1800 seedlings, dead.

Growing food is not all sunshine, rainbows, and fresh salads.

That’s when my brother and I realized we failed. It was a massacre, and it wasn’t an easy sight to swallow. All the hard work, long winter weekend hours prepping beds, building infrastructure, creating an indoor growing area ended in defeat.

But this failure moved us, two steps forward and one step back. At least we are heading somewhere – is all I could think – as the serious roadblock hampered our motivations. The gloomy grey overcast still lighting Vancouver with bland vibs, I had few positive thoughts in my head. That’s when I realized a truth.

Not all progress is forward.

Life can throw a curve ball, flatten tires, and kill 1800 seedlings overnight. But remember life goes on, time still ticks and these experiences bring fresh opportunities for learning. So that’s exactly what we did, we learnt. We absorbed all the timing, planning, and tending errors, and began to realized there is always a moment for action, for change.

It was time to take another swing, pump up the tires, and try to keep life alive again. It was also time to cough up the courage to share this failure.

This life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Life is a dynamic spontaneous journey and everyone evitably experiences lows and highs – don’t ever think or let others tell you differently. Our world is full of failures and success. Don’t let failure kill your fire. Let failure be your fuel, fail forwards.

Here is me… failing forwards.

This failure had me pondering my motives. Why was I trying to grow food at my house, it’s at the store and I have the money to buy it. I could be spending this time with friends, meeting new people, and seeking new thrilling experiences.

But then I remembered something – something profound that many people know yet few people act on.

Be the change you want to see in the world. 

You know who said it, you understand what it means, but are you the change you want to see in the world?

Every human recognizes problems every day. People know change is required, people say change is required, hell some people even take a few small actions for change. But few people continuously act for change.

One significant attempt and failure to make food locally was not enough, it may as well have been slackivism. That’s why we lifted our heads, planted more seeds in the ground, revived the indoor grow space, and realize that being the change in the world isn’t just something you do once, pat yourself on the back, and move on with your life. Being the change means you have to BE… and BEING isn’t something that starts and stops – it’s continuous.

It’s simple, find something worth changing, and be that change. Do shit that makes a difference.

So there we go, I just thought it was time to tell you (and myself), failure is fuel. The failures learnt on this farming adventure will sprawl beyond the beds of 3319 Huntleigh.

Yours truly,

Steinke