Loretto Volunteer brings deep awareness to her work at Angelica Village

By Becca Krasky, Loretto Volunteer

At its best, a deep time awareness might help us see ourselves as part of a web of gift, inheritance and legacy stretching over millions of years past and millions to come, bringing us to consider what we are leaving behind for the epochs and beings that will follow us.

Robert Macfarlane in “Underland: A Deep Time Journey”

I am feeling a deep soul magnetism toward organic, regenerative agriculture. Perhaps some of this is the uncertainty, the challenge, wanting to repair and heal my communities, my soils. Some of this attraction is a rebellion against what society expects of me, not wanting to spend the majority of my waking life behind computer screens and in Zoom meetings. I am wondering, how does my lifetime fit into deep time? What does a deep time awareness in farming entail? Blessing the soil, honoring the cycles of life and death and life again, thanking the rain that comes not frequently enough in our ongoing drought. Laughing with my co-workers and the community members as we all grow older, smiling as the children of Angelica Village grow alongside the peas. Embracing the lessons, giving gratitude to Earth, honoring this “web of gift, inheritance and legacy” and my unique place within.

I’ve been part of the Loretto Earth Network Coordinating Committee for most of my time as a Loretto Volunteer. The group is currently reflecting on Robert Macfarlane’s book “Underland: A Deep Time Journey,” a poetic, thrilling examination of Earth’s underworlds. Macfarlane explains, “At its best, a deep time awareness might help us see ourselves as part of a web of gift, inheritance and legacy stretching over millions of years past and millions to come, bringing us to consider what we are leaving behind for the epochs and beings that will follow us.”

Becca Krasky is a second-year Loretto Volunteer from Minneapolis. She works as the Sustainability Coordinator at Angelica Village, a nonprofit intentional community started by Loretto Co-member Jean East that houses refugee and immigrant families and youth. Becca has found her niche in growing food at Angelica Village, in her own backyard, anywhere there is a patch of earth and some seeds. Her newest projects are seed saving, mushroom growing and permaculture design. When she’s not in the garden, Becca is usually in the kitchen baking bread or cooking.