{"id":54296,"date":"2019-10-29T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T06:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/?p=54296"},"modified":"2021-10-05T14:46:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T14:46:49","slug":"permaculture-as-proclamation-understanding-the-land-as-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/2019\/10\/29\/permaculture-as-proclamation-understanding-the-land-as-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"Permaculture as Proclamation: Understanding the Land as Neighbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s story is written by Marie Page, a congregational learning partner at Church of All Nations (CAN). She shares about CAN’s experience of understanding the land as their neighbor.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Throughout the past year, our leadership discerned that learning how to relate to <\/span>the land as neighbor<\/span><\/em> would be the most far-reaching and impactful focus for our RIH partnership. Over the past<\/span><\/p>\n

\"People
The community members at Church of All Nations work together to prepare the land for new plants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

winter, we had a core group of pastors, staff, youth, and adult members who met regularly to study the guiding philosophies and practices of permaculture in preparation for spring. The multi-year plans for our property were made after many discussions with our friends at Ecological Design [the women-owned design group behind Main Street Project, Tiny Diner, and more]; they incorporated a kid\u2019s play area, culinary and medicinal herbs, fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, a pergola, and an outdoor worship space- all priorities for our community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When spring [finally] came, we got to work! Our regular core group meetings turned into work days, and we even had a few \u201cPermablitz\u201d events with the whole community to kick start some of the most needed projects: removing typical sod, spreading compost, reseeding bee-friendly lawn, planting trees and perennials, and a <\/span>lot<\/span><\/em> of weeding.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were honestly surprised by the number of people who came out regularly for core team meetings and that even <\/span>more<\/span><\/em> came out for our Permablitz and work day events. We could see the enthusiasm spreading as real visible changes took root around the church- wildflowers and grasses that we\u2019d maybe only seen in stores or pictures, and especially our herbs. Our community has been blessed by several meals made with herbs grown right outside our doors, that many of us planted and watered and weeded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also had many positive interactions with neighbors we\u2019d not talked to previously. Many\u00a0 were grateful for the work we\u2019re doing and curious to learn more. In addition, we\u2019ve had talks with the local park just down the<\/span><\/p>\n

\"person
Working with the plants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

hill, on our same lake- they\u2019ve been working to foster native species all around their property and are enthusiastic. There was one individual who must\u2019ve been upset over the temporary visual changes when we were doing initial digging and reseeding- they reported us to our local watershed district, but when the district came out and saw our plans, they were thrilled with the work we\u2019re doing, as it will greatly slow the water flow and prevent erosion down into Silver Lake at the base of our hill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our children have responded beautifully. They were deeply impacted by our VBS program we put on this year, which we crafted intentionally as an offshoot of our permaculture project, to help them understand what we were doing and feel included in it. As we\u2019d spent a lot of time studying how water moves around our property (in preparation for the addition of swales and rain gardens), we created a curriculum around the many ways God uses water to bring forth and sustain life. We were astonished by the degree of attention, focus, and enthusiasm for the stories and activities this year- far more than any of the standard programs we\u2019ve put on in the past. At the end of the week, they each got a watering can and helped water the herbs in our front yard.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few weeks ago we had a special Sunday program where 20 of our grade school children helped us harvest some of those same herbs they\u2019d helped water this spring, which we will be processing for our craft fair fundraiser this winter. We were able to teach them how to care for the plants and pick gently with gratitude for the work they have done to make this gift for us. We also showed them how to notice which flowers have bees but to not be afraid of them- because the bees don\u2019t want to hurt us, just like we don\u2019t want to hurt them. They also learned how to notice when the herb is too young or too old to be picked.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This aspect has been the most profound for many of us. In bringing many forms of nature closer to our building, we\u2019ve been able to reshape the narratives that many of us were raised with: nature is an angry \u201cother\u201d that will harm us if given the chance. Instead, we\u2019re able to experience and share with our children that the land is loving and abundant when we approach respectfully- full of food and medicine both for us and for the many forms of crawling friends that have moved in to enjoy the harvest. (The variety and quantity of bugs, bees, butterflies, and frogs has surprised even those of us who\u2019ve lived in this area our whole lives!)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"people
Permablizters pose under what will become a pergola, for plants to grow on and people to meet under.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It has been profoundly healing for many of us not just to learn these things ourselves but to watch our children grow up in a community where <\/span>the land as neighbor<\/span><\/em> is part of the air we breathe- seeing them greet their favorite plants, not scream and run from grasshoppers or even bees but approach carefully, with curiosity. This re-narration of \u201cother\u201d into \u201cneighbor,\u201d then friend, and then family is fundamental to our ministry as a church. It fills us with profound joy and hope to work towards a future where the natural open-hearted curiosity of our children can be guided with love to carefully navigate and embrace the unknown, rather than shrinking back or isolating from it in fear. Their hearts and minds, shaped in this way, will shape a better world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks to the support of our members and partners like RIH, God is bringing forth a harvest far beyond what we could\u2019ve asked or imagined- in our land, and in our lives. We can\u2019t wait to see the new developments next year will bring!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s story is written by Marie Page, a congregational learning partner at Church of All Nations (CAN). She shares …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":465,"featured_media":54297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,88,180,183],"tags":[216,199,214],"class_list":["post-54296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-partner-congregations","category-riverside-innovation-hub","category-theology","category-young-adults","tag-neighbor","tag-partner-congregations","tag-storytelling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54298,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54296\/revisions\/54298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}