Return of the Light: Back to the Garden

As I consider the “Return of the Light” as signified by the Spring Equinox, Easter and even the Lunar Eclipse this week, I have to say…

“It is welcome!”

I have been very moved by the troubles we see and hear about globally, as we enter the next season. Growing Spaces® mission “to help personal and planetary health by offering the tools for a healthy lifestyle” based on growing your own organic food has far greater repercussions for us…in the larger scene.

We started this business in concern for planetary health and wanted to offer a success story that could model a new way of doing business, while countering the dangerous degradation of nature’s health.

We knew of course that our bodies were a part of that degradation and that we were already affected by pesticides, insecticides and preservatives.

Looking back I see that we were joined by many other entrepreneurs who have demonstrated the innovation and inspiration that moves humanity from problems to solutions.

We now consider ourselves part of a larger tribe of folks who set out to build from the same kind of mission with intelligence and devotion. Now, 26 years later, we are most often understood by younger people who know and understand that humans and businesses have to create and practice from a different understanding that honors life and living systems as primary and essential.

The “machine model” of humanity put forth by the industrial age can be replaced by studying organisms and how they work, by finding the wisdom in Nature, and understanding that She is our best teacher.

I was once dismissed by someone on Facebook as “too political” when sharing the facts of climate reality. The questions of life and death should not be made “political,” but have become so.

Leadership is needed if we are to change and grow.

Our tag line…

“Where Life Thrives”

…is a reminder of the sense that “We have to get ourselves back to the garden” as the 60’s song says (Crosby, Stills and Nash) in order to remember life as a gift, and health as a birth-right.

Healthy, clean food is the goal of our client base, as well as self-sufficiency and security to grow our gardens all year round, even in harsh climates, with the sun as our primary source of fuel.

But as I think about the oceans and the number of species going extinct, and the rain forests that are the lungs of the Earth, I want to say “food” and “sustenance” could be the motivation for a more holistic model of how we live and breathe and do our daily world.

Empowering people to take responsibility for their health is part of a larger picture. Health and wholeness comes from all levels, not just food.

For me, the love of life and all the lives entwined with mine require an “awakening” to the need for constructive change and a re-birth of human values. For our team, at Growing Spaces, this is not idealism, or politics, but a reason to get up and go to work each day.

It is hard to change, especially on a mass scale, but for many of us, each moment allows for a conscious choice to change our assumptions and be more aware of consequences.

We have the capacity to wake up, from unconsciousness, build the quality of our lives and life itself, through making healthy choices.

Thank you to all of you who understand this and are doing their best, “moment-by-moment” in this time of great challenge and opportunity.

Puja Dhyan Parsons Former CEO of Growing Spaces, Co-Founder

Puja Dhyan Parsons was the CEO and Co-Founder of Growing Spaces LLC established in 1989. "Puja was the heart and soul of Growing Spaces and her spirit will always live on within the company and within each person whose life she touched. Her love for life and passion for nature was visible to all and she was a true light in the lives of everyone who knew her." Growing Spaces Staff

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