Aja Hudson stopped by to tell us of her own connection to the earth, how it has guided her and why this connection is so critical right now.
A lifelong resident of the Hudson Valley, Aja was born in Kingston, NY in 1978, and her lineage has farmed along the 209 corridor for over 300 years. Aja was raised with her hands in the soil, and that connection to the land has shaped every aspect of her life and work. She has spent the majority of her professional career focused on ecological restoration and resilience. In 2001, she founded Earth Designs, an environmentally friendly landscape design and build firm. Thirteen years later, she transitioned the company into a worker owned cooperative, currently known as Earth Designs Cooperative. For seven years, she served as the Executive Director, Lead Designer, and Board president, playing an important role in both conceptualizing the trajectory of the Cooperative and supporting its growth. In 2020, she stepped down so that the co-op could move deeper into a shared leadership dynamic, and she could be free to work in other ways.
Since childhood, Aja has had a deep relationship with the earth, particularly through an energetic connection with the soil, plants and trees. Later in life, her work with the natural world provided her with an inherent awareness of the alchemical process necessary for the proliferation of a healthy ecosystem. The combination of these elements have served as a guide in navigating many relational dynamics in her life, while simultaneously illuminating an understanding that the human experience is rooted in the illusion of separation. Aja’s philosophy is based in the belief that we are energetic beings with unlimited capabilities and that redefining our relationships with ourselves, and ultimately the way we relate to the earth, can be a path for our individual and collective healing.
Aja is inspired daily by her daughter and granddaughter. She is a practicing herbalist and believes that food is medicine. She is a cancer survivor, and has a lifelong love of running. She has spent the last 15 years studying various traditional shamanic cosmological teachings, more recently interwoven with psychotherapeutic tools, therapies and coaching. She served 2 terms with the Wild Earth Board of Directors, and participated in a year-long fellowship with the Good Work Institute. She also studied Landscape Design and Autocad at the NY School of Horticulture.
Aja weaves a golden thread throughout her life and work—exploring the dynamic interplay between people, place, and the unseen energies that shape our experience.
To learn more about Aja, you can check out her website at ajahudson.com. To listen to a podcast talking about Aja’s experience transitioning her business into a worker owned cooperative, click here and scroll to episode 8.
