Garden Musings: Nature and Economics

It’s finally warm enough to dig my hands into the soil. I had almost forgotten how much I loved the smell and feel of the earth beneath my feet. The earth that I walked on, drove on, and generally consumed. Somehow, the earth, nature, had slipped my mind. How was this even possible when it was nature that brought me consistent and sustainable joy?

I kneeled in my garden for two hours yesterday pulling out weeds, planting new seeds, and shuffleing the garden rocks around.  Our dog was laying the yard, soaking in the rays of sun that peeped out as the clouds floated by. I noticed my landscaping work from last year had paid off. The plants were poking their heads out of the soil. Consistently giving back. Something I needed to be reminded of. 

Gardening and Filling My Cup

Being outside in nature is everything for me. It is what sustains me as a human. I need it to feel alive, calm and filled. Over the winter months, I can have a tendency to huddle up inside, crouched over a computer working on projects. The days would pass by without sun and my spirits plummeted.

I bought Vitamin D in hopes of combating my seasonal affective depression. I signed up for new cycle classes in order to boost my endorphines. I made plans on the weekends with friends.  No matter how often I remebered to take my Vitamin D or “do” things,  I could not shake the feeling. It clung to me desperately and I began to accept it as the way things were. 

The fact is, for months I was not filling my cup. I was giving and working and giving from a place that was already feeling bone dry. While self-care has always been essential to me, I know I have to convince myself to do it. I also know that doing more and taking a vitamin helps to combat it, but not always.

 I needed to be in nature. 

Science says we are drawn to nature based on our evolutionary code. After all, we need it.

I tossed some of the rotted twigs from last season into the bin and sighed with relief. I was relieved of the constant pressure and stress from work. Relieved of the grief from the passing of my friend and dog over the winter. It was as if the earth took me in and offered some life. The same way it pushes little plants out of the ground in the spring.

Nature and Economics, an ever draining cup

While the ease of anxiety may only be on interest to some, my days in the garden also had me thinking about nature as a resource. Nature provides us with our  most basic needs: food, water, shelter. It provides us with nourishment and materials.

If nature is no longer cared for and nourished, it will not give back and in turn our ecomony will tank. It is a free renewable resource, yet we as a society are quickly draining nature’s cup. 

While I cannot boast the level of conservationist as Angela from Tread Lightly, Retire Early, I knew as sping dawned that I had somehow been seperating nature from economics without conisderation. Yes, I am Vegan and try to be sustainable, but had I connected sustainble to money? Not entirley.

Nature and the care of it should be at the center of all economic conversations and policies, but it’s not. Our general disregard for natural capitol is unsustainable for our planet. The renewables that nature continues to provide matter.

Nature is at the heart of everything.  We have come so far in this world and removed ourselves from what nature has to give. It has been abtracted so that our houses and cars and things we touch no longer feel like nature…they are synthetic. Yet they either drain from natures resources or damage them. 

Our consumption and creation of modern amenties and convieneces has allowed our economy to thrive. Yet, will we be so blind as to weild the doubl edged sword and not fill back up natures cup as it does for us? 

Some deep thoughts to be having in the garden on a spring morning. How can we make natural resources be at the center of economic policies? I am not sure, but this is on the forefront of my mind as we head into the new season.