Psalms 22
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling to find advocacy work in Washington, D.C., Psalms White went to church. The sermon centered on Jesus’ parable of the sower and the idea that planting good seeds and tending them carefully are necessary to harvest one’s goals.
Inspired but still uncertain about her next step, White learned from a friend about the Eco Institute, a farm and learning community focused on permaculture, leadership and activism. Until then, the self-described urbanite had never imagined that planting her own seeds might begin in an actual garden.
Inspired but still uncertain about her next step, White learned from a friend about the Eco Institute, a farm and learning community focused on permaculture, leadership and activism. Until then, the self-described urbanite had never imagined that planting her own seeds might begin in an actual garden.
Psalms White stands barefoot in the Eco Institute gardens, grounding herself in the earth beneath her feet. “When I first came here with my acrylic nails and braids, my first thought after meeting everyone was, ‘Where are their shoes?’” she said. “And look at me now, I’ve become one of them. I really don’t like wearing shoes anymore. I feel so restricted and cut off from the earth when I wear them for too long.”
Psalms White looks out over the Eco Institute’s solar field and gardens, taking in the beauty of a place she never expected to call home. “I’m not really a woodsy girl,” she said. “Divine timing is really the only thing I can attribute to ending up here.”
While harvesting sweet potatoes, a volunteer at the Eco Institute examines a slug before returning it to the soil. For Psalms White, the garden offers lessons about living with challenges rather than trying to remove them too quickly.
“Sometimes weeds grow with the wheat,” she said. “You can’t prematurely pull the weeds out, or you might also ruin the wheat. You have to let them grow together.” White said the process is, "a representation of every one of us, we all will have challenges, but we need to grow with them until we reach our goals and see that our harvest was worth it.”
“Sometimes weeds grow with the wheat,” she said. “You can’t prematurely pull the weeds out, or you might also ruin the wheat. You have to let them grow together.” White said the process is, "a representation of every one of us, we all will have challenges, but we need to grow with them until we reach our goals and see that our harvest was worth it.”
Psalms White clips fresh dahlias in the Eco Institute garden as a young volunteer reacts in the background after realizing she has cut flowers he had been admiring. “Flowers’ beauty is always captivating, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you recognize that all of these things are complex natural miracles,” White said.
Martha, one of the goats at the Eco Institute, munches on weeds and leftover greens from the harvest. At the institute, even the goats have a role in an interconnected ecosystem. Psalms White compares the community to a grove of aspen trees. “On the surface, it looks like all of these trees are growing on their own,” White said. “But if you look beneath the soil, they are all connected by the same root network and sprout upward from there.”
From the top of the barn, Psalms White looks out over the Eco Institute gardens, which continue to evolve through the work of volunteers. “It’s incredible to watch an entire place change so quickly,” White said. “It shows that you can transform a whole space with time and dedicated pairs of hands.”
During her final lesson of the fall, Psalms White smiles at her co-facilitator as he reflects on an experience from the previous session. “There are always challenges when living with new people, and addressing those challenges can be really intense, but it is also healing and worth it,” White said.
Psalms White holds Snugs, the farm cat who had been waiting in her room for her return. “It’s no coincidence that his name is short for Snuggles, he always wants to touch” White said. "He's a walking reminder of the connection to the earth and other living things that I’ve found here. Once you establish that Earth connection, everything can become an act of self-care.”
A participant reacts as Psalms White offers them a box during a ceremony around the fire. “In ceremonies, we make a point to celebrate grief in the same way we celebrate joy,” White said. “It’s rare that we allow our bodies to fully express grief, and when we do, it can be liberating. There's power in our pain if we can allow ourselves to access it.”
Psalms White and visiting friends applaud an Eco Institute resident following his performance during open mic night. “There’s a possibility of living in a world with a strong sense of community, active allyship and people who hold one another accountable,” White said. “We can embrace conflict while still moving together and working as one system. That possibility is what I’m working toward here. Those are the seeds I want to sow.”
Psalms White lies at the center of a rock formation in the Eco Institute’s gazebo, where residents often gather for lessons and ceremonies. “This place has given me so much,” White said. She recalled a lesson from one of her mentors: "Freedom or liberation isn’t just not being in slavery or not being in a space where you're not completely free. Freedom and liberation is turning where you are into where you want to be.”
