Gratitude

As mentioned before, we are in Sequim, Washington. I guess we didn't post about our adventures here yet. While I won't go into full detail, our friend Ankur brought us here. Raj first met him in India and then I met him as a part of Inspire. I still remember him walking and showing us around with his cloth bag on his side and his love for mangos. We didn't end up keeping in touch regularly but were connected in spirit. We reached out to him after having many different changes to our plan and had a lovely phone conversation. He described what his family and him were doing up here...the intentional community, nature and farming and we were called to come! We've been here almost two weeks now and what a journey! Ankur is married to amazing Miriam who is an amazing French teacher, anti-racist educator/facilitator (see her work here), cook, mom, wife, musician and the list could go on. They have a beautiful daughter Jasmine who give me my daily hug that fills me with warmth everyday :) They have a view of the mountains in front of their house, the ocean is nearby and an endless amount of nature. Ankur bakes 4 loaves of bread everyday and sets intentions to give them to his friends from wheat that is grown and milled here! It feels like someone they know or the other grows what is needed and there is a barter system that is really nice to watch. Lots of details but we are slowly setting our intentions here. We will be moving into his mom's old house that she is putting up to sale. We've reached out to Ankur & Miriam's friends that have their own farms and are coming up with schedules to build in work. I would love to learn wood working while here and am trying to make connections with that. Amaani is slowly making friends and each day is full of nature, purpose and connection. Pictures can be found here. 

With that, I'll segway into what I actually wanted to write about. Yesterday, we visited Balyn and Ellie's farm - Joy Farm. Balyn shared his story. He's a Bay area transplant and has been up here for about 4 years now. His farm is unique is that most of the labor comes from their two horses, Bruce and Bud. He showed Amaani and I the farm and I was filled with an immense sense of wonder and gratitude of how we get our food and the amazing people that grow it that so often aren't acknowledged. I was introduced to thinking about where our food came from during InSPIRE. My whole world changed after that. Thinking about how it's grown - with or without the chemicals, how it's transported, how it reaches our stores, the environmental impact...the moving pieces in my head went on and on. Since then, I/we have had our own journey with food. Slowly growing it, focusing on organic, local and knowing where it comes from. Changing my cooking from what I want to eat to what's in season. 

The thing that I wanted to focus on though is the sense of gratitude that was felt. It feels like each person here has their connection to the land. Some are raising cows and creating milk. Some have lots of vegetables. Some have fruit trees and nut trees. But each of these things is the start of our meals. Balyn shared a cob of popcorn that he was growing. I learned that it's a different variety of corn and learned a little of the process of drying it out and then taking out the kernels to pop. How often have I taken off a plastic wrapper and popped in a bag of microwaveable popcorn? I want to send out an immense wave of gratitude to all those people out there that are part of the system of creating food. To Mother Earth and her abundance. To all the indigenous populations in the world that started it and were in harmony with the land. To all those of African and Black descent that were forced into labor that tilled and worked this land. To the farmers, to the workers, to the laborers all over the world that aren't valued to the same level as a engineer, doctor or whatever title deemed important. Without food, there is no life. 

When Amaani was younger, we had a good habit of stopping at every meal and saying what we were thankful for. I still do it in my mind at times but was thinking should bring it back. Also, just general gratitude of having the opportunity to be here. To decondition our minds. To connect with others and learn from a different way of life. Gratitude to Ankur and Miriam for hosting us and for sharing all their friends! Gratitude to Raj and Amaani for being on this adventure with me :) And thank you to all of you that are taking the time to read this :) I love you all :)