Stand & Stare;By: Uliyaa

Our youngsters are thinkin very critically, here is a writeup by Tamkanat e Uliyaa, giving me a deep feel of satisfaction. Editor

“Listening in wild places, we’re audience to conversations in a language not our own. “Just read it somewhere. Damn. This is good.

Beyond nature I’m thinking this applies to all areas of life. Even when we do speak the same language, we don’t always listen as if it’s something new. I mean one needs to practice on” How can i listen in a way that invites a different way and level of sharing and conveyance”. We have been experiencing this quietude thing for a while so massively that now no one really talks. I mean phrases like” things I would like to talk about ” are uncommon now. I mean I being a 19 year old girl from a pure rural setup wants to talk about so many things. I want to be part and core source of a work, where local farms can do and create more conscious and personal relationship with the food we eat. Because at the end of the day, I believe it all boils down to four simple questions.

What are you creating?

Why are you creating?

How does it helps the world?

And, how does it fuel you? Amidst of ongoing world matters either it’s medicinal, scientific or with respect to marketing and business, one thing that made its way cut and clear is – that we need to be capable of looking at things  on the whole  from a splashing perspective. We need to accept the fact that not everything’s going to be a firm answer. Humans in general don’t respond to such matters and people in marketing know that really well. They know that we tend to respond to authoritative things and absolute answers. Things like “what you do to be cohesive with this earth?” Might seem like a silly question. A question that makes a major shift but one which goes by so unnoticed. Why not talk about tenable alternatives to modern day consumerism.

I personally come from a family of plant lovers and stewards who’ve been agronomists and caretakers of lands all their lives and its things like – permaculture, food forests and food autonomy that are a part of who i am. The terms like regenerative farming and sustainability – I’ve been exposed to them in early stages of my life. Which is to say that  there are some real issues on our plate  that needs to be served, issues like individual engagement in food sourcing can solve the global nutrient crisis, and probably help the planet. Truth be told, no one’s really ready to talk the talk. To make the cut. It’s the put -your – head – down and don’t even budge kind of a situation right now. I still remember, in our house my grandma has this keenness for the fact that everyone’s being a 5 time offeror of prayers and if not then not to interfere but she got her own pretty ways of letting things done since the beginning. So although adults had every valid reason to be punctual for the prayers but for the younger ones of the house like me and my siblings or cousins – even us were not spared which is to say, while offering her prayer if she saw even one of us crawling around, she used to grab us from our waist and place us in her lap and the minute she bows down, automatically bowed us also down, implying us into a manner of a prayer. That’s how she incorporated us into the habit of being not only punctual for prayers but also for various other phenomena of life. Now this was never a manner in which she verbally taught us something but a language of measures up to the minute yet having a sense of familiarity in it that conveyed itself to us in a spectacular way.

So the whole purpose of sharing this snippet from my childhood life is to state the fact that there can be clarity in silence, even when the noise is really loud. Look up from your digital screens, have conversations, agree and disagree, gain perspective. Some spoon-fed information through some algorithms and curated media outlets cannot hide the mere fact that there’s a lot more to this world that needs unravelling. We think we’re so worldly  because we can connect with the world through some digital smart devices but we can’t learn and expand through these devices alone. Sometimes it’s shutting the damn digital screens for a while and doing the real talk with your parents, adults and whoever you think might serve you with the possible answers to the complexities we are facing  right now. And then you’ll be able to refer to the fact that shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. At the end these absolute words by W. H Davies written in 1911 will be enough to articulate the notion of slowing down, minimizing and scaling back to real things. 

” What is this life if, full of care,  We have no time to stand and stare?