Many Americans today have a strong sense of cultural ancestry, but there are many who do not. As I have become more involved and experienced with homesteading and DIY culture, I have begun to see the reason why this discrepancy exists.
I find myself getting excited about things like making homemade marmalades and hand weaving wreaths because I enjoy the homey comfort they bring me.
I did not always have a passion for homemaking.
For me, it started when I began to discover herbal medicines when I began to experience chronic illness in my youth. Then I began to search for home remedies and herbal medicines when I felt the contemporary medical industry had failed me. I began to learn about essential oils and herbal tinctures and teas, and I also began to discover a sense of empowerment that I had never known before. I found I could heal myself from home, all on my own!
It was thrilling and intoxicating, and it began a lifelong journey of discovery which I am still on today.
Soon after that, I discovered gardening, and I began to wonder at the magic of plants. One day they were just seeds, and the next week they were vibrant green sprouts!
I felt enamored to be part of the process that initiated growth and new life.
That was the beginning of my initiation to homesteading, and since then I have discovered a richness and a depth in agrarian lifestyle and culture.
To illustrate this point, think of the song Home on the Range – “Where never is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.” Are some of the lyrics from this song.
A life of homesteading and self sufficiency is demanding and even grueling at times;You have to wake up every day and feed and care for the animals that are depending on you. You also have to collect wood and water every day for survival and daily life. Your needs always need met and you always have to work to meet them, and you must work even harder if you want to grow and prosper.
Within those conditions, you do not have time or energy to spare to be negative. You always have to be on the move, and to be constantly in motion, which promotes a state of optimism and enthusiasm.
When you find yourself chopping wood, you are engaging in the same activities that your ancestors had to engage in to survive. Kindling a fire, preparing a stew, weaving or knitting garments are all activities that bring us closer to our ancestral roots, and give us insight into our cultural heritage.
When people no longer engage in these activities, our minds are not focused in the same way our ancestors’ minds were, and it becomes easy to forget about our cultural inheritance; the wisdom and richness of our ancestors and our cultures.
Today it has become commonplace for people to go out and buy the clothing they need, which a machine knit out of synthetic fiber in a foreign land. When we are hungry, we go to the grocery store or a fast food chain and we buy a finished product that has had to travel many miles to make it into our hands, before the first time we had even touched it. The food and ingedients itself was picked by many other hands, and shipped by others hands and then it had travel miles to get to where we bought it from.
Today almost all people live this kind buy and then throw away kind of lifestyle, and they are oblivious to the ancestral knowledge they have lost and are losing in the process.
So much can empowerment and confidence can be recovered when you knead your own bread and you grow your own fibers weave into your own clothing.
One prominent figure in modern history to realize this was Mahatma Gandhi. India is one of the only countries to have ever succeeded in throwing off the reins of imperial British rule, mostly attributed to the impact and reach of Mahatma Gandhi, and his philosophies. Mahatma Gandhi believed that Indian people could reclaim their power and sovereignty through the methods of self sufficiency and acts of non-violent protest. Gandhi encouraged Indians to grow and weave all of their own clothes, and to boycott imported British fabrics. Through their perseverance and practice of self sufficiency, the Indians were able to expel the British, and remain sovereign to this day.
The power of self sufficiency is starkly illustrated in this example, and it is no less powerful in each of our own lives. We can reclaim our cultural heritage and empowerment by embracing the methods of our ancestors and continuing their traditions and methods of self sufficiency.
It may seem like a daunting task at first, but small steps accumulate over time. Starting a small family tradition, such as baking an apple pie at Christmas can begin to lay the foundation of ensuring our cultural knowledge and empowerment is passed down through the generations, and most importantly ensure that future generations have solid ground to build upon.
The Holistic Family 