Loving Mother Earth

So, anybody who knows me well will tell you that I really don't like dirt.

I don't like to dig in it, or play in it, or plant in it. I don't like it in my house or on *me*. I tolerate it when I'm too lazy to clean my kitchen, but it is a thorn in my side the whole time. The whole "dirt" issue extends to sand, actually, and I mostly prefer to sit very still on dry parts of the beach rather than get wet so that the sand clings too much. Technically, it's not "dirt," I know, but I have issues . . . I admit it. As a young child, I lived in a muggy Pennsylvania suburb and was a member at a community pool club. We had lovely, blue, chlorinated water to swim in every summer. At 4 years old, I visited relatives in Maine, and was horrified to see that they swam in a lake . . . that had dirt at the bottom of it. I was teased relentlessly for the tears, but, I don't care anymore. I'm allowed to have my freaky stuff, and I'm ok with it.

So, it is very interesting to me that part of my new plan for the future includes a volunteer effort at a farm.

I've already explained to the organizer of this effort that I am not a "nature girl" and that I don't hoe. I have offered to run the store, which will raise money by selling the produce and "products" from this farm . . . and which is so much more in line with my skills. There's also lots of writing to do . . . grants, ads, marketing, website development . . . so, really, I'll be busy enough.

Somehow, though, I feel that if I *don't* participate in the actual growing of things, if I stay away from the dirt altogether, I will really be missing the point of working on a farm.

I have known for a long time that some kind of "back to nature" scheme was going to be part of my future. I have had the visions of it . . . (blame the Voice if it doesn't come to pass.) I have regularly reassured myself that I will not be left in the lurch by Armageddon . . . I was expecting to find a self-sustaining agri-world for myself and my friends so that we would be able to continue eating and living comfortably during world upheaval, without having to leave New England. So, it's either part of this, or some upcoming plan that I am now in training for, I suppose. Either way, I think I am going to have to get over this dirt thing.