How do you connect with the garden?
Go Barefoot!
Green thumbs and Garden toes…that’s how I connect with the garden! Hands and feet have a special relationship with soil and plants, especially when I ditch the gloves and shoes. I believe that we all have an innate affinity with Nature; it takes time to create the relationship. Time wandering, paying attention, being present.
Going barefoot increases our connection to the world underfoot and provides sensory input from the changing quality of the terrain. Taking off gloves to dig in garden soil, with or without a small tool, keeps our awareness on the task at hand: the look and feel of a bit of earthy goodness.
Soil is so vibrantly alive! An analysis of a cubic meter of soil found 50, 000 small earthworms, 50,000 insects and mites, and 12 million round worms, mostly microscopic. All of this life is right at our toes! To dig in the garden is to be a small part of this immense world and to hope that it will add a measure to our own internal workings. I tend to think so!
There is so much recent research into the immense microbial populations that inhabit our intestinal system, being essential for our health and wellness. Children and adults, stuck inside and interacting with static systems, have lost connection with living organisms that are probably necessary for long-term health. The main point here? Getting dirty is HEALTHY! And an easy way to do that is to Dig your Garden.