A more natural.. connection.

I feel disconnected.
I feel lost.
I feel unaware.

I want the world to know about my "condition". This isn't life-threatening, but it is contagious. In fact I would bet that there are thousands out there who have this dis-ease without even knowing it. While it's easily reversible, it will take concentration and a commitment to getting better. It's an epidemic, and it's growing.

I have what some are calling "Nature Deficit Disorder". This typically happens to those of us who live in cities, we don't have any outdoor space to play in, to grow our own food, reap the benefits of providing habitat for wildlife, nor do we feel that we have any real way of figuring out how to find it. We're shut up in small apartments, only feel like we can look at the world through our living room windows, and can't see a way to get our hands dirty in soil that hasn't been marred or polluted.

For as long as I can remember, gardens have been a part of my life. I've lived near deciduous forests, near rivers, and gardens with land around me. My grandparents (both sides) had vegetable gardens and one set of grandparents even had a farm. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I felt the connection to the earth. To this planet that we all live on. It was there, just a natural extension of my growing up. We would go camping, hiking, water skiing, play in the woods, get dirty and skin our knees and learn to avoid pitfalls like hornet's nests. We would go white-water rafting, and we would work in the garden. Helping to plant or to harvest was something I thought was boring as a child but I'm grateful for the experience today.

As I grew up and moved out on my own I would eventually start setting up gardens at almost every place I lived. It just felt natural (pardon the pun) to have tomato's or basil growing outside my back door. Eventually I turned that love of gardening into a horticulture degree and became a full-time professional gardener. It was then that I realized just how powerful the connection was to the earth and her systems.

For years I managed gardens, created eco-systems and was constantly amazed at the diversity of life surrounding me. I re-connected with the world and her seasons. I knew when the moon was full, when it was time to plant and when it was time to start paying close attention to problems that may arise only to discover that the earth has pretty much figured out everything that needs to happen and when. Leave things alone long enough, let the land and the soil and the plants do their own thing and there is really very little need for human intervention. We just happen to consider ourselves necessary to life continuing, but that's not the case at all. Nature has done and will do just fine without us.

But back to the subject. How do we as a city-focused society try and reclaim the connection to the natural world. We look at it and say "Animals live in Nature" completely discounting the fact that we are indeed animals too. We just have cell phones and blog posts :)

As I left the gardening world as a professional and went back to using my other brain hemisphere, reaffirmed my love of technology, I felt empowered to start a change. I wanted to bring Green into the tech world. I moved up to SF, and now in my second apartment I realize I have effectively cut off my connection to the natural world. I no longer have a garden or two to play in, to grow my own food, to challenge myself to find alternatives and solutions to not having my own playground. I've realized now just how far away from that I have become and this is where I keenly feel the loss.

For me gardening isn't just about growing your own food, but it is about feeling the connection to the earth. It is my spirituality. My life and my soul. Sure, many of us here in a city can go to a park and every few months enjoy a leisurely hike through the hills, but it is in feeling the soil, watching the life around you move and dance that we (or I at least) can feel something of the world around us.

So, how do I change and cure myself of this ailment? Well, I’ve recently started listening again to the podcast “An Organic Conversation” with host Helga Helburg on Green960. It can also be found on iTunes under the podcasts section. This show is about that connection that I’ve mentioned. The food we eat, the environment around us, our impact on this planet and how others are working to change how we live.

I’m making a commitment to myself to visit more farmers markets, to seek out possible garden spots where I can either plant native species or garden for food and insects. And to that end I found the links for SF Community gardens, and the SF site for such.

Or maybe I’ll volunteer again at the SF Botanical Gardens. Something has to change in my life, and I’m betting it has to change in yours too.

Thanks for reading, there are many many things we can all be doing to combat this terrible affliction. Start small but start somewhere.

* http://www.rosalindcreasy.com/

* http://www.sfnpc.org/gardens

* http://www.parks.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=27048

* http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/

* http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/