Earthbound Artisan

Check out our January article, part of our monthly series "Nature Observation Through the Seasons" on the Natural Awakening's Lancaster/Berks website! From the article: "January: The Nature of Home"... Home. Such a small and powerful word. We say it all the time. But what does it really mean? We often use the word home to describe the place where we live. Sometimes home refers to a shelter; a house or a dwelling where we raise our families, where we eat and dream and rest our heads at night. Sometimes we use it to refer to the place that we originally come from, the place where we grew up, the area our ancestors came from, the region of the world most familiar to us. Home can also be a feeling. The idea of home encompasses the nature of belonging to a place and to a community; to a group of family or of friends. We even have a word to describe the loss and longing we feel when separated from home. We call it homesickness and know that we mean the feeling of loneliness, the deep missing of the place we identify with the most. Home can change over time, in meaning and in location. When we move, so too does our sense of home. In our resiliency, we are able to start again, to create new relationships and community; we embed ourselves into unfamiliar networks of roots already established. Like a new seed sprouting in an ancient forest, we become a part of the ecosystem. The feeling of home strengthens in places filled by those we love. When our lives are touched by loss, that absence is palpable and homesickness creeps in; just as it does when we’re missing a place where we once lived. Home is a kind of alchemyboth a place and a state of being. It refers to a physical location and a manifestation of the lives we live, infused with the generations that birthed us and the places that shaped them. To really understand the concept of home, we must reach beyond the human connections of a given place. Let’s take this area where we live, the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont region of the Eastern United States. This is an area with a wealth of fresh water, forests and ecosystems. Pennsylvania alone boasts 480 wild birds and mammals, 3,000 plant species (two-thirds are considered native to PA), 200 species of trees (134 are native) and 988 insect species. It’s easy to take that rich biodiversity for granted, but it is extraordinary... Follow the link below to to continue reading, and thank you for your support! https://www.nalancaster.com//nature-observation-through-th

Our love for the planet informs everything that we do. To be able to work as stewards of this land is an incredible gift. We’re so thankful for the blessings of 2020, despite its hardships. Here’s to planting trees, building habitat, protecting water, growing native species, and loving the wild in 2021! We wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.

If you are in need of a last minute gift idea for the plant lovers in your life, we are offering Gift Cards to our native plant nursery, Earthbound Natives! We carry native perennial, shrub, and tree species and are located in Ephrata, PA along the beautiful Linear Park Rail Trail between the Queen and Fulton Street parking areas. Follow the link below to purchase!