Excellence Reporter: Kay, what is the meaning of life?

Kay Cafasso: Meaning-full-ness in this life is truly felt at the times when we are of benefit to others, and when we participate in this beautifully and wonderfully woven web of support. This world is made of layers overlapping layers of mutual support. A resilient and healthy world is one built with a strong fabric of interdependence. This world that we share today calls for us to tap into the strengths, skills, and care within each of us.

Our path is to discover what we care about, what we are thankful for, and awaken what we’re passionate about, in order to guide us towards the role that we can play within our own communities. Our purpose is to then gather the skills that we may need to help us along this path, and to step in to our active and beneficial role, whether this be in ways of serving and supporting the people in our communities, or tending to the many beings who make up our ecosystem (care for soil, plants, waters, gardens, farms, etc).

Everyone carries a unique gift to share with our world, with the potential of making it a better place. Even if we can’t see the full picture of how our individual efforts may heal and restore a healthy earth and contribute to the wellbeing of our people, we can trust in the natural patterns of connection, and of resilience, and healing that occurs in nature.  Thankfully, we can see how nature is resilient, diverse, and adaptable when we listen to forests, or experience healing in our bodies, and we can feel this in our hearts.

We can trust that what we do when we set out to help is playing a part in the great woven fabric of life. We can create dynamics of support, of supporting, of being supported, and this leads to such a delightful experience of gratitude, which is another meaningful aspect of life that fills up our spirits with joy, wellbeing, and wonder.

Our presence can be of benefit to all those around us, and the healing effects of our support and care may not be clear at first, yet they can have an effect many times beyond what we can perceive. The path is to simply step in, participate, and play any role that calls to us, while holding the intention to be helpful.

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~Kay McGrenaghan Cafasso is the Director of Sowing Solutions Permaculture Design & Education, offering Permaculture Certification Courses twice a year in Western Massachusetts, as well as providing ecological garden design services to homeowners and land stewards.
Educational Programs:  www.PermacultureSeries.org
Design Services:  www.SowingSolutions.org

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