Gardening Notes from 2013

Sugar snap peas - Sow directly in soil March 1.  Sow them close together -- they can grow densely crowded together.

Lettuce - Sow directly in soil March 1. Will tolerate freezing temps.

Purple cabbage/green cabbage - Sow directly in soil March 1.Will tolerate freezing temps. If planted too late, won't have time to produce cabbages before it gets too hot.

Broccoli -- Try again but plant March 1. May not have produced florets in the past because they may have been planted too late.

Lettuces, chard, spinach, greens - Sow directly in soil March 1. Will tolerate freezing temps.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini - wait to plant until after Mother's Day.  2013 saw freezing temps at night into May.

Creating Community from Within

I've always looked outside to see what's available. I finally get it, though.  What your internal world is showing you is what you need to take out into the world.  This is what "grassroots" means, at least to me right now in my life.  Grassroots always seemed to me to have an association with some kind of pipedream or with something that suggested struggle -- struggle against the Big Man, or struggle against the trend in mainstream society, etc. But I see it's about bringing forth from within myself that which needs to see expression in the physical...and the rest of the outer world can continue just as dynamically as it currently is. This is what conscious community is -- bringing forth from consciousness into our physical reality.  It's not about seeing what's available to you "out there."  It's about creating "out there" what seeks to be expressed through you.  Those that are drawn to the same are your growing community.  Talk about community based upon true connection. Consciousness community, gardening community, cooking community, music community, DIY community and the networks that form between and among them.

Mike Dooley -- current read and inspirations

I have a Joy group and a Tao group, both fun for tossing around ideas about consciousness.  My Tao group is currently on Leveraging The Universe by Mike Dooley. I return to it every day and will return to it numerous times after I finish with it. He throws out some phrasing that I don't even really have to think about -- like a thought that jumps front and center and pushes everything else aside. I want to record the best nuggets as a log for myself, but maybe the following will be helpful or open doors for others.  I hope so. Life as a series of opening doors -- well, present moment living is equivalent to that. It's that everyday magic that you have to be watching for. Enwondered. Just hanging out, open and expectant. Those moments are the magic when I think "love is all there is."  Sounds so put-on, except when you're actually experiencing those magic moments. How do we get to openness to wonder?  Well, that'll be another blog post.

Here are some thoughts from Mike Dooley:

Do all you can with what you've got from where you are.  This includes asking questions and asking for help.

If you truly understand that thoughts become things, then it would be negligent, reckless, irresponsible, unconscionable not to spend a few minutes every day deliberately thinking thoughts along the lines of your dreams. Nothing you can do can give you such a big return for so little effort.

You can change invisible, limiting beliefs even if you don't know you have them by replacing them with beliefs that serve you.

Identify the beliefs that will serve you, then start installing them.

Our ducks in life will never line up until you start.  And when you start, you summon the resources you need. You summon the ducks people spend their whole lives waiting for.  They only line up once you start. You have to start without the ducks.  You won't find anything until you step.  It's like stepping out into the abyss.

Whenever the unexpected lands in your path (good, bad, or neutral),  it is always a stepping stone to a journey to a place you have been thinking about.

Instead of asking "what should I do", ask "what do I want to do?"

Master what's in front of you.  Keep doing what you're doing, but do it better.  Even if you don't like what's in front of you, master it, and then life elevates you.  The way to get away from something you don't like is to master it. Stay focused; don't keep looking at the kettle to see if it's boiling yet. You may wake up one day and be amazed that you've arrived.

The only mistake you can make is to not do anything.