At WWOOF, we often talk about learning from the land, but that learning does not belong to one age, background or stage of life. People come to WWOOFing for all sorts of reasons: to gain practical skills, to step away from ordinary routines, to reconnect with nature, or simply to see what might happen when they place themselves somewhere new.
Henk Van Straaten’s story is a beautiful reminder that the desire to learn, grow and be close to the living world does not retire.
Henk is a retired biology teacher from Holland, currently WWOOFing at Chisholme Institute in the Scottish Borders. His working life has taken many forms, from teaching and coaching teachers to children’s therapy and logistics. In recent years, his attention has returned strongly to plants, soil, biology and the intelligence of the natural world.
We spoke with Henk about organic farming, plant intelligence, working with his hands, and why WWOOFing can be meaningful at any stage of life.
WWOOF: Henk, could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself? What first drew you to WWOOFing?
Henk: I am a retired teacher of biology in secondary school. I had other professions as well. I was a coach of teachers, a children’s therapist and a worker in logistic services.
The last years I am very interested in research on the intelligence of plants. I have a garden in which I grow some vegetables, and I also work in the garden centre of the little village where I live.
Two years ago, I arranged to be on the Big Island of Hawaii by working in exchange for accommodation. It was a kind of internship. This year I wanted to do the same, but closer to home, which is in Holland.
So I looked on the internet for sites that mediated for volunteers. The third site I found was WWOOF, which immediately appealed to me because it connects people with organic farmers.
WWOOF: Your WWOOF profile mentioned your interest in nature, biology, plants and soil. Has WWOOFing connected with that part of your life?
Henk: Yes. We should live in reverence for nature, because we are only able to live with her gifts instead of exploiting and exhausting her.
Too many people are not aware of the fact that if there were no plants on Earth, there would be no animals and human beings at all. That is where organic farming comes in.
Organic farming restores the connection of the human being with nature by taking care of the soil and the plants. It tries to restore the harmony between nature and humanity.
WWOOF: You wrote really beautifully about working with your hands, and how it can feel grounding and good for the mind. Could you say a little more about that?
Henk: Western society values the importance of mind and thinking much too highly.
This is due to the philosophy of Descartes, who started off the Age of Enlightenment by saying, “We think, so we are.” This is a big mistake, that stands at the base of the devastation of nature by humanity, because the way we normally think takes us away from connection with nature.
Our thinking is normally not in service of life itself, not in service of creation, which it should be.
“We live, so we are” would be a better statement.
For me, working with my hands takes me away from thinking too much and makes it quiet inside of me. Too much thinking undermines your grounding and lifts you out of reality.
Working with my hands in taking care of soil and plants is my “Zen moment” and brings me back into connection with reality.
WWOOF: What has your time WWOOFing at Chisholme been like so far? Are there any moments, tasks or conversations that have stayed with you?
Henk: Extraordinary, I can say.
The Chisholme Institute is a place of beauty. When I work in the garden, I only hear the birds sing. And they sing very loudly here. The garden is a large walled garden, with lots to do.
I have moments of sheer happiness while working with the ground, weeding and digging. In these moments I don’t want to be anywhere else.
The Chisholme Institute is an educational centre that studies the Unity of Existence. Besides study, there is a daily meditation in the morning at 7:00 and in the afternoon at 18:00. Everybody is invited, but participation is not obligatory. That was one of the things that attracted me to this place.
Just before I came here, they had decided that they themselves should study more. So they arranged an hour of study and invited volunteers also. The study happens between 16:30 and 17:45.
We study alternately the Tao Te Ching and Sufis of Andalusia, which is about the Arab mystic Ibn ‘Arabi.
They have a lovely way of studying here. We read the text out loud, then there is silence, and then we speak about the meaning of the text, ask each other questions and exchange views about it.
I was invited for a study week in my fourth week, a course on Discovering Unity. I decided to participate and worked only between 14:00 and 16:00 as part of the course.
We read about 30 short texts and poems from different sources, all in different ways referring to the relation of ourselves with the Source, the Oneness from which everything comes into being. In the conversation on the texts, we investigated the meaning of the texts for our personal relation with the Source.
WWOOF: That sounds like a very special place. What do you think people can learn from spending time on the land, beyond the practical skills?
Henk: I can answer this question only for myself.
When I volunteer, the first thing that happens is that I am away from my usual everyday life. In this new space, at a distance from my usual life, unexpected things can happen inside of me.
Every now and then I feel intuitively that I have to be on my own for a while. Working on the land empties the head, which creates still more space for new things to happen.
Physically working, just like walking for example, also makes my body move, and therefore energies are processed. Even more space for new things to happen.
Life itself has the characteristic that it wants to develop itself, it wants to evolve, and the only thing that it asks from us is to make the required space for it.
WWOOF: WWOOFing is often seen as something for young travellers, but people come to it at many different stages of life. What would you say to someone who felt curious about WWOOFing, but wondered whether it was really “for them”?
Henk: As someone put it nicely to me here: “You don’t seem to have the average demographic characteristics of a WWOOFer.”
No, I have not.
Actually, I was a bit anxious to be refused because of my age. But Chisholme is a place where they are intrigued, rather than worried, by the mentioning of my age.
WWOOFing can be for everyone. It depends on how you look at life.
If you want to have a rest after retirement, or in your sabbatical, and enjoy your free life, okay. If, on the other hand, you want to find out what life has still more in store for you, fine. Enjoy the adventure.
Being away, somewhere else, is a good way to learn to know yourself better. Becoming aware of aspects of yourself that you were never aware of. That’s the way it works for me anyhow.
WWOOF: You’ve had a very varied working life, from biology and education to therapy and logistics. Do you feel those experiences shape the way you approach WWOOFing?
Henk: Certainly. It is not by chance that I had a varied working life.
Looking back, I see that every time there was an end in learning for me in the working place of that moment, I changed to another working place.
Once I quit the organisation where I was working because I didn’t agree with the view on this work which was developing. Another time I knew that I had learned everything that I could learn in that organisation.
It is my experience that there always comes a moment in which the working or learning situation starts to limit my development, my evolution. That is the moment that I have to go.
So in my working life I followed my intuitive impulses for change. There is a risk in there, but in hindsight it turned out all well for me.
With regards to WWOOFing, I went the same path. I became aware that I needed a retreat to see what was wanting to come up in me, so I investigated on the internet, chose WWOOF because of the emphasis on organic farming, and chose The Chisholme Institute because they seemed to meet the best conditions that I could imagine for all this to happen.
It joined the way I am living in the best way.
WWOOF: Has WWOOFing changed or deepened the way you think about living with nature?
Henk: Oh yes, there is so much more.
There is so little understanding of the intelligence of plants, although there is a developing niche in biology that does a lot of work on that.
The better we understand how intelligent life in plants is, the more we will see the need for reverence for the life of plants.
I think of books by Merlin Sheldrake, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Monica Gagliano, Zoë Schlanger, David Haskell, Anthony Trewavas, Paco Calvo and many others. They all make us understand that plants can sense, that they can react and in fact make decisions on how to react in changing circumstances, and that they are in many ways connected to other living organisms, as well as fungi and animals as other plants.
In the soil, the world of plants and other organisms are a whole, in contrast to the seeming individuality of plants above the surface of the soil.
WWOOF: Is there anything you would like more people to understand about WWOOFing, or about working with plants, soil and land?
Henk: That there is always more happening than we first see.
Working with plants, soil and land is not only practical work. It is also a way to become quiet, to pay attention, and to understand that we are part of a much larger living world.
WWOOFing gives people a chance to experience that directly. Not only by reading or thinking about nature, but by taking part in it.
Henk’s words are a reminder that WWOOFing is not just for one type of person, one age group, or one stage of life. It can be for anyone who feels curious about land, food, plants, people and the living world.
At Chisholme, Henk has found work, study, birdsong and stillness. He has found moments where the mind quietens, the hands are busy, and the world feels very close.
“I have moments of sheer happiness while working with the ground,” he says. “In these moments I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
For anyone wondering whether WWOOFing might be for them, Henk’s answer is simple:
“Enjoy the adventure.”
