Greetings Dear Friends,

My intention in creating this website is to tell the story of my work in our community and give thanks to the living world that brought these projects to life. May this online space be a source of inspiration to you, providing resources and guidance to joyfully participate in the regeneration of flourishing life on our planet and in your community.

There are many reasons to start a garden. To have food and medicine outside your door is a gift, but the greatest gift comes when we allow the living world not just onto our land, but into our hearts. The garden is a place to remember. 

Somewhere along the way I forgot. For much of my early life my attention was focused on the world of human things. I grew up in a busy, tropical urban environment with very little awareness of the more-than-human world. I heard a phrase a while back that clicked – plant blindness. That was me. Blind to the beauty of the living world surrounding me at every moment yet hidden by the dominant story of the anthropocene.

This inability to see began to weigh on me, without my knowing at first, then gradually building, making its presence deeply known and felt. In my 20th year of life I experienced my first real taste of darkness, and found myself struggling to find a reason to continue living.

There are many words to describe what I experienced. I know I am not alone in this feeling. It is often called depression, anxiety, despair. But the phrase that rings most true is one from philosopher Charles Eisenstein, “mutiny of the soul”. Without my knowing at the time, an initiation process had begun to help me reassess the story of separation that kept me from fully feeling a part of life on our planet. An invitation was laid before me to remember what it means to be fully alive and grateful for the gift of being here. 

Today I am often asked the question of how I came to be the way I am. How I came to love what I love and share what I have come to know with such excitement, appreciation, and genuine amazement. My answer is through the connection and reciprocity I feel with the living world.

Many are afraid and confused at this time, not sure what to do, where to go, how to heal the deep separation mirrored from within us onto our collapsing communities and biosphere. There is an underlying feeling of hopelessness regarding the state of things, both interpersonal and in our rapidly changing climate. There is much to be disenchanted by in our world at this time. But alongside it is great beauty and joy to be felt and received.

I am here to connect the dots and help us remember. To guide you to the plant already growing in your backyard you didn’t know held medicine, to show you life’s magnificent patterns playing out on your place, teach you how to catch and store energy streaming into your site to create abundance, lends tools and tips in the design process, and be a friend amidst our inner and outer regeneration process.

One of the great invitations of our time is that of regenerating both land and heart. If it feels like too much at times, if you aren’t sure where to begin, remember - you have everything you already need in this very moment. All can be done from right where you are. No need to travel far, you are already there. I am simply here to provide what Thich Nhat Hanh describes as “fresh eyes”. In order to see, we look. And when we look with clear eyes and hearts, we can’t help but fall in love. 

When this love enters you, the love of the living world and the shedding of the story that caused you to believe you were separate from it, an opening occurs. When you open to these gifts you gain a place for you and those around you to observe what is really happening on our planet, and to remember who and what we really are. It requires little effort, there is a term in Zen Buddhism to describe it – wu wei. “Doing without doing”. By allowing the “weed” to grow you find it contains just the medicine you need.

My invitation to you is to open a space, whatever that may be - backyard, side ally, city swale, open lot, inner landscape – to living systems, and witness the gifts that arise from this action of great trust and reciprocity.

Love,

Megan Kelley

New River Homestead

Spring 2021

Megan is teaching permaculture design certifications and regenerative gardening courses in her community, creating and caring for three communal food forests - Monarch, Atala, and Longwing - with the Monarch 4H Club of Flagler Village, designing and installing tropical edible gardens in backyards across the city with ThriveLot, tending to the newly planted food forest garden at the Museum of Discovery and Science, and enjoying the gifts of her homestead on the New River.