2/20/2026
Roots in the Ground
Last week I was getting acupuncture (from Najah A. Salaam), an absolutely AMAZING human and healer!), and she asked me if there is anything in my life that I feel like is nearing completion or completed…That was a question out of left field for me; in farming there is no end, it’s always a cycle of sprouting and harvesting, decomposing and renewal.
But the more I thought about it, I realized that it really does feel like the farm (aka my life) is at the point where we are no longer able to grow everything by ourselves.
This is, of course, all a wonderful thing. If anything because Christian and I can blame other people for anything going wrong. JK JK! But really, this is the progress we want, and I think acknowledging that we are no longer doing it ourselves is a really important step to moving forward.
It is very easy, if you can imagine, to still hold on too tight to tasks that someone else can do, and to not open our minds to what is possible now that we have help.
So with the help of Najah’s prompting, we are closing that chapter in our lives. And to celebrate, I wrote a poem. I hope you enjoy!
Keep The Roots in the Ground
Keep the roots in the ground,
Is what we always say,
when we harvest a row
and plant something new the next day
Roots in the ground
People assume we are wrong
Shouldn’t we pull the whole plant,
and leave a soft mound?
When we started the farm,
There was barely a mouse,
Just the two of us, a shovel,
In a tent as a house
We had full support
From our friends and our family
But at the end of the day
It was our blood and sweat on our dirty laundry
It was your Tia Ralph
who would always say
“little by little”
When she would see us down and need to remind us to giggle
We wanted to grow faster,
to always be right
We wanted to plant seeds and see them turn out alright
Now we are nowhere near perfect
And that’s no longer the goal
We are just 5 years older
planting into the same tiny holes
But the soil is building,
And so are we
It’s time to harvest
And plant the next seed
