One Long Saturday

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Well it's been a while since my last post, not in actual days and minutes, but in its feeling.  Seems like a lifetime ago, which reminds me of how relative time really is.  There's a huge difference between feeling like the days will never end and the days are way too short.  This change was an incredibly subtle moment that altered my perception of everyday life in such a profound way.  Since making the switch from finance to farming, I haven't had a minute to do what seemed so commonplace before.  Checking emails has become an incredibly difficult task, but not as hard as simply finding the time to set up a wifi connection.  Nevertheless, time is what you make of it and with two separate phone calls from some of the people that helped me set up this website telling me basically it is true that "if you don't use it, you do lose it, I've decided to make some time.  Welcome to the office/farm/lab/university/playground...

Fear is another incredibly relative thing.  Time and fear can be factors in all of our lives and although they are somewhat in our control, they can also be out of our hands...in our heads.  The only thing we know for certain is that we know nothing for certain, but I think it is the times when we define something black or white that we end up creating more fear and separation.  Separation from the opportunity to expand the reality of what life can be.

Pulling beds can be one of the most gratifying tasks of all on the farm.  

There is something incredible about seeing a final product and looking back on all that went into that bed leading up to this final moment, a moment of rest.  It's also so gratifying because it's one of the tasks I can do quickest while maintaining integrity in my work.  The art of pulling a bed involves focus on the present moment as well as the end goal, a good pull means you have cleared a bed completely of everything that was growing, this way there is no need to come back and spend time combing through the bed again looking for plants you hastily left behind.  The beauty of pulling a bed is that with each pull I can actually feel the soil taking a huge deep breath of relief.  The soil has given so much of itself to whatever plant has been growing from protecting seedlings, to nourishing new growth, to producing nutrient-rich food, to flowering.  Although seemingly repetitive and tedious, the connection between my hard work allowing the soil to release it's firm, protective grip and take a deep breath creates a subtle force that drives me, it's not work, it's an offering.  You help me, I'll help you.  You have given me delicious nutritious food and I will return the favor.  This is a large part of what makes working with food so enjoyable.

For a good chunk of my life (and even sometimes now), I can say that I believed everything was black or white, that there were definitive answers for every question and if I asked enough questions, I would get all the right answers I needed to live a good life, but how sustainable is a system that relies completely on outside opinions inside my life?  I was way off, why not instead trust and embrace the wind(click play in link) along the way?  While there are real things to fear like whether we continue to destroy our country's fertile land and food supply, inflation, retaliation for wars we are fighting in other nations, why settle for sticking fear in the hands of what other's opinion of your life should be.  Outside of fear, it's important to remember that when you really believe in something and you follow your destiny, the world opens up to you in ways you never imagined.

The journey continues...