The word “mahala” is found in many languages throughout the world in various forms. It translates to love, freedom, community, neighborhood or free. It comes from Arabic, Cherokee, Polynesian, Zulu and likely more.
The project comes from a desire to share knowledge (love others), to remember cultural roots (community), to provide for ourselves (freedom) and to give to others (free). Mahala is a perfect name for an imperfect project.
A week or so ago, Mahala Love applied for the Slow Food Negroni Week Fund grant. I will start by saying I love writing grants!. I love the freedom to let my mind wander through all the ideas Mahala Love and our partners discuss, the plans that have been created and then attempt to pare them down into manageable and logistically sound paths to be constrained within a specific set of funding goals. Perhaps, I am a bit of a nerd in that respect.
Once I have written a grant, I feel complete with the process. True, I occasionally check the email to see if there is any word, but I feel very satisfied with knowing that the path forward has been laid. The details have been thought through and I now know just what we need to make it happen. Perhaps we will be fortunate enough to receive the funding and can now focus simply on getting the work done. If not, I know we will move forward, it will just take longer to find the proper resources, and the phases will be slower or smaller. We will still plant a food forest, but will plant seeds and seedlings versus trees. We will still offer seeds to the families, and invite neighboring folks to our teaching garden, there will just be less varieties and offerings to start. But Mahala Love is focused and determined and know we will reach our goals to share in food security with our neighbors both here in the US and in South Africa.
Our partners in Limpopo, have also applied for the same grant. Themba has applied to further the progress of the seed bank and the efforts there to catalog, collect, and share seeds among the community. The two grants have some overlap in community and sharing of resources. Mahala Love staff will be attending the Seed Festival in September of this year and can’t wait to see and share more seeds with the folks in Limpopo.
So, as always, we welcome your prayers, good vibes, happy thoughts and ideas! And we will continue to work to make changes in our food systems and provide our neighbors and ourselves with healthy and nutrient dense food and build community in which to share it.
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The beginning of 2023 has brought many adventures – Getting married being one of them! I am so happy to introduce Sam to the picture here at Mahala Love, not to mention to my life all around! He is funny, organized, and loves to do projects. He is a great asset to ML!
We had a combination Mahala Love working trip and honeymoon in South Africa in March. Sam got the crash course in people, food, places and our projects there. Except for the fact that he is very tall and South African shovels are perilously short, it was a great fit!
Together, Sam and I worked on the Seed library with Themba in Limpopo (see that page), met with Cinderella to design the new permaculture garden at the beautiful new school location, (See ML-South Africa, Mpumalanga) and did a little touristy sight seeing.
The trip was fantastic and never long enough. But September will be here soon enough and we can continue our work there. In the meantime, those locations are in very competent hands and the work continues there while we continue to work here.
It’s been pointed out lately that I tend to be, “reductive.” I think that’s code for terse, curt, short or any number of other words meaning not only – “to the point,” but most likely, “ too to the point.” Perhaps it is true. I do like a good basic noun-verb combination to start a conversation, with a few adjectives thrown in because I’m Southern by raising. Examples, “pick up your shoes” – Southern version – “Pick up your stinking shoes.”
I think it is in ideas that I tend to be reductive as oppose to words though. What seems to be complicated issues to some people, I seem to think are more simple. If you’re lost, either metaphorically or literally, why flounder alone driving in circles? Pause and ask for directions. When everyone is getting on my nerves, pause, look in the mirror, there is the source.
Here we are in the most confusing times of near history, with a nonstop onslaught of verbiage coming at us nearly 24/7. I find this hard to take. I don’t know why the same story is reported on 73.65 times in a single day, with 18 points of view from 13 people that I can see as having no connection other than someone handed them a microphone and a makeup artist to pat the shine off of their nose. Wait, who is this and why do they have an opinion and where did they get those facts and are those really facts and why do I trust her opinion and who told him to have that opinion in the first place and have any of these people actually searched for a fact on their own or are they merely regurgitating the spew from social media that will keep them existing as a persona, as opposed to be erased if the unpopular view dare be brought in to the light as anything that might beworthyofevenlookingatbutthenwhatabout… You get my point. Does anyone else feel this way?
So, with all of that, I would like to get to my point. Times are strange, people are stranger. I probably don’t understand you, and you probably don’t understand me. But I can still love you, honor you by listening to what you believe, and know you are a person as worthy of your opinions and place on this earth as am I. As we navigate unknown, unprecedented waters, let’s grow together – whether it be community, flowers, food, a government responsive to the folks who elect them, let’s all try and remember that we are neighbors, friends, and family long before and long after the stress and politics and pandemics of the day are over. Let’s just be kind, and grow some stinking things, shall we?
Hi,
There are so many projects and people who are dedicated to making a positive change. I wanted to give you a few links to check out.
Stay tuned for some exciting news with Mahala Love and some upcoming projects we have on the horizon.
Enjoy!
Rodale Institute – on regenerative agriculture
Where to begin updating you on Herban Renewal – After a pretty productive lock-down period of installing gardens, trying a few hugelculture beds, testing aquaponics, setting up the vermiculture, getting our chickens set up and starting to lay, we did the next logical thing and decided to sell the Herban Renewal property in town! Yep.
However, after finding Buyers, then finding another property, things just didn’t go as planned. The house was packed into boxes, utilities were set to switch, many, many plans were made. Also, there were the way-too-many plants and seeds ordered and hatching eggs set to deliver, the sketches of raised beds and food forests, all in anticipation of a few acres and a couple of awesome out buildings, and then, on the final day, –(cue dramatic music) things…fell … apart.
You could say I was a bit shook, but I am a big believer that things work as they should. What has been unsettling is my lack of ability to decide if I wanted to stay put or move. The plants and hatching eggs arrived because I couldnt bring myself to cancel them. The plants made lovely gifts and egg hatching is always fun, even though I was not planning to have 30 plus chickens in my laundry room. But we hatched them because, well, because we could. There is nothing as fun as the anticipation and hearing those little eggs when they begin to peep. And the chicks are also delightful for about the first week. They continue to be delightful, but their odor inside your home – not so much.
Now here we are at the beginning of fall and we continue to live in our home and it’s still not for sale. So I am publicly declaring – I’m going to stay put!! Let fall planting begin.
After a crazy year, it’s time to update our projects and thoughts in MahalaLove! I thought I would start by re-posting this blog, which is the basis for all that we do. I would love to hear your thoughts.
The word regenerative kept popping up, as things will do when something resonates with you. I was telling my kid’s dad that my goal has always been to create a regenerative home and life for our family. He asked me to explain and here is part of my reply.
Regenerative- practices that create abundance; Actions and thoughts that leave you full rather than depleted, Time spent rejuvenating energy, mind, and soul. Time spent with family developing bonds, ideas, and support. Creating a place where people can develop their next level thinking and plan their futures based on their hearts, not on needing to chase the dollar.
The whole permaculture design concept is about this. Permaculture is not just about how to plant a garden, it is about using regenerative practices in your life, for the benefit of yourself, others and the planet. Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share – in…
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The word regenerative kept popping up, as things will do when something resonates with you. I was telling my kid’s dad that my goal has always been to create a regenerative home and life for our family. He asked me to explain and here is part of my reply.
Regenerative- practices that create abundance; Actions and thoughts that leave you full rather than depleted, Time spent rejuvenating energy, mind, and soul. Time spent with family developing bonds, ideas, and support. Creating a place where people can develop their next level thinking and plan their futures based on their hearts, not on needing to chase the dollar.
The whole permaculture design concept is about this. Permaculture is not just about how to plant a garden, it is about using regenerative practices in your life, for the benefit of yourself, others and the planet. Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share – in its simplest terms.
It’s a systemic design process using natural patterns and rhythms to create abundance- food, joy, community, habitat.
It is definitely taking some stretching in my mind to move these ideas from the garden into daily life, and it’s a process I have barely consciously tapped, as of yet. But as the word, “regenerative” continues to resonate with me, I will continue to bring it into the daily life of myself, my family, and my community.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you do this? What are ways you see to be regenerative in your relationships with others and the planet? 😊
— “A practical revolution,” I read this phrase recently on Morag Gamble’s bio page. If you are not familiar with her, I highly recommend you spend some time reading, perusing, breathing in all of her wisdom. Her topic of education and her way of life are permaculture.
The current climate of covid-19, and the civil unrest and racial tension in America has given me pause to reexamine my beliefs. In my past, I have marched, made signs, taken my younger daughter to the Women’s March in DC. I have grown food organically since I was a young adult, lived off grid, etc. Recently one of my children asked me when I had gotten, “so conservative.” I was quietly taken aback to think I could be construed as conservative. Since that conversation, I have been considering whether I have become more conservative in my beliefs, after all I am now a woman of 53. People often appear to give up the fight as they age. I feel I have not. What I do feel is that I have grown more impatient with the restating of problems. I want to say “yes, but…” In the current climate of hurt, anger and discord, “Yes, but” is only heard as “I disagree with you and therefore I am part of the problem.”
Don’t get me wrong, I fully admit I am part of the problem. I am imperfect, I am human, I am short sighted and impatient. I also put forth the idea that being unable to hear the other side — and that goes for any side —, is part of the problem. I don’t pretend that it is easy to attempt to “truly hear” what seems to be a conflicting opinion, especially when these issues are so real and charged with history and disrespect, and when some opinions just seem downright hateful and wrong.
It is hard. It is hard to hear past someone’s words, posture and tone to find their real meaning.
However, trying to hear beyond rhetoric, beyond the language that is not as currently politically correct as we might like—, I feel that is where the meeting of each other and the healing begins. And even more importantly, that is where the solutions begin to emerge.
I think it is worth repeating: It is hard. It is hard to hear past someone’s words, posture, and tone to find their meaning.
So, I don’t feel I have become more conservative with age, but that I am more interested in a peaceful solution. I am not one who enjoys rehashing a problem over and over. I much prefer to acknowledge that there is a problem and move on to see what peaceful, kind, and productive action can be taken going forward. I fail to see where burning, shooting, beating, hating, or name calling ever did much to promote peace, harmony, or growth among people.
And to take my own advice, I have to be willing to listen to people that chose these methods, to see if there is a way I can understand how they might think these methods do promote a solution to the problem we are trying to solve. Granted, some folks are simply frustrated/angry/hurt and that is what they are trying to solve with their actions. I hope and pray these methods will soon cease and then we, as neighbors, can begin to move forward and solve some of our problems.
But wait, this is a blog on a food growing site, you say! What’s the connection? Food is about community. Food is about health. Food is about a solution to release people from dependence. Growing food allows people to contribute to the health and well-being of their families, their communities, and the planet. In essence, it is “a practical revolution.”
Teaching and supporting food self-sufficiency is one of the main goals of Mahala Love and the primary focus of Herban Renewal. Learning to grow in ways that regenerate our bodies, souls, and planet is truly a practical revolution well worth pursuing.
And on that note, I invite you to join our practical revolution, where we can learn and grow together. Come speak your truth, listen to others, and be heard yourself. Bring an open heart and mind, a pair of hands, and the willingness to get a little dirty along the way. Then, we can move forward as a community, planting new seeds and watching them grow into something that will nourish bodies, minds, and souls.
Mahala Love 