With so many people trapped in an urban confinement, I find myself feeling more deeply humbled by my contrasting situation than ever before. Each morning I look out my windows at a wide-open space, a space that’s all mine, a space I can explore, I space I can grow.

During this time of social distancing and isolation, my garden is all I have to bring me vigor and purpose. Normally in April, Kris and I would be off traveling somewhere, taking advantage of our last weeks of “freedom” before the commencement of the all-consuming, unrelenting gardening season. Thanks to COVID-19, we are already way ahead of our springtime yard work this year and newly imagined gardens are being realized daily.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all differently, caught us all at different times in our lives. None of it has been convenient, none of it has been easy. For me, right now, COVID-19 means that my hospitality business is shut down while Vermont’s governor bans short-term rentals until June 15 and the future of Vermont tourism remains uncertain. For me, right now, COVID-19 reminds me why I started this homestead operation in the first place: self-sufficiency, simplicity, and security.

Snuggled up inside as a warm rain soaks our freshly turned earth, I pull my homesteader’s bible, The Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing, off the shelf for the first time in years. As I flipped through its soft pages, I came across this earmarked quote:

“I do not think that any civilization can be called complete until it has progressed from sophistication to unsophistication, and made a conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living.”

~Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living, 1938

A timely point, I think, as we watch a world reliant on complex systems suffer. Perhaps we’ll finally start to question the impacts of unchecked growth.

In my world, I am worried about our local farms and small businesses that supply the things I rely on and make our local economy go round. But I am also trying to stay focused on the things I can control in my own backyard: nursing 70 little seedlings to maturity; enriching the earth around my budding fruit trees; creating new habitats for pollinators; establishing a lush and beautiful landscape around our new little house.

It’s amazing how much comfort and companionship you can receive from nature. Alone in my garden, I am not lonely. It is an incredible gift, one that will get me through this.