Editor,
When I first became an avid biodiversity-focused gardener, solace came from knowing that my backyard could be a source of life and inspiration. It gave me a bit of power back to help drown out the daily stories of climate change, invasive insects, oil spills, melting glaciers, wildfires, flash floods and landslides.
However much the eco-centric gardens we designed helped alleviate this sense of loss for the planet, it ultimately wasn’t fulfilling. We are all participants in the game of pleasure and pain being played out by multinational corporations and government leaders. They have powers over our health and wellbeing.
When New Year’s resolution time came last month, it felt futile to pledge another gesture of environmental stewardship. The garden I had cultivated and nurtured had to be replaced with energy-sucking turf grass sod that needs treated water, oil, gas, sprinkler system, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides to maintain its monoculture appeal. All the earthworms were buried in a carpet of green artificialness, and so were my hopes for change.
I booked a flight to Guatemala to reside in an ashram for five weeks. Feeling helpless to bring lasting change in the environment, I decided to make a tapas to learn the skill of Hatha Yoga and practice a purification lifestyle that includes a vegan diet with many other practices. When making a tapas, we identify a weakness or obstacle that holds us back from being our best self and are bound to take it seriously.
I am at the Mahadevi Ashram near San Marcos on Lake Atitlan, surrounded by volcanoes. Permaculture lifestyles and yogis loom large in the landscape. All the food we eat is grown by permaculture farms where people make a living without chemical use and wasteful use of resources.
I considered how similar this enclave is to Eureka Springs. We have Beaver Lake and several large rivers and small springs. We have a forest with many birds in Guatemala, like ruby throated hummingbirds, spending summers in the Ozarks.
Mindfulness workshops, alternative therapies, yoga, spirituality practices, organic and ethically grown food restaurants, music and books, meditation classes and healing workshops fit very well with the eight limbs of yoga that teach us to love and care for everyone, including ourselves, and most definitely for the planet and all things living on the planet.
Susan Pang