Day 19: Nutrition + Reflection

On Wednesday, 8/19, we had another fabulous session with Melissa about keeping ourselves and others healthy and strong. This time the focus was generally on nutrition. Here are a couple easy things to try:

- When you start getting sick, you can make a tea that includes yarrow, peppermint and elder flower. This will cause you to sweat and help release the sickness.
- You can make your own electrolyte, super-hydrating drink by adding a quarter to half teaspoon of of salt in your glass of water plus a little fruit juice.

Later that day we had a reflective session to begin our process of creating our personal action plans to help the transition away from TLC. We focused on three questions: Where did I come from? What am I going to remember from TLC Farm? And in a broad sense, what do our descendants need from us now, and what is my gift for the future?

We spent some time reflecting on and writing about these questions individually, then circled up in the maple grove to share our responses. Hearing everyone's individual responses was very inspiring. Though we all came from different spaces, geographically and otherwise, the reasons our paths brought us to TLC were very similar. And not only were our experiences here at TLC shared closely together, our visions for the future also had many similarities. As Brenna articulated very well, we all have a sense that the things we love in the world are in great danger, and rather than try to ignore it, we share a sense we've committed ourselves in one way or another to doing something about it. We chose to come here to become closer to our Mother Earth, and to work to heal her. We're all very excited to put those ideas into action in whatever ways we can when we get home. Here are some of the ideas that one or many of us may end up pursuing:

-Starting a tree village that will bring people of all generations together
-Starting a medicinal herb garden
-Working to improve Portland through City Repair
-Becoming involved with natural building projects
-Acquiring more skills to help people to heal naturally
-Becoming a midwife
-Participating in future efforts at TLC
-Starting an urban farm
-Bringing permaculture ideas to our hometowns
-Joining or creating nurturing communities
-Helping to create sustainable networks of exchange
-Studying sustainability in depth

Our paths may be many, but the destination is the same; a happy and healthy environment, strong and supportive communities, and a generally better world for the generations yet to come.

-Nick