“‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ because, if not at hand, it is nowhere.” (Wendell Berry*)
My farmer heart felt fuzzy warm last weekend when some 170 tractors of all shapes and sizes rolled through the streets of Berlin. They had come from across the region as part of a large-scale demonstration for a new, healthier agriculture. Framed by 35,000 people in attendance, these tractors — and the smiling, radiant faces behind their wheels — symbolized something that is rare and precious in any large city: a reminder that the gift of a satisfying, peaceful and rewarding life is a gift lovingly granted by Mother Earth.
From my perch atop the slow-moving trailer belonging to a national agricultural nonprofit, I had the opportunity to see hundreds of marchers and I was touched by the positive energy, the smiles, the strength and the courage written on their faces. It had been a while since I had been exposed to this energy and finding it right here in the city made this experience even more special.
A couple days later I am still feeling this energy inside of me, stirring me, talking to me and asserting itself once again as a guide. It is a familiar guide whose voice I have been hearing throughout my life and who really began talking to me twenty years ago when, together with my wife at the time, I built my first vegetable farm in West-Central Missouri, USA. It has spoken to me about what it means to be at home, not in a country or a culture but in my body which is inseparable from the whole of nature and the universe. To me, this experience of home is possible only in the present moment and though it is possible to access it right here in the city, it is much easier to do so when I’m in nature.
Over the years as a farmer, I have come to see nature as a special doorway to equanimity and peace. The stories she tells — of birth and death and rebirth, of the interconnected web of all things, of turning wastes into an abundant harvest — these are stories of a beautiful home, a safe and welcoming home where I can truly arrive and become everything I am capable of being. This home is always available inside of me. I am called to it each time the wind is brushing against my face, each time I feel the warm earth under my bare feet or rest my body against a tree after preparing the fields for planting. I am called to it when I feel exhausted from the to-do list and my mind turns farming (or whatever else I am doing) into a punishment, when I drift into wanting another life of different comforts and diversions which never seem to satisfy for very long. In these moments of joy and pain I am called home to discover the incomparable beauty of the present, to connect with all life around me and to touch peace.
I am very grateful to the organic and sustainable farmers who came to Berlin last weekend with smiles and confidence nourished by Mother Earth. They helped me remember my path toward inner peace and happiness. I would like to honor them and all the world’s farmers with a poem. I recorded this poem some years ago for a radio program in Kansas City, USA. I cannot recall the author’s name, so if you know it, please share it with me so that I can give her credit. And thanks for listening.
(*) from “Wendell Berry on Climate Change: To Save the Future, Live in the Present” Yes! Magazine, March 23, 2015.