Chapter Thirty-Two – Five Years Later: The Garden is the World
🕰️ Five Years Since World Soul
The world changed.
Not because of one strain, one store, or one name.
But because people started planting with intention.
🌍 From the Dirt Now
It's no longer just a brand—it's a living archive of everything they cultivated.
🌱 50+ From the Dirt Dispensaries across 14 countries🎓 Dirt Lab Satellite Academies on 4 continents🧘🏽♀️ Breathe & Burn Collective chapters in 22 cities📚 "Bloom Anyway" translated into 13 languages, taught in 11 universities🌾 World Soil Co-Op with over 120 indigenous and legacy growers🧠 Cultural Preservation Fund actively funding language, seed, and plant medicine archives
But none of that was the story.
The real story?
👶🏽 The New Seed
Darius & Maya are parents now.
Their child, Sol, was born under a lunar eclipse in the back of the Bloom Anyway Center's garden—no hospitals, just family, soil, and love.
Sol grew up barefoot, curious, and surrounded by language.
Instead of a crib, they slept beside jars of dried herbs and books wrapped in cloth.
At age four, Sol asked:
"Why do we light the leaf before we talk?"
Maya answered:
"Because fire makes truth speak clearer."
📍 Back in Brooklyn
The Bloom Anyway Center had doubled in size.
A new wing dedicated to healing archives
A soil sanctuary where people could bury grief letters and grow healing plants
An art gallery for traveling visual histories
A quiet room where only two things were allowed: prayer and smoke
There were now three of these centers—in Brooklyn, Accra, and Tijuana.
🎨 A New Legacy
Maya had become a world-renowned designer and archivist.
She curated "Hands in the Dirt", a decade-spanning collection of Dirt-related artwork, artifacts, maps, jars, and letters. The exhibit traveled across museums, gardens, temples, and even prisons.
Her newest project?A digital garden—The Soil Verse—a virtual platform where anyone could write, plant, or record a story and watch it grow into something alive.
🌕 Darius Now
He rarely posted.Rarely spoke in public.
He taught, traveled, grew.
He was now known more as an earth poet than a CEO.Still wore hoodies. Still carried a grinder in his back pocket.
But now, everywhere he went, someone greeted him not with a handshake—but with open palms full of seeds.
"This one's from Cuba.""This one's been in my family since the '60s.""Can you help it breathe again?"
He always did.
📖 The New Book: The Dirt Gospel
After five years of silence, Darius quietly released a follow-up to Bloom Anyway—but not through bookstores.
He only gave out 1,000 copies, hand-bound in cloth, gifted to growers, educators, and healers.
The book had no title on the cover. No chapters. Just small pages of soil-stained paper, each one holding:
A story
A recipe
A prayer
A confession
A planting guide
A poem from Sol
On the last page:
"They tried to name us illegal.But what we grew became holy."
🛐 The World Summit – The Soil Call
Every year, From the Dirt hosted a sacred gathering called:
"The Soil Call"Location changes. The message doesn't.
This year's location: The desert near Oaxaca, Mexico.
Thousands of healers, artists, growers, elders, and kids gathered.
There were no product tables.
No advertisements.
Just:
Drum circles
Rolling tents
Cultural ceremonies
Open-fire storytelling
Seed exchanges
Plant tattoos
Smoke-based prayers
Dances in the dust
Sol read their first poem aloud at this year's Call.
"We don't live on land.We live inside stories.And the soil?It's where they sleep until we speak them."
💽 Final Scene: One More Jar
That night, under the stars, Darius pulled out a jar from a cloth satchel.
Not labeled.
Just sealed in wax.
He handed it to Sol.
"You're old enough now."
Sol turned it in their hands. Curious. Careful.
"What strain is it?"
"Don't know," Darius said. "Never named it."
"Then what's it for?"
He smiled.
"For you to name. For you to light. For you to grow."
Sol nodded, then tucked the jar back into the satchel.
Not ready to open it.
Not yet.
But soon.