Page 15 - Living Aloha Magazine March/April 2017 Issue

of the first things I look for is a gardening space. Not that I crown flower tree to geranium flowers, I see little birds that
would grow a garden every time, but to have a space that look like hummingbirds fluttering between banana trees,
could “someday” be a source of food was always comforting. drinking from the water collected in the crevices of the
As a vegan and a mother to a vegan teenager, trees from last night’s rain. My eyes roll over to that
there is a romantic or nostalgic notion that rectangular space, the one which awaits my sweat
I could grow our own food if I wanted to. growing and sowing of seeds. This one I will put to good
Sometimes I even grew herbs and cherry my own use. This will be the joint project for my son
tomatoes in pots, knowing that if we have to and I. This one will be fertile with greens and
move again, the labor of love would not go food is kitchen herbs.
to waste. If a place I moved to have a papaya nostalgic You see, it is not only about picking fresh food
or a banana tree in the yard, I would get really from the land, which excites me about this new
excited! “Look!” I would say to my son, “food!”
home. It is not only about having organic food
I learned that I could get creative. Food could at a close reach. It is not even about not paying
grow almost anywhere. In homes with a yard one could an arm and a leg for organic produce at the local natural
obviously grow food straight in the soil with an added food store. There is something more poetically meaningful
mixture of compost and good organic potting soil mix. In about this Eden. It is raw, it is primal. I can literally not only
small spaces with no yard, food could be grown in pots, live off this land, but thrive off of it! I feel like Adam and Eve
both indoors and outside. Little patches of sunlight coming in the Garden of Eden when humans were gentle, healthy,
through a window could magically be transformed into and vegan and pure food was within arm’s reach! Sowing
a little herb garden. A little imagination and education of the seeds of food is by definition, in today’s chaotic world,
growing food could go a long way. sowing the seeds of change. A change of awareness.
The awareness that we could feed our bodies with fruits
A couple of months ago, I was given notice by my landlord
that I would have to move out because of her personal from the trees and the soil, as opposed to purchasing
circumstances. There was a moment of panic, as finding a butchered bodies of suffering animals all wrapped up
new affordable home, in today’s crazy rental market and in nicely in Styrofoam packages laid neatly in rows on the
the middle of winter and as a single mother, at first seemed supermarket shelf or the seemingly-perfect fruits and
impossible. But me being me, I decided to take on the veggies displayed in all their toxic herbicide and pesticide
challenge with a smile, a knowing that something better glory. It is an unlearning, or shedding off, of ideas about
is coming our way. And it did. The first thing I noticed as food and where it comes from. Going back to our roots
I drove into the driveway when coming to check out our where growing food was a natural part of life. The cool
new home was not the bright turquoise color of the house. thing about it all is that I have enough produce to share
Neither was it that there were neighbors above and beside and trade with others. I give you oranges, you give me
the rental unit. It wasn’t the large square footage of the unit lemons. Simplicity that requires only the desire and the
either, although it sure impressed me. It was the land. Wow! I awareness to step outside the destructive, capitalistic
had arrived in the Garden of Eden! I asked the new landlord matrix and back to the “Garden of Eden.”
to show me around the land before I even saw the inside I look outside my window and I can almost see my father
of the unit. She showed me the different banana groves, walking slowly from tree to tree turning an avocado here,
the three different kinds of avocado trees, one in which an apple there, explaining in his own way how to tell when
the avocados are the size of small melons. She showed me the perfect time for harvest is. He is peaceful. I wish I could
the orange trees, the mango trees, the papaya, guava and share this heaven with him. I will forever treasure the gift
a magnificent purple apple tree. A coconut tree, tangerine he gave me-the gift of growing food and the immense
trees and to top it all off, a perfect large rectangular space satisfaction of eating the live, abundant, and vibrant
for a vegetable garden. It was a clear “yes!” this was to be our nutrients of the earth.
new home.
As I sit and write these words, I look out the window and
see these trees, this source of food, swaying in the morning miri chamdi is a massage therapist of 15 years.
Haiku breeze. Although this land is on the opposite side she also counsels on plant based nutrition and
of the globe and in a different climate, this is the first time stress management techniques. she is in the process
I feel at “home” since being plucked out of my childhood of publishing two books and is an active advocate
sanctuary in the deserts of Israel. I see wild chickens freely for animals. her motto in life is “live like someone left
roaming the land, butterflies and bees fluttering from the the gate open”.

MARCH–APRIL 2017 | Living Aloha FEATURES 15