I’ve just watched the most amazing BBC documentary, A Farm For The Future.
In the documentary, Rebecca Hosking takes a thorough and honest look at our food chain and how the end of cheap, abundant oil will affect what we eat. Her explorations take her to peak oil experts, a Soil Association conference, and permaculture-designed small-holdings.
I found it very accessible because she doesn’t set out to preach or convert. In fact, it’s a tale of her conversion. She’s a very regular woman coming from a family of farmers and yet doesn’t cling stubbornly to ‘the way things are done’. Instead, she’s willing to look anew and investigate her (our) inherited assumptions about how we feed ourselves. She acknowledges with deep respect and gratitude what her family have passed on to her AND is brave and humble enough to explore doing things differently. She doesn’t know if alternative ways of managing her land will work but she recognises that the current way is unsustainable and so other options must be found.
As she takes in the alarming facts and statistics about our imported food and fossil-fuel-dependent system, we can see her fear and yet rather than going into denial – as we all so easily could – she keeps her eyes open so that she can find genuine solutions.
Here is a living, breathing example for all of us of how to compassionately challenge the status quo in the area of life most close to our hearts. Whether it be food production, medicine, or our education, housing or transport systems, the message is: Another way is possible. It might take courage and hard work but perhaps what’s at stake makes it worth it.
The World Needs Your Passion, so…
1) Inquiry: What’s the area you’re most passionate about? What other ways are possible there?
2) Action: What’s one step you could take to find new solutions for this area? Is it getting together with like-minded people or doing research? Or is there a big project you’re just on the verge of starting already? Take a deep breath, gather your courage, and just get started. Let the passionate urgency of Rebecca’s work inspire you.
3) Inquiry: Where in your life do you need to swallow your pride, acknowledge that things aren’t working, and go back to the drawing board or seek support?
© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009
** What’s it like to have a goal you’re passionate about, but keep feeling it slip away from you? **
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