Journal

Hurricane Surrender

before Hurricane Lowell pictured above

After Hurricane Lowell pictured above

Wow! I had never lived through a storm like that before. Unfamiliar life-threatening sounds and movement surrounded my hale in the dark of the night. We heard the limbs of giant trees cracking all around, other small and large plants alike being hurled against the house again and again, giant roots being extracted from the ground, and 70-foot iron woods timbering down, splitting 4-foot diameter trunks at their core. But we made it and it was going to be ok. The following morning we experienced a profound sense of gratitude for this amazing life that we are here to experience. For not only did the storm spare us and the majority of our structures in so many ways, but even amongst all of nature’s rubble, there was a profound sense of renewal in the air.

The following morning after the storm, I met Larry and Will down at the Tea House. Larry has been our fix-it journeyman, engineer, electrician, plumber, carpenter, and the first guy on the scene 15 years ago. And Will, our lead gardener who has basically been living in the gardens from sunrise to sunset with a commitment to the land that I don’t believe I have ever had the privilege to witness in my 15 years at the Farmacy. The three of us stood in wonder, deeply humbled amongst what felt like a combination of a plant medicine graveyard and a 4-acre green waste site. Will respectfully asked me, “are we done”. (Tears run down my face as I write this). In the moment, I could not help but consider the possibility. Then Larry spoke up, “what do you mean done, like close it up?” The garden wreckage was unfathomable. We have been so dedicated to this land. Why? How could this happen to us? What in the world do we do first?

It took a few minutes to move beyond the fear and doubt, to realize the immense opportunity in front of us, as well as take responsibility for our pivotal role in the wreckage. The truth is, after fostering such radical fertility in the soil over the years, planting so many epic medicinal trees, and helplessly allowing so many plants to spread their seed, Kauai Farmacy had become very much overgrown. In full transparency, our mission to grow the most healing plant medicine has been constantly challenged by the radical fertility of the Kauai jungle environment. The dense medicine forest that we seeded so intentionally had unintentionally grown beyond our capacity to maintain it.

And in that one single night of total surrender, Hurricane Lowell “topped” the whole thing and gave it the hair cut it so needed. And although we have known it for years and talked regularly about topping and thinning it out, the transformational move always felt so overwhelming to look at, never mind actually do. So we never did. And even if we tried to, we had become so attached! For we love our medicine plants so much.

Hurricane Lowell forced us to surrender the unimaginable – the likes of so many precious plant species including but not limited to cacao, loquat, tulsi, moringa, noni, orange, kukui, breadfruit, amla, macadamia nut all at once. We lost 50 plus trees in the storm and countless other plants were damaged or are in their deep healing process. But the bottom line 1.) We still have more abundance than we need, 2.) Our diverse permaculture medicine gardens are beyond resilient, and 3.) Our team is super talented, devoted, and connected to the land and making medicine.

repurposing fallen ironwood tree trunks into garden borders pictured above

So in the last week, we have cleaned, trimmed, chopped & dropped, and opened up spaces on the farm we didn’t even know existed. We made transformational moves with hand tools and big machines that have made our gardens more sustainable than ever before. In the heart of the aftermath of Hurricane Lowell, Kauai Farmacy has been fortunate enough to cultivate the all-powerful “space element” in this enlightening process of surrender. We look forward to sharing our newfound spatial transformation with you.

- Doug