Watching the daily task of watering and weeding being carried out in the geranium fields in the Rwandan countryside is powerful.
Watching the Ikirezi farmers makes me remember how thirsty I am to feel love heal.
I talk about it all the time and wear it on shirts, but sometimes I forget. It’s easy to forget how love heals when you deal in the abstract doing fundraising and sitting in strategy meetings. Those are both critical elements to all enterprises, but it can leave you a bit parched.
But here in the fields of Rwanda where you have to be sensitive to when the rain will fall and how soft the mud is, there is a small shift within me. We all need such a shift in our hearts from time to time. Seeing the farmers with turbans wound with brightly colored fabrics around their heads digging up weeds in fresh mangled soil I feel like they are preaching to me in silence that this sacred ground grows healing plants because it’s rooted in justice and thrives in community. We can’t grow enterprises that heal without those roots fostered with compassionate friends.
That is how love heals.
That is the story over and over.
There is transformation when women find fertile fields in community and justice. The distilling oils wafting through the thick afternoon air allows dormant hopes in my heart to blossom. I am in love with the women, the fragrance of geranium, and its ability to bring new life in the driest season.
Thank God for all the work and generosity that allows a partnership between Ikirezi and Thistle Farms. Thank God that together we will discover new blends, new markets, and bring healing to all kinds of thirsty pilgrims.