I have lived in towns and cities in Massachusetts all of my adult life, only venturing out for quick 

vacations and work trips to places that are also classified as towns in cities. While my time in Massachusetts has really informed my disposition in this world. It isn’t my place, I took a trip to Los Angeles in April of 2022 and it changed my life. The revelations that I came to greatly shifted my world. What resonated with me on this trip was that my professional career had truly taken over my life. I was living to work.

 And for what good reason? This phenomenon of being displaced from oneself was incredibly sad to realize. 

This theory that bell hooks writes about in “Touching the Earth”, is one that brought up a lot of feelings around this specific displaced time in my life. In her essay she writes about the displacement of Black people from southern farmer land as the Industrial period in America began. As I read I envisioned myself on the land she described so vividly, using words like “richness, shining, warmth, sparkle” to name a few. All of these inviting descriptors are by hooks when she describes Southerns lives on farms and how she speaks about the North and the language she uses when talking about displacement are antonyms. The cadence of this part in the reading invoked that same sadness in me. 

Even though hooks is writing ,at one point, from the perspective of the industrial revolution, the writing holds up well for 2023. I was even able to relate directly to it. 

The psychological effects of displacement in my case were felt before and seen all on that work trip I took to LA in 2022.  Hooks brilliantly explains the epiphany I had about placement of the body’s relation to place, labor, and oppression as, “working in conditions where the body was regarded solely as a tool (as in slavery), profound estrangement occurred between mind in the body. The way the body was represented, became more important than the body itself. It did not matter if the body was well, only that it appeared well.” (hooks 366). In my case I was operating as a tool for the company to make large sums of money, my thoughts on how a business should be run did not matter as long as I served as a vessel for the store. 

With all of that being said, I believe that city dwellers may experience a connection wit

h earth but it may look similarly to Chantal’s homestead experience but just on smaller scales. Access to community gardens in larger cities is happening all over the country. I have included a list of community gardens in the Boston area that are entirely managed by local residents. Bringing nature to more greenery to cities has already happened. The connection should be sustained and increased through more community engagement with places like community gardens and outdoor terrain.

List of Boston Community Gardens 

https://thetrustees.org/content/list-of-boston-community-gardens/ 

After coming to my2022 epiphany I quit my very demanding job at the beginning of the summer and focused on self care and my personal wellness. It was in the quietness of the summer that I realized balance was going to be key in the next chapter of my life. It felt great to be still and focus on taking care of myself. The quiet only took me so far until my internal clock kept going off, letting me know I needed to return to work.  Emerging back into the workplace Fall 2022 was all about balancing all of my environments. Kingsolver talks about quietness frequently throughout the essay, “Knowing Our Place” explaining her own preferences when writing, “blessed emptiness of mind that comes from birdsong and dripping trees” (Kingsolver 2).

*The above picture was taken of me in LA, the writing behind me says Support Black Art.*

With all of the quietness I experienced in my time away I grew to appreciate the noise, so I agree with Kingsolver we need wilderness. A healthy balance of both is what is necessary for humans because the duties of our lives can swarm us but,“to be surrounded by a singing, mating, howling commotion of other species, all of whom love their lives as much as you do, and none of whom could possibly care less about your economic status or your day-running calendar” (Kingsolver 2). When I had the opportunity to place myself back in a more natural environment to rest and then remerge when the time was right, so that now I have a healthy relationship with both work and my environment.