“Tell your story: Yes, tell your story.
Show your example. Tell everyone it’s possible,
and others shall feel the courage,
to climb their own mountains.” (Paulo Coelho)
As a very little girl in the 1950’s, living in the endless corn and soybean fields of the Midwest, I often wondered about all those “starving children in China” my mother referred to each meal. This was somehow supposed to encourage me or my brother to eat something on our plates that would otherwise be wasted. I often questioned this reasoning, trying to imagine someone trying to pick up Brussels sprouts with chopsticks but the greater question was: how could a parent allow their child to be hungry?
What I didn’t know until later in life was that at the very moment I was worrying over the hungry children on a distant continent, my own parents were both unemployed, my mother was wracking up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills for a long-standing heart condition and our car had recently been repossessed. We had virtually no income yet we had food. We never went hungry.
I’ve often re-visited in my mind how it was that I don’t remember ever going to bed hungry when my parents struggled for years to keep a roof over our heads. The only answer I can find is in our gardens. Between my grandparents’ and our own, my family was always blessed with good food. Never too much, but always enough and it is that memory of our gardens that I have carried through my own life as the manifestation of abundance that came to us from the back of a few narrow small town lots.
Scott lives and works in Albuquerque, NM, enjoying her granddaughters, mountains, year around motorcycle roadways. She is a landscape consultant and freelance writer on everything from Mongolian embroidery to her other passion: solo travel on the cheap.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
outrageousgardener [at] yahoo.com
environmentalenhancers [at] hotmail.com
Business phone: 505-907-9070
Hi Yvonne,
Enjoyed reading your blog. Looking forward to reading more posts. Gardens reach the hearts of humans because it’s the most direct way that the earth feeds us. Reading your story reminds me of all the fond memories I have of the small vegetable garden I cultivated in the back yard of my childhood home. Being the heart and hands of our Mother Earth is a wonderful effort to be part of. Thank you for all the energy you put into this!
Karen
Wow- the website looks great- Your story about your family is inspiring! Wonderful feeling on this site! Keep up the good work!
Yvonne – what a wonderfully intelligent, kind, and compassionate person you are! I feel blessed that we have crossed paths, and you are in my thoughts often. Peace and keep doing!
Yeah!! We are uniting.
I wanted to let you know of another cool group I thought you might be interested in. Its Called HUB or Humanity Unites Brilliance (www.Heavon.hubhub.org). It is also focused on providing water and educating the hungry to produce food on their own, HUB also has a component of micro loans. Check it out seems in alignment with your efforts.
Cheers
Inspiring, challenging and tough times- medicine for real change!
Thank you Yvonne for bringing a uniting voice to many of these issues. Together we are all going to get somewhere in bringing food, cultural and environmental justice to a positive union, and united fruition. We have begun to realize that you can not separate these aspects of humanity, well-being and the earth.
Happy new paradigm everyone! Happy Birthday Martin Luther King! Congratulations America! Welcome Obama! What a great time to be alive.
The experience and hard work in growing our own food is most rewarding and helps in the building of hope and character. Plus good food can only be grown in good soil, the goal must be to grow good soil. Our food is our medicine and our medicine can only be our good food. It’s the way of nature! Keep it up Yvonne.
Michael Martin Meléndrez
A beautiful woman writing beautiful words, thank you Yvonne!