By KK Fowlkes

Someone, a friend of mine once, said: "Where the light meets darkness is the razor’s edge of our human existence. We exist where light comes to meet the great mineral world to mix and draw it towards the light through the mystery of chlorophyll, basis of organic life." (See newsletter archives: Of the Light)

To quote this same anonymous author: "The organic sheen of life on earth lives within narrow limits. In fact, the top 8-12 inches of soil, and about the first 20 feet of ocean water, carry the life processes that allow conversion of sunlight to carbohydrates among other things. All organic life depends on this process of transmutation. Without soil, we die.

"Satellite photos show clearly that our topsoil is being destroyed at incredibly rapid rates. It is being carried out to sea by rivers. It is being blown away by the wind. Its delicate life structure, (for soil is truly alive with microorganisms), is being destroyed by too much direct sunlight. Grazing animals are packing it down and denuding it of protective cover at which point the soil is washed away by rain, wind and storm.

"This destruction of topsoil results in inferior crops and weak plants susceptible to attack by insect and disease. Inferior crops provide inferior nutrition to those who eat them. This in turn results in more disease, people of lower intelligence, and less ability to reproduce strong healthy offspring. Add to this the chemical soup that is used in large scale farming and industry and we have a recipe for disaster.

"The translation of sunlight into high quality enzymes held in a plant cell matrix containing vitamins and minerals is the key. Only a healthy vital soil can provide the substrate for that activity. When one remembers that all of our human accomplishments depend on what we can grow in a narrow 12 inch band of soil that is being depleted at a rate 20 times faster than it is being replaced worldwide, we need to pause and consider what that means for us, our children, and their children. These generations may see a catastrophe caused by this massive decline in the soil’s fertility, and thus its ability to support the plant structures that catch and transmute sunlight. If this destruction reaches a certain unrecoverable point, life as we know it will die."

So…. Is this something new? We have known for years that our soils have become depleted of their mineral content. This knowledge inspired the "back to the earth " movement in the 60’s when thousands of so called flower children returned to mother nature and her ways, and began farming organically, using only natural methods to restore and enrich their soil.

After having lived on a bio-dynamic farm in Israel for several years and living from the organic fresh fruits and vegetables there, I find upon my return to US life that it is very hard to live on the fruits and vegetables one can buy at the supermarkets here. It just doesn’t taste good. I go longingly to the organic vegetable section of my local health food store and drool over unaffordable high-priced produce.

Thinking again about the rate of our soil depletion and what it means for the world, I am just a little bit overwhelmed. Certainly I know that I, as one simple individual, cannot help the world turn back from this road to disaster. There are hosts of things that conscious people are doing…such as becoming better informed, planting trees, reducing waste, recycling, driving less, and supporting legitimate environmental efforts. The point of question now lies with me as it does with every individual. Now comes the question: What can I do? I know that as an eternal being, I am totally, absolutely and solely responsible for my own eternal progression – with the help of a higher being to whom I feel a great responsibility. "The buck stops here," as Truman once said.

Some feel that meeting their responsibility rests solely in what they think, say, and do—especially in relation to how they treat others.

If I have informed myself correctly, then I know also that in order meet this responsibility, i.e. to think positively, speak well of and to others, do good, and treat others with kindness, patience and love, that I must consider the fact that I am not just a spiritual being. I must consider the clothing of minerals or the clay that I have been clothed with and the fact that it is sometimes a major hindrance to expressing the godlike qualities heretofore expressed… "Because sometimes I just don’t feel good. Maybe it was a letdown from the caffeinated drink I had a few hours ago, or the heavy animal protein, denatured and cooked non-nourishment which I had for lunch." (One day in the life of any man, especially one who lives in the fast paced modern world of fast-food America.)

Although this clay is infused with the life of my spirit, who wishes only to do good, it causes me (my self or my spirit) to be cross, irritated, impatient, and at times even mean toward my fellow man. And why does this clay, this mineral clothing that I wear…do this? -- I have to remember time and time again that this clay, this potential temple, is yet built of darkness, uneducated, and mainly undernourished and many times burdened with just the work of the day -- eliminating inundation after inundation of chemical, processed and overcooked food that I (anyone) send to it three times a day. (It is a known fact that some animal protein meals take 8 to 12 hours just to digest.) If the body has to work that hard and that long to just digest a meal, how much energy does it have left to uplift the spirit and carry one down the path of a positive and happy life. We are dual! We are dual! We are dual! -- In a body/spirit relationship! What one does affects the other. Always!

Keeping this in mind, there still remains the question: What can I do? Remembering that I have informed myself correctly, in that I believe the eternal being to whom I am responsible, initially or originally provided a way by which the clay or the darkness will not weigh so heavily upon me. It is a fact that He did provide and has done so eternally to the inhabitants of his worlds --a life force…Found in guess what? ----In the foods, which we are, necessarily-in-order-to-stay-alive required to eat three times per day. A life force which transfers into my own life force and gives me the positive energy to be kind, to be good, to be patient, and to help others and doesn’t require my own life force to be expended in the process. One might say…messages encoded from far and distant worlds-- for billions of years, into delicious morsels of fruit of the vine or of the tree which is there for me/you to enjoy and ultimately to teach or spark life into each tiny cell of this my body or the clay which encumbers me. Was all of this pre-planned before I got here? Yes, I think so. It is my opinion so. You would think that after 14 billion years He would get it right.

Then… do I have a responsibility to the clay itself? Some think not, not realizing that it consists of many, many, individual cells who have a life, and sometimes a very burdened life, who work day after day for the benefit of the master (me, or you) with very little nourishment of quality and very little rest. After becoming informed, and still wishing to exercise my mandate to always be kind to every creature, I realize that I do have a responsibility to the clay—which is no longer clay, but trillions of individual cells (animal units?) infused with the life of the creator. And especially because I do wish to progress rather than regress in thought, word and deed, to transmute this darkness into light… the clay, if super energized with the amazing life force which is there for me to just pick from the tree or squeeze from the grass CAN HELP ME DO THIS!

WHY? Because the clay is ME! (Or I am training it to become such.)

I claim it. I identify with it. I wish to have it feel good in this life. I wish to be in a process of living, not dying.

Therefore, I will provide the correct base (soil mixture) for this life force in the plant, that it will contain all the necessary ingredients. And what are the necessary ingredients that the flower children of the 60’s searched for and found when they embraced once again their good mother?

1. Mainly they found that most pristine soil found where much vegetation grows (nature’s forests, grasslands, etc.) contains these necessary ingredients: the 90 plus minerals or elements of material creation.
2. They found also that this soil or this pristine base teems with uncountable varieties of living organisms that assist the plant to absorb these minerals.

So…again, what can I do? Well…I can try to grow some of my own food, trying not to kill any of it by cooking, and…I can grow and consume a super food such as wheatgrass (which is known to pick up more minerals from the soil than any other plant) or barleygrass in my own kitchen! To provide that correct base, I can use a compost with living organisms or I can make my own compost from expended wheatgrass flats. This living soil will provide many of the minerals, which I desire my plants to absorb and which my body needs for optimal health, well being, peace of mind, and the ultimate transmutation of darkness into light. In addition I can also add a natural additive which contains 60 to 70 of those trace minerals which are not always found in all soils. Now, I can do this. I am doing this and I feel peaceful, leaving the repair and healing of my body up to the intelligence of the creative life force which is contained in all living matter.