The Blind Spot .... that the Root Cellar Transformed

Where's our herbal allies?

Where's the weeds?

Where's all the pretty flowers that are about to bloom this spring… that I usually post about?

The enchanting song birds?

Visiting Deer?

Adorable Chipmonks?

Blossoming trees?

They’re in between all the microbes to celestial stars, they are.

They’re in between the droughts, fires, food shortages to global changes, they are.

They’re in between all this and the species about to go extinct.

The arrival of The Root Cellar, in many ways, has shifted my perspectives. Very unexpectedly. First of all, I did not name it. One of us at Plant Pioneers did. Kim Kirby Salisbury woke up one morning down at her Floridian home and heard or dreamed those words for this place. Since that naming, over time, the sense of this below ground place has had an alchemical feel where future can be intermingled and considered together.

There's a different set of species [microbes] down here brewing, arising and mingling some of their original intelligence that I and others who visit have been showered with. This brewing, arising and mingling of our voices have now been happening … for a few months … by proxy. It just happened. Since tending to this below ground place, at least I can say for myself that I am seeing another set of things. The dark side. Not talking about good bad here. No no no. Just the whole of things.

So what is right here, for me anyway, is that I'm not in denial. Don’t want to be. Never did. That dark that I see that is in me, is in all of us too. Seeing the fears it provokes and staying with it is all I can do right now until it transforms and directs us to the next steps.

You see the Root Cellar has no windows. Some say when they come here to visit ... "ugh, I can't stand this, there's no windows, I need the light, it doesn't feel good down here, how long do we need to be here, can we go outside, this darkness is too depressing, I need to get to the light." And that’s fine. For myself, basking only in the light can do many wonderful things and not so many wonderful things too. The crux of it all? I’ll get quite a burn not accepting some shade.

Being below this ground has been good for me. I hope it can be for you. Being in the Root Cellar, below this ground we tend has shown me to stop leaning only on the beliefs that 'we're all going to be alright'. In many ways this addresses the denial that I've been in. However do understand, I deeply believe we are going to be alright - with or without this body of ours - I do know that at my very core. What I'm saying here is that I'm finally fully, whole heartedly accepting my complicit blind spot in the dilemma that we are all in. As I live my day, eat, drink, be merry, write here, food shop, spend money, be entertained, sleep in a warm soft cushy bed, be with great friends and community, ... I feel the sadness that is in the air. There are species struggling all around because of what I’ve done or didn’t do. And I’m done with that. I want you to know that.

Thus with honor in the sacred I keep my eyes wide open. In gratitude too, that you are here and respond to these words. And in appreciation, that I / we begin to see our denial, our blind spot not a punishment but a rather as a realization that always considers Nature first, before ourselves.

So I get started. And not through donating to organizations or writing too many ridiculous words … but rather of me giving to community that will support each other.

Will you do that with me?

I am going to do my darndest until my last days here,

Love and Blessings to a bunch of ugly beauties…

Marguerite