Our community is Nekoosa, Wisconsin. Nekoosa means in Ho-Chunk “Land of Good Waters”. We are a small proud town of 2,000 people; a mixed community with different races and land uses including farming, industry, and recreation.
We draw strength from the land and each other in our shared purpose to farm sustainably. Our mission is to work with nature to grow a superfood that replenishes us, our environment and our community. In this way we can grow from the ME to the WE to the ONE which connects us to a larger force of transformative potential consistent with our SOUL PURPOSE.
The Webster definition of SOUL is:
soul
/sōl/
noun
- the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
- emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance:
We are also active in our community. We co-created a mural in our town with citizens and small businesses each creating a tile to make a personal statement of vision and purpose – all unified by a single HEART. In mosaic from the MANY comes the ONE; which is the core principal of how we farm. Everyone has a role to play.
May we all be inspired to live with HEART AND SOUL!
Often at sunset we walk the land and talk about what will remain…
What did past generations make possible? What will we leave for the future?
The SOUL of the Swift Waters runs through us and we are reminded of the words:
Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn’t. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through it and Other Stories
I am haunted by waters.
