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snail city

by claire | Feb 16, 2019 | 0 comments

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letsbuildanark

letsbuildanark
We are the earth. Made from her body, we go back We are the earth. 
Made from her body, we go back into it when we pass. 
This time of disconnection has not served us well. 
All the solutions exist, in our hearts, in the earth body.
There are no solutions to this crisis in a laboratory, in the destructive economic systems we have created. 
The only solution involves turning towards a simple life. One where we restore those broken connections on all levels. Restoring communities, living soil, drinkable rivers, abundant seas, thriving ecosystems, sweet clean air. 
The only solution starts at home. 
Whether it’s a garden, a community garden, a window box or a balcony, start today by offering it back to nature. Pour your love into the wild native plants and creatures that find refuge there. This is how you start to restore your own connection with the earth. 
This is how we must all begin the work of restoration of life. Of hope. 
At home. 
www.wearetheark.org
No tree is an island. Without a community of supp No tree is an island. 
Without a community of support around us, life can be hard. We can survive but we cannot thrive as easily.  Plants are the same. They need their families around them, their communities, their webs of life. They are missing the creatures they have evolved to co-exist with. 
We are missing them too. 
It’s lonely without our shared Kin. The magical web of life we seem to have forgotten. It’s dangerously quiet out here. The rivers are eerily quiet. The seas are heavy with plastic. The earth is tired and scarred from being cut open so often. The sweet air has lost its vibrance. 
Do what you can. 
Grow some food. 
Give the rest of your patch of this planet back to her. 
Be an Act of Restorative Kindness to the earth.
Instagram post 17926849328228266 Instagram post 17926849328228266
Great article by Catherine Cleary in the Times tod Great article by Catherine Cleary in the Times today.
Extract “In 2018 Reynolds founded We Are The Ark, to guide people to return gardens to nature to combat biodiversity loss. Her website gives a simple how-to for anyone who wants to build a natural haven which will sustain itself. A key step is to put up a sign “This is an ark” to explain what some may see as a messy place.
Reynolds’ mission is to persuade people of our innate “ability to connect with nature, with land and with creatures. We seem to think we are completely separate.”
“I know that I’d be considered a complete lunatic in many ways but I’m very sure that the future is what I do. If you want to save the planet you have to start with your own patch … we have to stop imposing our view of what should be in the ground on top of the earth. We have to let her decide.”
Creating an ark is dependent on how much damage the soil has undergone. “It definitely can need a lot of help. Sometimes the damage is so profound that we have to restore it as much as we can.”
Central to the idea is providing “as many different layers of habitat as you can within the space you have”. In “arking”, as Reynolds call it, humans step in to be the creatures like wolves and deer that balance a habitat. Larger spaces can accommodate multiple habitats: scrubby areas where brambles are allowed to spread into “native thorny thickets”. A pond can be a bowl of water with some oxygenating plants in it. Dead hedges, piles of logs can provide places of sanctuary. Holes in boundaries between gardens, fences replaced with hedgerows.
“How amazing Ireland would be if we were covered in our own plants, if we didn’t decide to import things that were pretty?” Reynolds asks. “How do we think we always need to be like someone else?”
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All photos © Mary Reynolds & Claire Leadbitter unless otherwise credited. All artwork © Ruth Evans. Privacy Policy. Contact hello@wearetheark.org.