It is the responsibility of the abbot or prioress to have great concern and to act with all speed, discernment, and diligence...they should realize they have undertaken care of the sick, not tyranny over the healthy.

~Rule of Benedict

At the turn of the 20th century, industrialization greatly impacted farming practices, as it did on most everything in the Western world. Big machines, fast~acting chemicals and the tyranny of the urgent replaced the slow and steady agrarian practices of the past. Over a hundred years later, we can assess the damage many of these advances have inflicted on farmland, prairies, forests, watersheds and the climate. Now, we must decide: how shall we live in the face of this harm?

This is where being a follower of a resurrected Christ helps. We are Easter people. We believe in the transfiguration of what is. In the face of death and destruction, we don’t have to start from scratch; we just need to transform what we already have. This is where regenerative agrarian practices come into the picture. Regenerative agriculture focuses on soil health, striving to work with creation rather than against it. It seeks to work backward, undoing harm by adding back and allowing what has been stripped away to flourish. We must find ways to let the land we have rest, restore and heal. We must nurture it as we nurture a tired toddler with snacks and a long nap. And we must do the same for each other.

Jesus commands us to love God with our whole hearts and to love our neighbor—and I believe this includes our neighbor soil. And yet, we don’t love ourselves well. We push and demand and extract work and exhaustion from everyone, ourselves included. If we let the soil rest, we will also have to rest ourselves. We are going to have to allow our neighbor to rest. We will have to shift our mindset of what success looks like, away from productivity and toward a rest~based flourishing.

For Reflection

Who or what in your life or community needs to rest? Is it a habit, a person or a program? Who or what needs to be allowed to stop so that regeneration can begin its holy work?

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