Connections ...

Connection ...

As we close the book on November and move into the final month of a year that has been wildly different than most of us would have imagined back in the early days of January when we made our resolutions and plans for the year ahead, I have been meditating on connections ...

This year our culture, country and communities have undergone division, separation, quarantine and isolation. We've been encouraged to create distance in the space between us, and while that's meant to be a physical distance it really isn't surprising that people are feeling the emotional distance that is inevitable as a result.

When Rick and I first trained in Holistic Management for our farm we were taught to step back and take a look at 'wholes'. It is well known among regenerative farmers that to affect any one area of our management causes effects throughout the whole system. Here at 6S we strive to work in sync with nature and to create beneficial ripples throughout the whole whenever we make decisions for any one aspect of our operation. There is not one piece of nature that is autonomous or works in isolation from the rest of nature (unless it is sick ie. cancer cells - but more about that at another time).  Absolutely everything is connected ... and so are we. Like a web that vibrates under pressure from any point we are deeply connected to one another and the world around us.

Rick and I feel that in all of the things we do here at 6S, this is really our main focus. Connection. To restore healthy connections within the environment we steward and extend those connections outwards to allow others to connect with us, their farmers, to connect with their food, and to connect with their environment. But I digress from my original thought ... when we stand back and take a look at the 'whole' of our current state we see a broken and disconnected entity, many 'cells' operating independently from one another. This is not a sustainable design BUT there is so much we can do to restore connection that this really doesn't have to be a negative narrative. In a world and a time when so many decisions are simply out of our control, valuing our connections might be just what turns things around. 

As we head into the Christmas season may you be aware of and blessed by the connections you have with others and the world around you and may you find creative ways to strengthen those connections so that they ripple out in joy to the world around you!