I picked an image of my barn in the middle of winter last year. I live in Western Massachusetts, so our winters are much worse than here. I live in the middle of nowhere, so when we get snowed in like this we are unable to get to a grocery store for multiple days. This also means we do a lot of activities relating to nature. For example, we cut all of our own wood and heat our house with a wood stove. Living on a farm, we tend to a variety of animals, who graze and fertilize the ground. Reading Barbara Kingsolver’s description of her walking up the driveway made me feel quite nostalgic, as she experienced many of the same things I do. This has given me a personal connection to the environment and weather that feels fairly unique. I’ve lived there most of my life, resulting in many memories and feelings associated with the wilderness.
The importance of this concept can be analyzed all throughout ecofeminist theory. Ecofeminist theorists believe that the connections that humans have with nature is important, and is influenced by a variety of factors. For example, in Terry Tempest Williams’ Homework, she defines the bedrock of democracy, and in her definition he states,”in each of these places, home work is required, a participation in public life to make certain all is not destroyed under the banner of progress.” (Williams, 19) This idea, of the bedrock of democracy, works really well in my personal relationship with the planet through my home. We do a lot of work to keep ourselves warm and alive that really connects us with the planet, and the environment around us. This idea immediately plays into Barbra Kingslover’s Small Wonder, where she discusses the importance of the ‘wildness’. She states that, “What we lose in our great human exodus from the land is a rooted sense, as deep and intangible as religious faith, of why we need to hold on to the wild and beautiful places that once surrounded us.” Wildness as a concept has an indescribable value. Each person has their own relationship to the environment that is reflected in our own pasts. Something about the connection we hold to the planet as ecofeminists keeps the value of the environment high, and that helps us keep the connection we have with it.
Being connected to nature makes us feel like we are part of a community. The connection that we get with the Earth can be strengthened through the work that we do with the environment, which is an important principle to ecofeminism, that there should be a balance between nature and humanity. Again I feel myself sympathizing with Barbara Kingsolver, as in her conclusion she struggles to describe why we need wilderness as much as we do, but I believe that bellhooks put it best in Touching The Earth, as she states her thesis, that, ”When we love the Earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully.” (bellhooks, 363)
I really enjoy your picture and I can definitely imagine you doing a lot of activities relating to nature in a snowstorm. I remember a couple years ago there was a blizzard that hit my town really bad especially because I live on a very small peninsula. We lost power for more than 24 hours. We used candles for light at night but spent the day shoveling and playing in the snow, you know trying to make the best of an unfortunate situation. I feel like during this time like in the winter people may feel more connected to nature. I can imagine that living life on a farm would give you a very strong connection to nature, rather than someone who lives in the middle of a busy city. Especially during the cold winter when you had to use your own wood to provide heat. This is a great example of showing how we rely on wildness. Many people often take advantage of nature and do not realize how much we rely on it. I am sure it would be a huge reality check to many people if they lost electricity for a long period of time and needed to use their own resources to heat their homes in order to survive. I think it is a really special thing that everyone has their own history and ties to a certain place. As well as their own way of connecting with nature. I think in order to keep our environments healthy we need to be more vigilant of our actions. We also need to have consideration for places we are visiting, places where other people consider their place, where their story takes place. I believe once we start acknowledging the problems with our environment we can begin coming together to embrace nature as well as take better care of it. It is very clear that we need wilderness but we could say it may need us because humans have caused a lot of damage to it. It is important we change our actions before more permanent, irreversible damage is done.
I would really love to be at places like yours and get a chance to live there because I love such places. I think they have an adventure built in. Most important one or what I think is, is to face survival challenges. “Mother Earth”, this word is most powerful than it sounds. Mother is a being which can do anything for her children no matter how much her children hurts her. Similarly, our mother Earth provides us with everything despite our neglect towards her. But we should remember one thing, everything has a limit. A mother can give her best till she has the ability to, once it’s no more there would be nothing left to give. Same is the case with Earth, there’s a limit for Earth to give and now it’s coming to it’s end.
According to a blog by Camila Ruz, she described six natural resources drained by 7 billion people.
1. Water
2. Oil
3. Natural gas
4. coal
5. Phosphorous
6. Rare Earth elements.
After going through these six things the most funniest for me was the sixth one. The name it self has rare in it, means not abundant and that also is drained by us.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/oct/31/six-natural-resources-population
I think we should start taking responsibility for our actions because it’s not long that our basic need of survival will be no more.
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