritage and unite us in our struggles against oppression.
Our goal is to heal our ecosystems, expand biodiversity, and embrace the wisdom of indigenous & traditional practices of stewardship and knowledge of the land, as we work to dismantle the systemic injustices which have separated people from these central relationships.”
(Taken from their mission statement).
I had no idea about the movement before and initially assumed there would just be a few of us planting some seeds in the ground and did not expect the scale that this would be, and how much love and reverence went in to it.
After a short drive back to Berkeley, we pulled up next to the original site for the ‘Occupy the Farm’. This land is some of the last public land in the Bay area and was about to be taken over by a food company called Sprouts, which apparently is not as ethical as they say they are. The message is said quite perfectly here:
On the new site a crowd of maybe 200 people were gathered around in a circle, listening to a Mexican elder and teacher of traditional ‘danza and ritual’ give reverence to the sacred earth we were standing upon. She was joined by children, also in full tribal dress, and two men stood behind her with big hand drums. After the speech she led a full traditional dance ceremony for planting and we watched them dance their story to mother earth. Every action and move was sacred and symbolic: giving thanks, offering prayers, dancing on the earth to wake up her energy and ask her for a fertile ground to plant upon. And then it was time for us all to get involved. People joined hands and danced, offered prayers to the east (fire), north (air), south (water) and west (earth) and offered prayers to the sky and mother earth.
We then all, led by a very happy and man and some people holding a big banner saying: ‘Stop paving farm-land. Sprout seeds, not stores‘, took pitch forks, shovels, rakes and various other garden tools, and went on to some land around the corner. Led by the strong guidance of the people running it, we immediately started to move soil and create farm beds! It was beautiful and inspiring how everyone in the community came together. Everyone joined in, shoveling, raking, hoeing, and building and painting a little farm shop. There was music from bands, who had speakers powered by people riding a bicycle to generate electricity, people meditating, children watering the flowers, people enjoying the sun… People coming together to protect and nurture the land and oppose something that is not positive for the land. I loved how strong they were about the quality of food they put in their bodies, and where it comes from. I have honestly only started to really care over the past few years of the quality of what I put in my body – I was even a vegetarian for a few years and didn’t actually eat many vegetables (just lots of bread and pasta), until I got sick and realised why!
I loved the community effort -the energy was so lovely and from the heart. Everyone was so warm, open, and friendly – talking, sharing, smiling, laughing, connecting. I literally didn’t know anything about what was going on, but everyone would happily fill me in when I asked questions or if I looked a bit lost and confused. It felt like the best bits of a festival and for a positive cause.
It was so inspiring how these people dedicate their lives, or even just their day, to something else – to the earth and the people that live on it. Working together to combine their positive energy for the benefit of the planet and humanity (we need more people like this!).
After most of the raking and hoeing was done, a local chef quickly organised a team to serve the 200 particpants. Erika, myself and another lady served rice and beans to everyone. And we had a lot of fun whilst we did it! I was the only British person there (I did get a bit nervous that the police would come, imagine if I got deported!), and we gave out extremely good vibes to everyone, blessing the food as we gave it. The first time I thought about the energy put into foods, was after reading Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’, from how he described Mary’s chutneys in the book. She made the local chutneys and if she was in a good mood, you felt good after eating her chutneys, if she was in a bad mood, you felt her energy there also. Erika also taught me to bless my food when we were at Esalen. At every meal she gives thanks to the food, offering a silent prayer to the food and for all those who had given energy to bring it to her.
As the sun set, we made our way home to relax a little, whilst some prepped their sleeping bags to stay over night.
In the evening, we did what I have always wanted to do in the USA, but never had the chance, we went dancing to a Latino hip hop band! A band called Bandada were playing at a local venue. The singer looked like a shaman and had great energy for the crowd. I got taught the cumbia dance by a Erika’s friend and got told my hips move too much!
On Sunday morning, Erika dropped me off at the local metaphysical church, the East Bay Church of Religious Science , a non-religious church “dedicated to the spiritual transformation of the entire planet”, and introduced me to one of her friends before she had to drive to cook for a wedding in Napa.
I sat at the back and immediately felt welcome to the service. One of my favourite things about the church was the beautiful Gospel choir. I loved it! The women were going for it and lost themselves in the sound; singing powerful, soulful music from their hearts and people were crying all over the place. It was the first time I had experienced something like this and I felt so grateful I got to be there! Gospel music really is the music of the soul.
They also had different speakers give lectures, one of which was the church leader, a glamorous lady with a beautiful gold and white kaftan (I LOVE a good kaftan). The main lesson of the day that stood out for me, was from a lady who spoke of five things you need to practice every day in life. For me it is a life work to get these flowing, and I try!
Gratitude
– Be thankful for everything and everyone. From the fact that you can eat and have legs, even!
Intention
– What do you intend to happen?
Forgiveness
– This is the key to so many of our individual problems and those of the world.
Timing
– Trust that timing is in place. The world would be boring if we got everything instantly. We have to trust in the magic of timing.
Surrender
– Let go. Sometimes we hold on too tightly, and don’t have space for what we want to happen. Trust and let go.
I also loved hanging out with Erika’s housemates, who work with herbs and words and are very present and honest. They all work to move forwards for the greater good of all. In such a short space of time I really got a feel of their community; how they communicated, worked through problems and respected, supported and nourished eachother.
A definition of community is:
“A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.”
I move around a lot and experience and learn from different levels of communities, so it’s quite hard for me to think of what my actual community is. I guess I didn’t really think about it before my stay with Erika. I definitely miss out on a lot of the closeness and ups and downs you get in a close nit living community, but I also know my friends are always on the end of a phone call or email if I need them (I do love social networks for this). I feel like I am part of a larger community of people, who live in various locations around the world, and our common interest is to heal ourselves, eachother and the earth in some way, and who are very strong, forward thinking and ‘conscious’. We all have our things to work on and we are all progressing individually and together, with, I feel, a positive common goal. Quite a few of my friends are starting to make their own clothes, natural skincare products, jewellery, work with food, work with music, art, film, teach yoga and are raising beautiful children, (who are the voices of the future!). All in a conscious way.
I love how a big mixing pot of people can help, support and inspire eachother to move forwards into this new earth. I love how everyone offers something a little different to make this synergy work and I am very grateful for all the lessons I learn!
And I can’t wait to plant myself and learn from my own garden of mother earth 
CommUNITY – we are all in this together.
This post was written by Kim Booth