Lisa Powers

As wildflowers unfurl across the Polish countryside, Ecovillage Bhrugu Aranya welcomes a season of growth, community and creativity. The long-awaited Centre of Light, the Ecovillage’s flagship ecological building, remains under interior construction. Yet, even in its present form, its timbers and sun-lit panels have provided a vibrant venue for Open Days, musical gatherings, healing circles and small meetings—proof positive that as the structure rises, so does the possibility of hosting larger groups and deeper retreats.

A beautiful event honoring Mother Earth was organized by Professor Javier Cruz and Leslie Girón, teacher in the Agricultural School in Tambogrande, both Agnihotris. This was done in conjunction with the Municipality of Tambogrande and its Department of Ecology.

When I lived in Piura, due to my job, for two years with my family and my parents, we built a bio-garden during the COVID-19 time. My mother was very involved in this garden. Because there was no garbage collection during that time, we used all the organic waste from the kitchen to make compost, burying it and creating a bio-garden. We added the ash from the Homa fires, in addition to practicing these daily, sometimes in the company of many Agnihotris. At that time, it was very difficult to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables. However, we began to have a wide variety of everything, such as herbs, paico, basil, herbs for seasoning, papayas, caiguas, and passion fruits (beautiful in color and in great abundance), cherry tomatoes, squash, cilantro, aguaymanto, pickled chili peppers, limo chili peppers, cocktail potatoes, purple corn, plums, sugarcane, etc.