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GUEST COMMENTARY

Petalumans: Answer the call to egg

Published: Thursday, Apr 17, 2008

By TRATHEN HECKMAN

There has never been a time when our choices have mattered more. We live in an age of unprecedented crises with rapid temperature rise, planet-wide ecosystem decline, mass extinction and a long list of painful realities, not to mention rising costs and a sinking economy. We also live in a time where in each community across this planet people are responding to these challenges with amazing, hopeful solutions. In a sense, every day there is a world being born and one that is rapidly unraveling. Can you recognize the difference in your grocery cart, neighborhood and mode of transport? Which world do your actions support?

Imagine walking out your door into a lush edible landscape that feeds your senses, your family, your neighbors and world. It saves money, water and global warming emissions while creating a backyard ecosystem that reconnects you to nature. Planetary problems such as climate change, topsoil loss, water shortages and the collapse of fish, bee and songbird populations are enormous and also solvable in our households, gardens and communities. The simple act of eating a homegrown salad sprinkled with bright flowers and juicy tomatoes still warm from the summer sun is an act of superhero proportions. Especially when you realize the amount of oil, chemicals and water it took to grow, fertilize, package and transport your lunch from thousands of miles away.

There is amazing overlooked potential in our undervalued spaces. When I look around our gardens, homes and lives, I see nothing but opportunity. When I walk down the street, I don’t see resource-intensive lawns and landscapes. I see victory gardens full of food, medicine, habitat and beauty. Gardens fed by rainwater and graywater systems that grow trees that feed us and produce shade that cools our houses, saves money, energy and our children’s future. I see neighborhoods becoming communities in a deeper self-reliant sense. I see people inspired and engaged by discovering the importance of how their choices and lives matter. I see Petaluma as the re-crowned “Egg Capital of the World” with countless city chickens feeding families and friends as they fertilize our gardens and provide free organic pest control.

But that’s just me. What do you see? When you step outside of life's struggles and distractions, what do you believe is possible? Will you answer the call to egg? Could the immense problems of our world and challenges of our community actually be an amazing opportunity to get clear about what matters, to take heart and take action?

On a recent Saturday collaboration between Daily Acts and Common Vision, we planted four backyard orchards in a matter of hours with the vast and positive powers of community aligned in care and celebration. The day before, I nibbled delectable edible petals of beautiful multi-beneficial flowers with 45 inspired Casa Grande students and staff in a front yard that was recently a lawn, before it was buried under 50-plus plant varieties of food, medicine and wonder. Now, instead of sucking up chemicals, water and money, our yard feeds and inspires neighbors, strangers and friends with leeks, greens and 5-pound waist-high beets growing at sidewalk’s edge. Pending city approval, we will install a graywater system at a May 10 workshop, so thousands of gallons of useable water can feed trees that feed us instead of being piped to the street. And this isn’t just one household; Daily Acts is starting a program to create such homescale models.

Already, engaged households across Petaluma are growing food, greening up and living inspired. Petaluma Bounty is planting community gardens. John Crowley and collaborators are helping reweave our social fabric. We have amazing eco-visionaries and leaders like Ned Orrett, George Beeler, Petaluma Green Team and many others who can see us through the difficulties ahead — if we act now. Why not a community in which we turn large problems into elegant and tasty soulutions? Will you rise above your struggles and distractions to make a better world and community happen? Will you answer the call to egg?

(Petaluma resident Trathen Heckman is the director of the Daily Acts organization, director of Green Sangha and publisher of Ripples Journal. To find out about upcoming sustainability tours and workshops, call 789-9664 or go to www.daily-acts.org or www.greensangha.org)