If you’re in need of a good getting-back-up-after-falling-down story—one that warms your heart, reminds you of your humanity, and helps you let go of the past so you can bounce forward—I’ve got one for you. I just watched the film adaptation of Katherine Center’s Happiness for Beginners, and felt inspired to share this quote with you: 

“All-knowing Mother,” he said, with his head bowed. “I’m sorry human beings are such a blight. I’m sorry we litter your earth and choke the fish in your oceans with plastic grocery sacks. We have been given incomprehensible beauty on this earth, but we don’t see it. We walk around angry and blind and ungrateful. I wish we were better, our dumb human race, but I don’t have much hope that we ever will be. The best I can do today is say: Thank you for this world of miracles. We will try to be more grateful. And less ridiculous.” ― Beckett

The best we can do is want to be better. So humbly wise.

I was also moved by the Pablo Neruda poem that played a significant part of the story:

One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII

By Pablo Neruda

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,   

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:   

I love you as one loves certain obscure things,   

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries   

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,   

and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose   

from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,   

I love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,

except in this form in which I am not nor are you,   

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,   

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

A reminder that we are always loved just as we are, even if we don't realize it.

Workmates and I hit the road to Asheville this week for the "Seeds of Hope, Seeds of Resilience: How Biodiversity and Agroecology Address Hunger and Climate Change" seed exchange and lecture.

In celebration of Dr. Vandana Shiva’s visit to Asheville, Bountiful Cities, Sow True Seed, Slow Food Asheville, Organic Growers School, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies, Southern Seed Legacy, UNCA, and the ABFPC Resilience Cluster came together to host a regional seed exchange symposium. It was especially exciting for my co-worker David, who has been managing the learning garden where I work and has become an avid seed collector along the way! For me, it was a thrilling opportunity to meet Dr. Vandana Shiva, a long-admired scholar from the sustainability movement, and learn more about the practices that have sustained both our environment and our food systems for generations.




Although I had heard about seed exchange events before, I had never attended one and wasn’t sure what to expect. However, Dave’s exceptional preparation, paired with Christine’s knack for adding artistic details and keeping everything running smoothly, combined with my impromptu ability to deliver a 5-minute elevator pitch about our work at the institute, created an effortlessly fun and memorable event. Our display table received plenty of compliments! I really enjoyed chatting with people of all ages, gathered around, as we dove into nerdy seed talk with Farmer Dave.

We also had the chance to explore, wandering through some of the trendy pockets of West Asheville and downtown, checking out a couple of vintage shops, and hiking the stunning Craggy Garden Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway.






It felt good to go on an adventure to support and report on such a nourishing scene of sustainability activists! And...

It's always a good time picking my co-worker's Dave brain about polyculture farming.

If you or someone you know are interested in all things sustainability, permaculture, or in nurturing or strengthening your relationship with nature – check out Oregon State University Ecampus' free Permaculture Education classes.

Read more here.