Copyright © 2020 by Imani Mamalution All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, address: [email protected] First paperback edition May 2020 Book design by Imani Mamalution and Scott Anderson ISBN 978-1-7344871-0-7 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-7344871-1-4 (ebook) www.mamalution.com The Absence/Presence of Soil This book is dedicated to my tribe of daughter and all future generations. by Imani Mamalution Time is runningOne out for us.Mother’s Mother Earth is calling us her children.Plea Can you hear her prayers? I hear her cries rippling in the cracking glaciers, rising waters to wash away our wounds, purging the poison we have inflicted upon ourselves and her as cells in her body. I wonder why so many of us, mothers ourselves, are deaf to her pleas. Is it because we have been trained to ignore our own feminine wisdom? We birth our babies in hospitals while numbing ourselves and them to the sacred experience of birth. We separate ourselves from our children and then are dismayed by the detached, self-absorbed culture that results. We enjoy the benefits of modern conveniences to an excess, feeding our kids fast food because we have no time, then rationalizing our behaviors to avoid feeling guilty. We know deep down that genetically modified foods, synthetic additives and artificial flavorings are not healthy. We feel it in our bones and taste the toxic residue on our tongues as on the body of Mother Earth. If only we would listen to those inner voices. If only we would hear their pleas, Her pleas. Instead, we numb ourselves with caffeine, sugar, and medications. Our collective ignorance, apathy and greed have led to global devastation in the last 100 years. We have become addicted to our search for pleasure, oblivious to the cost. What momentum has the women’s rights movement gained during this past century if the result has been a society that is consumed with consuming, distracted by calculated marketing tactics and manipulated by distorted realities? Have we bought the idea of the power of the feminine as something other than what it actually is? Some of us rebelled, birthing and schooling our babies at home, breastfeeding them past the age of three, refusing vaccinations, growing our local economies and eating real food. We know we have the ability to shape our reality with our intentions alone. But, what reality are we buying into exactly? The emerging movement has lacked a feminine voice. Women have adopted masculine thinking because we have been led to believe it was the only way to progress. To discern truth in hidden agendas deliberately hatched to confuse us in days past is enormously challenging to this day. We got caught in a vicious cycle. Corporations, or what we can now call out as the cabal, are dependent on us as consumers to keep buying, so they come up with endless ways to convince us to shop ‘til we drop. Women are the largest population of consumers. We are shaping our future world with our purchases. It is up to us to recognize how powerful we really are. Were we to own our power fully, we could shut down corporate America, reinvent our economy and dismantle our government in one fell swoop, all while teaching our children what is really important. This is the Mamalution Call To Action! Tap into your feminine intuition and save the day! Those of us raising children during this critical time have a responsibility and an obligation to show them new ways of living. We can teach our children how to adapt, to 4 be flexible and to be strong in body, mind and spirit. We can conserve, share and prepare. We can develop a willingness to look at our personal “footprints” and “mindsets” and begin to live our lives differently. Move through fear to the other side without becoming paralyzed, immobilized or tranquilized. Show your children you are powerful by demanding change from our political leaders and using your consumer dollars to support businesses that are operating in sustainable and ethical ways. Money speaks and companies listen to every vote we cast when we shop. Do not compromise your values for the illusion of comfort. Live your life from a place of integrity. Share your insights, inspiration and information with everyone around you. Every day is an opportunity to discover, uncover and try something new. We are the voices for Mother Earth, for an earth that is abundant, life-giving and sustainable, not scarce, depriving and elite. Mother Earth is birthing a new paradigm. Let’s dream the possible together and take action to weave a new reality. Women, mothers themselves, are the ones with the power to shape the consciousness of future generations. It’s up to you, to me, to mothers everywhere. 5 6 ABOUT ME Intention “Upon this handful of soil our life depends. Husband it and it will grow our food and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and it will collapse and die and take humanity with it” - Vedic Scripture REVISION 2020 The timing of this revision could not be more pertinent given the challenges we are facing today. This is the exact moment we came here for, we mothers who have our feet on the ground now. We have been preparing tirelessly for this potent, surprising Spring. At long last, all ambiguity is evaporating, like fog off the snow (job) melting before our eyes. Here we are, clearer than ever before, birthing a new world. We know birth, deep in our bones. We have been brilliantly managing the labor pains of this Passage all along the way, guided by ancient embodied wisdom moving within us like the root system of mama earth. Now comes the seed moment for us mamas, for our future harvest, for our children, ourselves, our whole world. May the information in these pages serve as a catalyst for inspired action for us all as we re-member why we are here. Together, may we now reclaim our wise women selves, rebuild our depleted soils, restore our bodies and our babies’ bodies, returning all to the wholeness we have always known was our birthright. This is our seed moment. The effect of the soil degradation that began when humans started farming 10,000 years ago is now a stark reality almost everywhere on this planet. Societies that do not take care of their soil do not last. The difference between the great civilizations of the past that sank into poverty and eventual demise after destroying their topsoil and our current society is that soil destruction has now become a global issue, not just a regional one. Currently, we lose 30 million acres of farmable land per year to degradation, meaning the land is no longer fit to grow food. We need 15 million more acres each year to feed the amount of people on the planet. Degenerative agricultural practices today have resulted in the loss of one third of all arable land globally in the last 40 years alone to desertification. If this pace continues, not only would there be nowhere left to go once all fertile land were farmed, developed, degraded and abandoned, but tremendous conflict would erupt as well. In his book Growing A Revolution, geology professor David R. Montgomery traces the shift in Roman farming practices from small family 7 farms to plantations to the ultimate demise of the Roman Empire. “As farms grew bigger and bigger the whole structure became less and less sustainable” This pattern is not much different from the scene in agriculture today. Other historians speculate that perhaps the Romans were poisoned from the lead which was widely used in their cooking ware, urns and cosmetics. Perhaps it was the overlap of both the farming practices and the environmental toxins of the day that caused infertility, lowered intelligence and ultimately societal collapse . Randall Fitzgerald compares the two societies in his book, The Hundred Year Lie. He notes, “Toxins we are exposed to may be much more varied and their effects much more complex- but our state of denial about the health threat still resembles the Roman experience. We absorb thousands of synthetic chemicals during a lifetime and yet we look around puzzled that so many illnesses and diseases have become epidemics. We see firsthand or we read about the increased incidence of behavioral and mood disorders among our children, yet we want to deny that the fast food and junk food chemicals can cause mental instability and violence. We hear about the genetic and reproductive mutations in wildlife caused by exposure to synthetic chemical combinations, yet we deny that anything can occur, or is occurring, within our own species. We deny this because we have become addicted to the conveniences of modern life, just as the ancient Romans became complacent about their lifestyle addictions that proved toxic to their health. We deny because our arrogance blinds us to the lessons of history. We deny it because we choose to believe that we are too wise to be so foolish.” It is absolutely essential that we begin to implement regenerative farming practices to counter the trajectory of destruction we are on. Fian Makepeace, co- founder of Kiss the Ground, urges each of us to become “soil advocates” and teach others that there are solutions to reverse our current situation with regenerative agriculture.