Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves – Tending to the Soil We Share
By: Jerilyn Miller, Sr. Benefactor Relations Specialist
There was a moment during the Interfaith Symposium鈥擧ealing聽the Earth, Healing Ourselves鈥攚hen the room grew still.
Rev. Jen Bailey, the keynote speaker, began with a story. She spoke about her grandmother, who worked the sugarcane fields of the American South in the 1930s and 40s, in the shadow of Jim Crow. Despite the violence and inequity around her, she cultivated dignity, community, and life from the land.
In that story was something deeper鈥攖he connection between soil and survival, between land and liberation.
Bailey named what many are already feeling. We are living, she said, in a time of 鈥渢oxic soil.鈥� Not only environmentally, but relationally and spiritually. The fractures we see鈥攃limate crisis, political division, loneliness, mistrust鈥攁re not isolated problems. They point to a deeper disconnection: from one another, from the earth, and from our shared humanity.
鈥淭his is not just a political crisis,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is a relational crisis鈥� a spiritual crisis.鈥�
And yet, she did not leave the room in despair.
Instead, she offered another image: sunflowers.
Drawing on the concept of phytoremediation鈥攑lants that draw toxins out of the soil鈥擝ailey described the slow, patient work of healing. Even damaged soil can be restored. Not quickly. Not easily. But through sustained care.
Healing, in this vision, is not a grand solution. It is a practice.
With native flower seed packets in hand, participants turned to one another鈥攕haring ideas, hopes, and the ways they are already tending their communities. For Augsburg senior Zuko Buechler 鈥�26 an urban studies major, the conversation felt both personal and practical.
鈥淚鈥檓 learning a lot about practices with the land and healing,鈥� Buechler said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 making me think about how I can plant these seeds at my grandmother鈥檚 [home] and share in her love of gardening 鈥攁 connection that has shaped me.鈥�
Bailey closed with a simple invitation: a daily discipline of choosing to plant something life-giving, even when there is no guarantee of what will grow.
Over lunch, the conversation continued鈥攇rounded in honesty about life experiences and resilience. Bex Klafter of Lutheran Social Services reflected on what stayed with her most:
鈥淎ll land is good,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here is value鈥攅ven when the soil needs to be amended.鈥�
It is a simple idea, but one that shifts the frame. Healing does not begin with perfection. It begins with what is already here.
At Augsburg, that kind of work takes shape in real time鈥攊n conversations like these, in shared practices, and in a community willing to stay with what is difficult and choosing to tend to what is possible.
