A place among the mountains, hugged by the hills behind.
I arrived there by public bus, a beautiful 20 minute ride from the local town with stunning, bright green mountain scenery the whole route.
I had been hoping to visit this project and to meet Leisha, its creator since my second week in south Ecuador when someone had mentioned their Thanks Giving event. I had looked up the website and found myself lit up and unexpectedly excited to read blogs on soil, the microbiome and how the project started. I stayed up later than usual reveling in the words but more so the felt sense of what they conveyed; someone with a deep embodiment of their love for the soil, plant and human life that all support each other in the correct alignment. Someone who was listening.
The project is visible from the main road and on the site of a former highways agency, though you would never know that now. Land that was previously used and abandoned when no longer ‘useful’, found its way it to the hands of someone with deep care who was able to revive it and bring it to the brightness it shines today.
Out front stand two signs offering both names; Living Ground and Suelo Vivo (the translation of ‘living ground’ into the local Spanish) something that offers a view into the invitation that Leisha has created here for all to be involved and inspired by the project.
As I enter, I remove my shoes for a moment to connect further with the land and stand in bright sunshine watching pink dragonflies, fat-tailed and busy, lift and settle around a pond.
The place is quiet and vibrant with life.
I make my way to the seating area of the small cafe which sits in front of the shop. I’m greeted with a smile by a staff member I had met the week before when I had ventured there alone and sat for several hours marinating in the quiet peace and care of the place. Allowing myself to become really still and without agenda, letting life move through me, being full in only that moment. It was like a slice of heaven.
On leaving that day I felt compelled to write a short note to Leisha explaining how touched I was by the space and the project and thanking her for her work. I left my email and that note led to an email exchange which led to me returning to connect with her a week or so later, with a view to writing something about the project, and here we are. Following those quiet impulses is my through line and proves itself over and over again to be the gold that connects and aligns me within this wonderful web of life.
Small orange chilies, a long-pointed green chilies, poncetta onions, lettuce, deep purple basil and a selection of other things I don’t know, all sit happily together in the raised bed in front of the cafe.
Only after sitting a while do I notice the bunches of herbs, seeds and chilies drying, hanging on a simple string over the entrance.
The blessings of variety and simplicity arch their paradox and mingle to perfection.
When Leisha arrives she brings with her things for the cafe and other goods for the site. We deposit them and she checks in with the two staff, then we settle in together in the cafe area. There is an immediate openness and connection and I am grateful to meet this beautifully prolific being.
Leisha wrote a book in one week, it just ‘flowed out’ and she has written several more. She turned her hand to designing and project managing the building of a home for homesteaders who came to the area. The money made helped fund Living Ground further and as she shares more stories I can feel that she has been with the flow doing what was needed to make this work.
All these things alongside building the project its self literally from the soil up. A project which now has a cafe, shop and most recently accommodations for on site stays.
She’s also a qualified homeopath and serves many in the community when they call on her for this kind of support.
Right now the project is in a moment of unknown; recent pressures from government systems to license for the many different things sold come with a huge cost. A license required for almost every product because the products are beautifully unique. So, when I visit, many things have been removed from the shelves.
The socio-political climate in Ecuador as in many places is also in flux, recently mining arriving in what has been a pristine area and groups were gathering during my time there to discuss how to protect the land and waters.
We talk on many things, but the thing that stood out to me was Leisha’s sharing on deeper transparency in recent months with the staff and others involved with Living Ground, on the financial situation the project faces. It is encouraging to hear that the transparency was met with deep care and led to the staff themselves deciding to save together to fund a foundation of ownership in the future.
Two of the staff currently live on site after losing their home and Leisha refers to them like family. All in all, this place feels like it needs to exist, not just for the inspiration or the food it produces but for the very practical good it can do in a community. A community that with many ex-pats, often, to my outside eyes felt a little divided. Here, on living ground, it felt like there was the potential for the human web to be rewoven again and again for greater strength, in alignment with the rest of the ecosystem.
Leisha was bright with ideas for what is next and clearly has a real passion to share what she has experienced and learned. A new focus begins for Living Ground now the accommodations are complete and the possibility for in person workshops becomes real. The first workshop will be held in June this month. A live blood analysis retreat, a fascinating prospect to sit with your own blood and what it mirrors whilst being fed from the glorious gardens here.
In a world where so many forces attempt to hijack the great things that are happening, I hope this project can receive more of the support it needs both financially and otherwise in order to keep the precious pulse it has created in the world humming.
I left nourished by the food, the company and the nature but perhaps more so by the inspiration and the possibilities it enlivened.
May we all be nourished continually in the ways we need.
May we all be the living ground for love to grow.
If you would like to hear more about Living Ground or read Leisha’s fantastic blog articles you can follow the link from the SunBeings Foraging & Farming page.
For information about the upcoming Live Blood Analysis Retreat you can click this link:
https://livingground.art/live-blood-analysis-retreat/
Or watch a video about it here:
https://youtu.be/d7jZF7R68aA?si=eBeNNdTa7Y3YBiTL
There’ll be more workshops coming in the future!
And if you’d like to make a donation to the project you can do that here:
https://paypal.me/suelovivo?locale.x=en_US&country.x=EC
Please put SunBeings as your reference so they know where you found the link.
The author
Nixi Cole
Nixi is a Sunbeings collaborator, Dreamer, Coach and Artist. She has great love for nature and communication with all things and has deep apprecation for art in its many forms as a communicator and expandor. She loves travel, icecream, editing and playing with fabric.
On meet the team:
sunbeings.org/meet-the-team
1 thought on “Living Ground / Suelo Vivo – By Nixi Cole”
Thank you Nixi for your warm, beautiful description of Living Ground. It goes hand in hand with what I felt when I came across their homepage and Leisha’s Blog. Your words are like a fertilizer, may they nourish growth and stability and blooming love.