Nº 5 – An affinity for the pitaya

Thursday, 9th April 2020

Some rollercoaster emotions have run through me over the last few weeks. The ride stopped affecting me so profoundly when I removed Facebook and Twitter from my existence. Peace is what I sought and found amidst the lockdown.

My garden has benefitted from staying put. This week I dismantled five dragon fruits (pitaya) that have needed attention for years. They are a cactus, that does not want desert conditions. It prefers humidity and fertile soil. The lack of attention I gave them has been equal to the paltry amount of fruit they have offered. This situation had to change.

In some ways, I feel an affinity with the pitaya. I am breathing in a foreign country. The conditions are different and I have sought to find what nourishes me in this land. From the start of moving to Portugal 12 years ago, I made a conscious effort to make connections and friends in the local community. I actively look for people who are concerned with the earth, with growing and regenerative processes. I think this is what is getting me through.

Growing vegetables and fruit and becoming even more aware of the vagaries of their needs seems an excellent place to be, in this lockdown. I am hoping that many of the survivors of this distressing time will embrace the need to care even more deeply for the earth. I noticed a quote attributed to Eric Milner this week, “anyone else notice capitalism is currently asking socialism to save it from collapsing.”

It is beyond the moment when the “isms” are relevant. I do not know what will rise from this enforced stop. What I do know is what we need when our health and well being is threatened. It is time to look at what we have, water, light, air, beauty in nature and the possibility of nourishing food. We have connections with friends and family. We have networks and ways of communicating that involves just pressing a button. We have the possibility of a deeper awareness of each other and what our planet wants.

Complaints about what we do not have, keep us in a place of dissatisfaction. I am hoping this moment will help us become even more self-sufficient, emotionally, mentally and physically. In 1976, John Seymour wrote in the Complete Book of Self Sufficiency, “self-sufficiency is not going back to some idealized past in which people grubbed for food with primitive implements. It is going forward to a new and better sort of life.”

What could that look like here in the Algarve? Perhaps it will show up as local involvement across communities, where people share more and break down the barriers of the other and the unknown. Already IN Loco has organised delivery of vegetables from producers to people who cannot get out. Way to go!

Sue Hall

Journalist, lives near Tavira; www.suehall.net

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