Covid & Compromise
What is your stance on covid? How has it effected you and your life? How has it forced you to compromise? Has it challenged relationships with differing opinions? Has in confused you with its many protocols while forcing you to make difficult decisions?
It’s put a harsh stop to a lot of important things in my life and I’m certainly tired of it. I blame covid for my mental break down in October of 2021. The pressure of the decisions it led me to was immeasurable. I had a covid pregnancy, did you know there’s an increase in maternal and post-partum depression because of Covid? I know this now, because I was one of the many that struggled with a PMAD. A Perinatal mood and anxiety disorder will stop you in your tracks. It will make you believe things about yourself that aren’t real or true. I believed I failed at being a mother to my children because they were stuck at home schooling virtually. I believed I failed at farming because I only could do so much as a pregnant mother. I believed I failed my pregnancy because I was so sick with Hyperemesis that I could barely function. It was all just too much.
In group therapy I learned about reframing. It’s when you take a negative or destructive thought and rearrange your mindset about it. Perhaps you’re catastrophizing about the worst possible scenario or playing out false scenarios in your head. Maybe you’re someone who jumps to conclusions about what is going to happen. Because we have all been challenged by this pandemic. When I reframe my mindset about covid I realize that it motivated us to create this farm. My oasis. It gave me the time to cook for my baby Juniper who ironically now has covid. That’s right… It finally crept its way into our home. And though we’re making the best of our time doing regenerative things like preparing new workspaces and planting areas, it’s hard to not feel defeated by the implications of the timing. See, we’re supposed to get married next week and this is the third time we have rescheduled due to covid. Not only has this virus taken my businesses and turned it upside down, my wedding, and now my sweet baby is struggling with it.
With reframing, we can see the grace we’ve been given. We’ve not lost a loved one or suffered the repercussions of lasting health issues that so many endure. I wanted to share the good things today. The progress we made. Because good things grow in all sorts of soil. But better things grow in aerated soil. So while we’re busy making difficult decisions, we decided to broad fork. Breaking up the soil is important in no till farming, to a certain extent. Tilling breaks down long term stored carbon in the soil which is beneficial to micro organisms. Ironic to our current home health scenario, micro organisms are essential to a balanced ecology. Before laying cardboard, compost, and soil, we break up the land and offer it a little oxygen and decompaction with the broadfork.
