*Support Aaron Perry’s Book! Aaron is an old buddy of Waylon’s and he’s doing super cool work to make the planet a better place. Please check out his project. 

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When was the last time you had a sexy encounter in the garden or near the compost pile?

Or a delightful afternoon with your family playing with soil, plants, compost, and water while being bathed in warm sunshine?

Friends, I am excited to exclaim that the time is nigh!

Fresh off the 14th annual AREDAY (American Renewable Energy Day) conference here in Colorado, I am flowing with enthusiasm for the cultural transformation that is underway. We are on the frontier of an amazing awakening, one that is bringing us back to our roots while simultaneously expanding our mental and spiritual lives.

It’s fun, sexy, joy-filled, and absolutely, contagiously awe-inspiring!

And it’s about soil.

Soil is the chalice, the vessel from which life-energy flows to our bodies in the form of food, and through which we are connected to all of the elemental, cosmic, and biospheric energy that animates life on Earth.

Soil is life: Yours and mine. It is life for everybody we know. Every person alive right now. And every person who has ever lived.

What is going on with soil today?

We have been waging a global chemical warfare on soil (and people) since the World Wars. We have depleted and released billions of tons of previously soil-bound carbon into the atmosphere—exacerbating the climate-changing feedback loops set off by our relentless fossil-fuel burning.

We need to rapidly transition to renewable energy—solar, as opposed to ancient and stored. And we also need to rapidly build and restore soils the world over: farmlands, grasslands, forests, and yes, even our own yards and neighborhoods.

When we build soil, the complex communities of microbes (each handful of living soil has billions upon billions of organisms—each handful!) breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil. This is known as “sequestration”—a big, fancy word that means depositing and storing something in a designated place. In this case, it’s depositing and storing carbon from the atmosphere in soil. The primary and essential task of our generation is to reverse climate change through these sequestering techniques.

It is time to build soil!

This means composting, creating gardens, and enhancing landscapes and farmscapes with organic inputs that regenerate, stimulate, and enhance the microbiome of soil. And each of us can do this—right in our own homes, wherever we happen to live right now.

I was at my friend’s farm, Sustainable Settings, the other day outside Carbondale, Colorado, and I enjoyed walking around the land with Brook Le Van. And during my visit, I had my mind blown wide open! Through the advanced organic techniques known as Biodynamic Farming (created by Rudolf Steiner as a way to combat toxic pollution in the early 20th Century), Brook, his wife Rose, and their team have stimulated the micro-ecology in their soils to such an extent that they now have 10 to 11 percent organic matter in their soil.

To put this miracle into context, many mainstream organic farmers are striving to hit two to three percent, and agro-chemical conventional farms often deplete their soils down to near zero percent living organic content.

This truly is miraculous—and, it’s a type of miracle we can each cultivate in our own home, neighborhood, and community. Not only does this joy-filled work with soil benefit our global climate and biosphere, it also benefits us individually, and in powerful ways.

When we interact physically with living soil, the microbes stimulate our own bodies to produce more serotonin, the natural, mood-regulating “feel good” neurotransmitter that is a sure way to mitigate stress, anxiety, exhaustion, or even a simple bad mood. When we cultivate soil and grow organic fruit and vegetables in it—and eat them fresh off the vine or just plucked from the ground—they deliver veritable nutrient bombs to our bodies and minds.

Not only is this miraculous, it’s sexy as hell!

My new friend, Phoebe Loyd, has launched a whole campaign linking sustainability with sexy culture, called Bare Change, that is emphasizing just that: the sexy, earthy, beautiful, delightful aspects of cultivating a culture of sustainability together.

This is the culture we’re creating together!

Imagine communities all over the land—perhaps at a craft brew pub, a church, or a garden center—engaging in celebration and in the joyful action of soil-building together. Couples nourishing their partnerships and marriages while doing the same for the earth. Parents and children cultivating all manner of life-enhancing, immunity-boosting, ADHD-mitigating, and sunshine-soaking joy together. And for the single among us…what a sexy, wholesome, playful way to make a special connection with someone new.

All of this is right at our fingertips. Imagine creating a sustainable world together as we cultivate soil, have fun, flirt, celebrate, and rejoice in the miracle that is life on our only, sacred planet Earth.

I envision a world with soil sanctuaries all over—in cities, suburbs, and rural communities. I don’t know about you, but as hundreds and thousands more people engage in this essential project and delight in this amazing lifestyle, it’s a party I don’t want to miss!

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Author: Aaron William Perry
Image: Pexels
Editor: Catherine Monkman
Copy Editor: Callie Rushton
Social Editor: Callie Rushton