Nourish

What does it mean to nourish oneself?

Imagine that you are your favorite type of plant. Whether you’re a cactus, orchid, venus flytrap, or some other leafy being, you know that you need sustenance to maintain your hue, grow tall, and maintain strength. A lot of the things you’ll need to grow and thrive you can do on your own, but your ability to fully complete those processes are going to depend on where you’re growing and who you’re growing around. Now keep imagining you’re your favorite plant―do you require a lot of maintenance? Do you need a lot of sun? Does the sound of music help you grow? Are you somewhere in the desert where you are naturally rooted, or do you have a proud plant parent who picked you up from a farmer’s market? 

I often see a lot of discourse surrounding self care, health, and wellness in which we are taught to treat our bodies like plants and to properly nourish ourselves for plantlike growth. While this metaphor is helpful in a lot of ways, it lacks the nuance of what is required for healthy nourishment and care. For one, plants’ nourishment relies on several other factors in addition to the processes they are able to complete on their own. Their growth―like ours―is often non-linear. Nourishment, for all beings, is not a process that can be conceptualized within a personal responsibility framework. We live in a society in which the government is “responsible” for making sure individuals have their needs met for proper growth. Nonetheless, marginalized communities are continuously the least taken care of, and have the least amount of resources to meet their needs. Nourishment is a complex process that does not just require food, water, and sunlight. It requires wellness of the mind, body, and spirit. 

For the next few months, What We Water is going to be focused on a theme titled Nourish. What does it mean to truly nourish oneself? In the spiritual, mental, and physical sense? What does it mean to nourish oneself in a society where nourishment (in all its forms) is denied from your community as an extension of oppression? How can we nourish ourselves and our communities as a form of resistance? How have communities taken nourishment into their own hands and called out oppressive systems? We will be pondering these questions and more with our Nourish campaign. 

The Nourish campaign will take many forms, including critical essays on issues like food and carcerality, constructions of health and nutrition, Instagram live events and reels, and more. We’ll take a deep dive into food and body related content, but be on the lookout for content related to other forms of care and nourishment as well. We are also excited to announce that within Nourish we are beginning engagement with the wider DC community beyond our digital platform to practice nurturing ourselves and others in our collective realm.

As always, we at What We Water are grateful for your support. If you wish to collaborate with us as we develop Nourish within the coming months, make sure to contact us. Happy nourishment!