Balancing Act: How a yoga garden nourishes the soul of a West Side block
CHICAGO - Ten-year-old Rinaya Buick led me down a narrow dirt path, through the tomato and pepper plants, beyond the parsley and Swiss chard, past the cauliflower and onions, until we arrived, finally, at the piece de resistance. The strawberries.
"You want to take the red ones," she said, popping a tiny berry, no larger than a dime, off its stem and placing it in my hand.
"That's OK," she said when I dropped it. "God made dirt. Dirt don't hurt."
We were inside Yoga Gardens, a city lot in Lawndale that was, less than a decade ago, abandoned and desolate. Now it teems with the energy of a perfect little ecosystem.
Dozens of garden beds and giant pots overflow with organic vegetables. Birds and bugs flit from leaf to
