The Land Does Part of the Teaching

People keep asking me why a farm….. not in a rude way, it feels like genuine curiosity.

Generally the ones that ask are ones that don’t know me personally. With curiosity + interest there has also been unsolicited advice. Why wouldn’t I have this experience in a nice hotel with a spa attached? I heard this specific question multiple times + trust me I totally get the thought process behind it.

I want to tell you why I said no to all of that.

I very well could teach this exact material in a conference room, hell I could teach this in a back room at Chill’s lol. Same content. Same me. Chairs positioned in a circle, screen behind me, a few vittles + snacks in the back. I have been teaching in some capacity for 20 years now + I’ve done that version in one way or another. And you know what happens? People take good notes, they tell me it was helpful, they go home + almost nothing changes.

Truth Moment? Information has never been an issue. Infact some might argue there is too much of it.

You already know that you’re tired. You already know you are pouring from almost empty. Nobody in that room needs another slide show explaining stress response to them. We have read the article + the book. We have all saved the post. Knowing has not fixed anything. Knowing hasn’t adjusted any mindset, habits or patterns.

This is because the thing that is actually worn out is not your understanding. It’s your body + your body does not learn from a slide.

That’s what the land is. It isn’t scenery, although being out there will take your breath away. It’s not just a pretty backdrop so the photos look good. It is a set of conditions that does the teaching I could never do with just my words.

What I mean in the most practical way is when you get out of the car at B-Omi, something happens before anybody says a word to you. Not silence, because there is plenty going on out there, but the specific frequency of hum that a city keeps running under everything suddenly stops. Your ears notice first. Then without a thought your body reacts.

Nobody instructed you to relax. You didn’t have to be walked through a breathing exercise. The space did it.

Then there’s the ground. Actual uneven ground, dirt + grass, not a floor engineered to be identical everywhere. Your eyes + feet have to pay attention. Which means you are in your body, which is the entire thing I would have spent at least forty-five minutes trying to talk you through if we were in some random hotel or a Chilli’s back room.

Next there is the light. A whole day of it, moving, not fluorescent, not the same at 9am as it is at 3p. Real sunshine. Your system reads that. Your body understands it. It has always read + understood it. We just built a world where it never gets a chance.

I am tell you all of this because I want you to understand the choice I made. It was intentional. B-Omi Farms is a Black-owned working farm about three hours out from Charlotte. Domes, a pavilion, herbs growing in real dirt that you can put your hands in. They are a partner in this, not a venue I rented. That distinction matters to me + I say it that way every single time.

We have talked before how the land is complicated for us. I’ve written about that already + Im not gonna continue to beat that horse with a whole argument. What I will say in a shorter version here, because some of you felt something tighten when I said farm.

For alot of Black folks, nature is not neutral. It is not a getaway. It is a place things were done to our people. That hesitation especially in todays time is not silly + it is not you being unadventurous. It is memory doing its big one.

Which is exactly why I did NOT book a ballroom.

We do not get free of that by avoiding the land. We get free by going back on our own terms. Not to work it. Not to be useful on it. To be fed by it, to rest on it + to leave when we are ready. That’s the difference. That is the entire difference.

So for those that are curious here’s what the day actually looks like out there.

We open with the morning, in sisterhood while it’s still cool + the birds are chirping nearby. We get into womb wisdom, the real conversations about your cycle + your seasons + the four transitions you’re moving through whether anybody told you or not. Then we get our hands in it + activate our senses. You will blend your own herbal sitz soak, your hands, your blend all sealed in a jar with your name on it to take home.

We will break for lunch at a table family style catered, outside. You will eat food while its hot + nobody needs anything from you mid-bite.

Of course throughout the day there will be opportunity for movement, meditation, journaling, fellowship + sharing of stories. All invitations with no pressure.

Then in the afternoon we will close the way we opened. In sisterhood. I promise you will drive home lighter than when you came feeling so seen + heard by each woman at the retreat.

I am not the only teacher that day. That is the part I want you to hear + truly understand. The land is teaching. The other nine women are teaching. The herbs in your hands are teaching. I am holding it + I am good at holding it, but I am not the whole curriculum.

That’s why a farm.

XO

D

P.S. Want to join us? Learn more here.