COMPOSTING - A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Thankfully, for the past 3 years, I've been blessed to have a bit of land in the UK - a plot on an allotment - which turned into freedom, health, sanity, playground and yoga space all in one during Covid last year. I properly learned to grow in the pandemic and started my own compost pit with the help of the inspiring Hip Hop gardener Ian Solomon, local legend..
Composting was a smelly and feral process, but at its heart, so healing and therapeutic as I witnessed it's transformative power. Rather than throwing out all those vegetable scraps I could just collect it and allow it to decompose naturally then watch it transmute into other stuff - physically and emotionally it turned out. Composting became the theme of 2020 for me, as I gardened more I began to release a lot of old ideas and beliefs and truly allow that magic alchemical process to play out at the hands of Mother Earth.
Deeply inspiring and highly recommended.
No surprise then on my recent 'trip' to Dahab, Egypt I quickly got connected to a wonderful community garden and team who are solid and committed to food growing for a healthy sustainable future. The work was hard in the heat but we met twice a week and there was always something to be done, which allowed for us all to contribute and feel connected and part of something meaningful. Through this garden, I learned about a 3-week composting method that literally turned food scraps, shit and other waste into new fertile soil in just 18 days! Which blew me away...
The process of turning the soil, flipping and moving the pile over - every 4 days- was physically hard work though yielded such quick results due to the hot, dry weather in Sinai. I became truly mesmerised at the process and adept at collecting food scraps from everywhere and any where!
Witnessing this process has taught me on an emotional psycho-spiritual level that some things don't need to be transcended or even healed, but rather just let go to return to mother earth's natural process to decompose and be alchemised into whatever she wishes it to be. A seriously powerful healing tool that everyone should try at some point. It's one thing to talk of letting go or forgiving - both very challenging processes - though when you just allow it be transformed into something else, it’s nothing short of spiritual, creative process. A very real reminder of birth, death and rebirth process that every living being in nature must go through. Even us fusty humans!
At its heart, the composting process and alchemy is a metaphor for spiritual change. When we make the time to compost, we’re engaging in and accelerating one of nature’s miracles: the transformation of waste into life. Compost, then, is the spiritual, life-giving transformation of the planet.
Do try it and let me know how it makes you feel!