Notes from the Cottage

The Art of Experience to the Path of Singularity

2011-12-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

My intuition tells me that there is nothing random about life. I have "felt" that for all that happens there is an energy of purpose or intelligent thought creating it. This is a concept I don't believe that we are truly meant to understand. Oh sure it's fun for some to sit around and try to figure it all out, I have been one of them, but I am quickly moving into a place past where life has to be figured out or defined into life is being directed in a purposeful way. It feels right - no science, no religion, no books - just my life's experience is what is leading me to my heart. It seems the more I try to live in the definition of life, trying to figure it all out and what it means, the more chaotic it becomes. Which has been leading me to being open to the "experience" of it all.

As I grow into this body that I find foreign at best, I realize that is where I need to begin the act of "experience". Becoming one with the body that I was born to inhabit which has been a rocky relationship. Most of the time, I don't really want to be in my body, don't like it much and think somehow I got gyyped. But this morning I sort of had an awakening. Why not just experience the body I am in. Feel what it feels like to be in it - as opposed to judging what It shoulda coulda woulda been and experience the what is. Now, this is a new awareness, however, I am betting that if I can do that with "me", then that leads to everything around me - as once again, I am the hub of the wheel. What I am saying is, if I just experience, not judge, not define - but experience this human spacesuit - the result may be true freedom.

With this freedom and/or this "knowing" it can lead me to another reality which is one of singularity. Living in the experience, removing the definition i.e. judgment tha this mind, body and spirit can easily morph into everything, everyone and every action on this planet which is purposeful. Whoa! Imagine that. I would actually have to sit and "be" and not judge even the most awful of actions. Please don't misunderstand that people shouldn't be held accountable for their actions if they are hurting others, but as we do coexist with someone who say is cruel to animal or children, we may want to understand that just possibly if we were given the very same circumstance as that perpetrator, we may have done the exact same thing. Hard to hold the microscope up to and put ourselves in this place. But better yet, I say, more than sitting and defining how we are alike or different and analyzing these circumstances, we might want to pay attention to how we feel when given this information. Or perhaps by just "being" with this information, could be what actually begins to change things. Maybe this is where most of the information is at - living in the experience of having an experience. This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from Jospeh Campbell - in my opinion, one of the great thinkers and deeply spiritual men in the last 100 years. When Bill Moyer asked him if he was religious, he replied, "My experience is my religion."

Living in the experience becomes a true knowing that I am part of everything that exists not only on this planet but beyond. Oh, my how disconnected I have found myself to be so many times in my life. And even now, I find that I want to separate, define, think about, pass judgment and/or find an excuse to not be a part of all that is around me. Through the act of wanting to define everything around me leads to the judgment of it which then separates me from the collective - the singularity of mind with all that is.

Many thousands of years ago, wise sages of the East proclaimed that all of the universe, and every living and non-living thing in it, was a part of the collective consciousness. They said that our world is deeply interconnected at many levels and everything we do or think influences everything around us. We share the same energy with many different creatures and objects in the universe. An absolute gorgeous thought and one filled with responsibility.

Maybe by brining ourselves to the center of all that is and if in that center is the core of the experience of all that has been and all that will be - then I believe we are opening ourselves to the great religion that has been hibernating in our collective DNA. We have a religion that is about here, now, each other and everything. With that knowlege humanity will no longer cast the rabid stones, but instead shine the soft light in what is to be remembered - divine love.

THE WOUNDED HEALER

2011-12-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and for society. A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear in inwardly through “compassion” is a cruel and inhuman society.

I have so many reasons why I haven’t sent out my newsletter, so I will have to just put it under the umbrella of “life has been exceptionally eventful”. I guess before I ever entered this human body I signed up for all of these lessons which brings me to ask myself, “What the hell was I thinking?” I can’t say that any of it is bad or good because honestly experience has taught me that what I thought was a good thing wasn’t really what I needed and what I thought was bad turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I won’t go into details but I am on the path of getting physically stronger allowing me to move into the next chapter in my life, hence, “the wounded healer.”

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am committed to moving towards healing with sound. Not an original idea as it started with the Pythagorus, the father of mathematics, vegetarianism and harmonic sound healing along with being a gifted astrologer and astronomer. Music therapy is the more common of the modalities in the last 30 years, but the way I want to work is a little more about the use of the full harmonic spectrum than say, strumming a guitar while singing to the recipient. I will include essential oils, color and crystals – but the emphasis is on sound.

I have my tools, the template from which I want to work but what I don’t have in place is “me”. I have to heal me first. And even though I truly believe that this will work, I won’t really “know” until I utilize my template, on my own physical/mental/spiritual issues. There is a knowing and then there is a KNOWING. It seems to me that as healers (which I believe we all are) the insights into how we can be ministers of suffering especially in these times where many suffer specifically from the isolation that comes from our individualistic condition that we can call “nuclear man”, we have to journey through our own sufferings and isolation so that through our own wounds we too can offer a sincere healing. We heal by relating at a very deep level to the suffering of those we encounter. We speak of social issues like poverty, immigration or criminal justice but until we can integrate through our own experience the isolated feelings of marginalization, which at some level we all experience in different forms, then we are not addressing these issues at a spiritual level.

As a voice coach I’m good because I have been there. I lost my voice due to poor habits and then went through the long journey of finding my voice. Not only that, but I bring 40 years of experience to the student as I have been out in the field living a life of a musician. Though rewarding, it was mostly heartbreaking. I have learned many powerful lessons that I now can share. The student believes me because I am coming from a place of true passion, not a place of academia which frankly, I just have never been that interested in and had nothing to do with the grand teacher of them all, experience.

But on a larger scale we can look at all of our great teachers and/or messengers of truth. Ghandi, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Bill W (founder of AA) and others…..they teach what they undertook , most of them by choice which makes it even more meaningful, their own journey of isolation and injustice. Through them we can enjoy the hope that comes through their redemptive suffering. Even in Greek Mythology, the wounded healer comes up over and over again. For example, the Titan god Prometheus, had been chained to a rock by Zeus, the chief Olympian god. Being chained to the rock was to be his (Prometheus') punishment for having previous stolen fire from Olympia as a gift to mortals. Each day Zeus' eagle would come and eat Prometheus' liver. Each night the liver would heal itself. Then the eagle would come again for his liver snacks. As stipulated by Zeus - Prometheus could only be released if (and when) an immortal offered to go to Tartarus and take his place. Going to Tartarus would mean the immortal was giving up his status as an immortal and would die. Chiron, being the son of Kronus and half-brother of Zeus, agreed to take the place of Prometheus, and then eventually died. Upon his death, he was then released from his wound that would never heal. Chiron was then honored with the constellation of Centaurus. Giving up one’s immortal life with a compassionate act is a lesson that I believe needs to be fine-tuned not only in me but if I can be so presumpitious, for mankind as well. What this world be like, if all we ever did was treat each other with compassion out of our own suffering?

This hope becomes our well spring through which our own suffering can offer others a vision of redemption. The reason these actions bring converts rather than ridicule is because the message of caring is not just an empty word but a living reality that people can see, feel and then benefit within the communal experience. In other words, wounds and weaknesses of all humanity are healed by the collective which is just another word for the divine SOURCE allowing a shared compassion due to our fellow human beings suffering.

When I look at my life and then turn an inward eye back out to my brothers and sisters, I am convinced that the reason we are all here is to learn, then live in love and compassion. Judgment is not mine to own but instead, removing judgment in an effort to retrieve the memory we must have all had at one time - we are all cells in the same body…. knowing that the single cell is only healthy as a whole. The inward eye is upon me. Once again the solution, the beginning, the vision lies within the hub of the wheel as my wounds may give measure of the knowledge and compassion to heal. After all, the deeper the pain that is exposed, the more universal it will be understood.

Bullying Versus The Hero

2011-12-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

Let me say, that I have rarelly been bullied. As a matter of fact, in my younger days, I was probably the one who when I wasn't just seeking a good time, would pick on someone when I really had nothing better to do. This is hard for me to admit as I can't believe I took part in this kind of behaviour. Bottom line, shame on me. But because I was the oppressor and not the oppressed, I have an understanding on why some would do what they do. I was hurting inside for a mulittude of reasons which are no longer important, and because of the pain, I was looking for some sort of recognition, but most importantly, love.

Bullying comes in many colors as it is insidious. I see it everywhere. The chiropractor who is next door to my business and terrorizes anyone that parks in his parking lot (even though he sees one client at a time and there are 20 parking spaces), a woman who runs a group and pits young girls against each other so that she can get her way, a dance studio who bullies their dancers so that they have more control. It is everywhere.

What has caused me to write this is that Congress is now going to pass an anti-bulling act. I'm sure that the people that have been bullied, feel some sort of justice is being served. But honestly, I can't see how it's really going to do anything to change anything. Bascially, it is another law on the books. It is a band aid in treating a virus that is systemic in the missing layers of our culture's skin. The psyche - and that is where we go to find out why bullying is an epic problem. Under the skin to the root of what might be going on.

In order for a society to function, there has to be a certain level of trust. Each day when we leave our homes, we take for granted that most people are not going to attack us for no reason, that there will only be isolated incidents of theft in our community and that rioting and violence are not going to erupt in the streets. Whether we realize it or not, we depend on the fact that the vast majority of the people around us are going to act in a civilized manner. Unfortunately, the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear. When I was growing up, I was taught that challenging times reveal our true character. There are many that believe that the declining economy is causing a lot of the chaos that we are now witnessing, but perhaps what is going on is that these challenging economic times are simply revealing the character that has been there all along. For decades, a "false prosperity" that was fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt has masked a lot of the internal rot that has taken hold in America. But now that our prosperity is crumbling, our lack of values is becoming startlingly clear.

Greed, corruption and extreme self-centeredness have deeply infected our society. We see this in every country. We see this among those that are trying to survive on the mean streets of our largest cities. Civilization is breaking down on every level... desperate people do desperate things. Instead of teaching our children to love and care for one another, we have taught them to be incredibly self-involved. Today, way too many Americans deeply love themselves, deeply love money and are deeply addicted to entertainment. Each new generation seems to be even more prideful, even more arrogant and even more violent. As a nation, we are losing our empathy for others, our compassion for the needy and our respect for the elderly.

So why the shock that there are bullies? I mean, when someone is surprised that their child has been bullied and how can other children be so cruel, my first thought is, are you kidding? We live in a country that is fighting three wars, and as far as I can tell has been bullying the rest of the world for sometime. The bulling is trickling downstream from our leaders into the collective mindset.

So here we are looking at ourselves in the great cosmic mirror and maybe - taking a really good look for the first time in years. We have all of this pent up anger and angst over man made constructs that really have nothing to do with quality of life. Seeing and feeling being human without any mythology in tow to investigate and know our psyche. Hanging in a void of "well that doesn't work but then what does"?

I propose that we turn from celebrity and look to the hero within. The part of us that reaches beyond the normal range of achievement and experience. Give our lives to something bigger than oneself. Connect with the physical deed, in which we perform a courageous act in battle and the spiritual deed, in which we learn to experience the supernormal range of human spiritual life allowing us to find our message. Pursuing leaving the world that we are in and go into a depth or into a distance or up to a height. There we come to what was missing in our consciousness in the world we formerly inhabited. Facing the problem of staying with that, and letting the world drop off, or returning with the wisdom while trying to hold on to the new way as we move back into our social world again.

We have not slayed our own dragons. We have forgotten the importance of the journey as we crave instant gratification which has led us to right where we are standing. Picking on, judging, and bullying each other. I say take out our swords and cut away the web of deceit, keeping us from being who we truly are. A human being who is connected to all others, joined heart to heart, remembering how to love.

From my garden to yours......

COMPETITION EQUALS VICTIMIZATION

2011-11-29T02:32:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since I have written, but I have accomplished so much in the last few months therefore I can't feel too terrible about it. And now with the winter months, I am able to enjoy some time where I can sit at the window, watch the tankers float by while the geese migrate. As I get a chance to relax, I feel like there is something in the air. An awareness if you will. It has a tinge of the uncomfortable, and a smack of reality - definitely a shift - one that doesn't feel good but still necessary. It has the smell of global and universal implications - but what is it? Is it one thing or everything? What I do know is that whatever it is, it is meaningful. It's also interesting that I am watching it play out in a more individualistic way not only with others but personally. And aren't we just pieces of the total cosmology?

This was driven home as I walked away from a situation where I know someone felt badly about a repeated disappointment in their life. I am not to say what another human being's lessons are. That is their personal journey. My lesson is to remain aware of my part and to remember that whatever happens, it was due to my actions and I have no one but me to blame for it. What I put out into the world is what will come back. Some examples are the pickpocket who believes everyone is out to get their hands in his pocket. A liar thinks everyone is lying to them. Someone that uses people believes that they are or will be used. If a human being believes the need to compete than everyone becomes competition. It's human nature. What you are, is what you see, is what you get back. I am coming around to my own accountability and with that have asked myself some hard questions. I have come up with some answers that seem satisfactory and will continue to work on the issues at hand. But as I was dealing with my own story, I thought -isn't this the same journey that we as a species need to undertake?

If as individuals we learn to take our own advice, then so must the human race in our global development on this planet. While reviewing, there seems to be one thing that can quickly make a difference....and that is to stop being a victim. What is a victim? In my opinion a victim compels others to rescue them by making them hostage to their alleged circumstances, dragging them into the abyss of their own making. Did I say of their own making? Yes, I did. No matter what your, mine and our circumstances, we are responsible for our actions from this point forward. Where we are now is a result of our previous decisions and actions. Regardless of what has happened in the past,we have the power to change our situation now. If we don't like what is happening on this planet - whos fault is it? We get what we deserve. This mess is a result of what we either asked or settled for.

When we play the victim and expect others to come to your rescue, we are shutting ourselves off from that tremendous power of personal accountability, the power of "you'. You are creating a self-limiting environment for yourself. You are failing to be 100% responsible. Do I deny the reality of circumstances good and bad? No, but I do deny the benefit when you or I or anyone else focuses on them from a victim's perspective. For every whine, somebody has a better case somewhere else. No matter what has happened to you, something worse has happened to someone else. If you demand people focus on victimhood, you owe it to others less fortunate to focus on them and not yourself. You'll never win this losing battle of being the biggest victim. Every minute you spend playing the victim, is a minute you spend not doing something about it. Aside from that, nobody else wants to hear it. You are just spreading the misery unnecessarily.

Right, so what are some of the characteristics of the victimized masses that got us here? Greed? Fear? Partially, and much more, but I am going to deal with the result of competition, since that is what I see firsthand being in the music business.

Ah, the world of competition. We get so focused on our daily routine that it never occurs to us how dirty we sometimes play. Society has always been competitive, but today life is perhaps more competitive than in any previous era. Since childhood children are taught how to show that they are the strongest, the smartest the very best. This is where competition starts. People are used to thinking that their lives, possessions, belongings are the best, the biggest the most attractive. That keeps us wanting for more and we continue to never be satisfied. Race, financial, or social status doesn't matter. When we are accused of playing dirty, everybody tries to prove the jury wrong even if the jury is them.

Is there an answer to this. I say yes there is. Let us consider the world of collaboration. A world where we see what our part is and then join together with others to accomplish the dreams of the individual, group and mass. Realizing that no one is better than anyone else. We all have our strengths, our weaknesses, our talents, our neurosis - it is what makes us interesting or challenging. With these characteristics in tow, are any of us really that different than anyone else? Do you deserve more than the human being you are standing next to? I think that many of us think so and I say, shame on us.

We will never move forward if we are victimized by our own desperation and dreams. We will never see eye to eye if we are not living in the collective consciousness about who we really are and what we all really want. I don't think we have to think too hard about what truly makes any of us happy. I am sure that being accountable will lead us to it. I know that I have never met anyone that didn't do better my trying to achieve it. And what would that be? That my beautiful human family would be the pursuit of love.

From my garden to yours.....

Cricket Garde

Peace in the Moment and Within

2011-07-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

"Anything in life that we don't accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it."...Shakti Gawain

Hindus have their Gods. Christians have Saints. There are thousands of them and, like our Gods, each one ' looks after' a particular part of the world. There are Saints for Lost Causes, and a Saint for acne. There are Saints for death row inmates and Saints for love. There are hundreds of Saints for animals , who have demonstrated acts of compassion and charity on creatures great and small. But I'm not sure there is a Saint for time management or a Saint for believing that you have failed as a human being by not always doing the right thing. Both issues that have been coming up for me in the last month.

Let's start with the time management issue and really, maybe management is a misleading word. Because who in this world has the power to manage time? An elusive, manmade construct that is completely misleading when considering that our calendar is completely out of sync with the flow of the planets and their cycles - a universal knowing if you will - but I digress. The issue at hand is that I am falling backwards and not doing what is required for me to function in a healthy way. The exercise went out the window along with meditation, eating as healthy as I can and oh I don't know a list of many other things that I am not getting to.

With the opening of my own studio (Holistic Voice Institute) and the garden season upon us, it has been a bit much. Not only that but due to all the things I was trying to accomplish on my to do list, I got really sick and am on day number 14 with a cold virus thing that won't seem to let go. This slowed me down and as most of you know when you are sick, it seems like life is passing you by.

Now out of bed and getting back on the serenity train. I have hired a yoga instructor for my studio and looking for a trainer that can work out of my studio space, bringing them to me as I can't seem to get to them. The rest will follow I'm sure - just a temporary blip but even so, why can't I maintain a normalcy in my life? What is so fricking hard about it? Is it supposed to be hard? Is that the character building of it all? Taking joy in the appreciation so that when you achieve just a bit of it, you are grateful?

"Find joy and Peace in this very moment"...Thich Nhat Hanh

Lying in bed for four days I did finally come to a conclusion and that is - God made me perfect. I am in the image of God and if it's good enough for God, then dammit, it's good enough for me. It is time for me to make peace with who I am. Constantly picking at an etheric scab does not allow me to ever truly heal. With all that I am supposed to do to be a better human, I am losing sight of what actually makes me one. For example, I no longer have time to be connected to nature. I am not spending any of these precious life moments falling in love with Mother Earth which is a hands on daily exercise. I haven't written my newsletter which is an absolute joy for me and once again, connects me with something above my hair. So yeah, maybe I don't have clutter in my house, or I meditate regularly, or I eat right, or I exercise, or... or... or... or.....but what really matters to me is getting lost.

With the writing of this newsletter I am recommitting to what makes me tick. I am getting off the "to do list" and back into "Living in the present" which is to be aware of what is happening, of what I am doing and what I am feeling and thinking. It is being conscious of my thoughts and focusing them on the now. In this way I can look at situations as they are, not coloring them with past experiences. Living in such a way will make it easier to deal with whatever I am doing at the moment. See things as they are, without being influenced by fears, anger, desires or attachments.

There is a story about two friends traveling by train. One was very nervous, restless and full of complaints the whole trip. He was impatient to reach his destination, and disliked every moment of the trip. He did not pay attention to his surroundings, as his mind was full of impatient, restless and grumpy thoughts. His friend, on the other hand, enjoyed the scenery, drank a cup of coffee, ate a piece of cake and chatted with the other passengers. He enjoyed every moment the trip. He lived in the present moment and made the most of it. On arrival he was fresh and felt good. His friend, as expected, arrived exhausted, tired and unhappy. It is a matter of the right attitude. Life becomes a happy and enjoyable trip when the attitude toward it and its events is positive, and the present moment is used in the best possible way.

It is time for me to get on the train and enjoy the view. To wake up to the moment and live in it. The past happened, the to do list finds it place and I know longer am enslaved by thoughts and emotions, losing my freedom by living in the shoulda woulda coulda world. I have declared myself to be a citizen of the "world of the present moment". The world of peace of mind which frees me of unnecessary, burdensome and unpleasant thoughts. A world where I can stop pointing a finger at anyone including me and thrive in a peaceful state leading me to where peace lives within.

Anything in life we don't accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it. This can only be achieved by knowing constant living and awareness of the present developing a new kind of awareness-consciousness. It is awareness of freedom, of being alive, of happiness, joy, peace and realizing the freedom from thoughts. There is nothing mysterious, mystical or out of this life about this concept. It is the most natural and positive state to exist in because when we learn to say a deep, passionate yes to the things that really matter, then peace within ourselves begins to settle onto our lives like golden sunlight sifting to a forest floor.

From my peaceful garden to yours.

Deserve To Love

2011-03-21T07:32:00.001-07:00

It has been over two weeks since I have written the Cricket Newsletter. With all that is going on, to find time to just "write" seemed almost impossible. It's a little bit sad, because out of all the projects I have, Cricket Newsletter is one of my favorites. Besides the time factor, so much is going on in the world, that I just didn't seem to have anything that was important enough to write. But after this last week and the horrific circumstances in Japan, I was suddenly compelled to write something.

As the facts unfolded of the horrors of the earthquakes in both Christchurch, New Zealand and Japan, there was something that struck me in the center of my heart. And that was how the people in both catastrophes, handled themselves. I watched how hour after hour, family members would walk through debris, groups of people and government agencies in order to find loved ones. I saw how these people in quiet dignity stood in lines for water and small portions of food while huddled around heaters in makeshift tents. I cried as individuals described trying to hold on to loved ones, to no avail as the raging waters swept their children and spouses away. In all of this, I never felt pity but only admiration for how courageous and kind they were being to each other in the middle of their hell. Very much like the Taiwanese interacted when they were faced with the same horrors.

I wonder if this same kind of horror happened to this country if we would conduct ourselves the same way? Would we still hold on to our humanity while rebuilding, allowing us the realization that it was the only way to maintain and/or grow physically and spiritually? Or would we think that the government or the world or life needed to give us what we deserve? And what is it that we deserve? Who owes us? Anyone? Would we loot to our heart's content? Or would we look inside ourselves and find out what we are made of which may then lead us to rely on each other and then out of that building a stronger, richer and wiser community?

I will speak for myself on what I deserve. I was told a long time ago when I was living a very selfish life, by someone very wise, "If you got what you deserved you wouldn't be alive." Sounds harsh, I know, but honestly, that was the truth. I completely got it when I heard it. The statement drove home how much more I could be offering to the world. I needed to up my ante as a human being and become more useful but not only that, I had a moment of clarity that allowed me to see that false promises had been made to me on how life should be. On how easy it was supposed to be. Ah, I get it....work hard, enjoy the hard work and lower all expectations.

Maybe what I deserve is a crimson sunset. A hot bath. A monarch butterfly. The reassuring voice of a stranger. The gifts that nurture the soul. Maybe this is what are the special moments instead of yearning for a nice house, a big color TV, being famous or being rich. Maybe what we might be actually yearning for are the special moments to give balance to that which so often and easily becomes off-balance due to the hectic demands and increasing pressures of society, government, ad campaigns and what the next door neighbor has. I have known catastrophe to clear the way for divine energy to speak and filter through my senses so that the human spirit can be invigorated.

Now let me be clear, that my intention is not to minimize the horrific suffering that people in New Orleans, Australia, Haiti, New Zealand and Japan have been through. Far from it. It is just my way of putting a personal perspective on what is happening in a way that I can make sense of it. I have to remember that so often, people who have endured nothing less than catastrophic life experiences have most often come out victors rather than victims. When asked, "What was it that got you through your crisis?" Each person gives a similar answer. What they describe is what can be coined as "muscles of the soul." Those inner resources which help us dismantle and transcend the roadblocks on life's journey. These roadblocks include everything from the ex-spouse from hell to cancer to earthquakes.

The muscles of the soul include, but are not limited to courage, faith, humor, patience, compassion, imagination, humbleness, forgiveness, intuition, creativity, optimism, honesty and love. These are the resources people draw upon in times of crisis and catastrophe. They are not gifts for a chosen few. They are birthrights for each and every one of us. But, like our physical muscles, they will atrophy if not used. And while they will never disappear, in a weakened or inactive state, they will be as ineffective as the muscles of a sedentary person attempting a marathon.

In times of catastrophe we are called upon to use our inner resources and come through each situation the victor, not the victim. Our spiritual muscles are there for the asking. Spiritual health is flexing these muscles and feeling the strength they provide when needed.

I can only hope that my spiritual muscles have not atrophied when I am called upon to act in difficult times. I hope that I remember I am a spiritual being living in the physical. And with these hopes I pray for everyone that is suffering in this changing world. I choose that in the end what we are left with is love, light and compassion. I choose to live with an open heart expecting nothing in return. And may I be left with knowing the one thing we do deserve is that we deserve to love.

From my garden to yours..........

Deserve Humanity

2011-03-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

Let's take a deep collective "here comes the spring weather" breath! Shall we? Between a really long and seemingly harsh winter here in Michigan and all of the world events, I keep praying for a little down time which doesn't seem to ever happen. Of course, the never-ending when will the ferry not be running drama, adds a little bit of stress. As a matter fact, today, once again, the ferry is stuck in ice. And it is almost April.

I do have some gardening tips below. As the spring approaches we are spending more time outside so my little Cricket Garden Newsletter will be dealing more with the actual act of ...yes, gardening.

In the meantime, I do want to share some last thoughts on what has been taking place. So please indulge me and then like I said, it is all about the garden.......I think.

As the events after the catastrophe in Japan have unfolded, I am saddened by the reaction of press, politics and other powers that be, in regards to the dialogue that has followed. The fact that we are still discussing whether Nuclear Power is a good thing or not when we know that major templates are shifting is absolutely absurd. To say that there were no deaths after 3-mile island is absurd (see stats below). The fact that we are worried about the economic situation in Japan and how it affects us instead of the recovery of the future of human welfare in the world is absurd. Remember you can't eat gold and you can't eat a dollar bill. Money is something we made up as a means of exchange. But services are a means of exchange too. Let's have that converstation or would we have to turn off our televisions refusing to listen to information that circulates round and round, feeding in on itself. I say, wake up to all of those who are stuck and live in a world that has nothing to do with a new reality.

We live in a culture where everything tastes good but nothing satisfies. The mercenary mind perceives the world purely in terms of material resources to be used for its benefit, to increase productivity and profit without thought of long term consequence. If there is still a vague and oppressive sense of guilt, of wrongness and imbalance, this gnawing guilt spurs money mongers on to greater acts of consumption, more and more violent attempts to subjugate nature, more totalizing efforts to create distractions. To the "rational materialist" living without a connection to oneness, he believes death is the end of everything; this thought feeds its rage against nature, which has placed us in this position of despair.

What I do know is that if we don't learn our lesson then the lessons will get bigger. And with the bigger lessons are bigger consequences.

Wake up everyone. Do your research. There are other forms of energy. Do some investigating. Go back to Tesla in the 20's who already had his system in place for free energy only to be usurped by J.P. Morgan and Thomas Edison. Investigate Hutchinson's experiments with Anti-Gravity. Google David Sereda and see what he is up to in regards to Anti-Gravity and free energy. Or maybe if you would like a little celebrity with your renewable resources you can see the work that Daryl Hannah is supporting with her own money.

I like to take a positive outlook on whatever is happening and see the higher purpose of it. But when I am channel surfing to get any kind of "real" information, only to land on the senator from Tennessee who is going on about how wonderful Nuclear Energy is only to find out that two of the biggest contractors for Three Mile Island contributed $15,000 to his campaign, I have to look a little harder for the "light" in all of this.

The world I look forward to is earth friendly. It is a world that knows that at the center of this beautiful green sphere that I call Mother Earth is a beating heart. A heart that my heart needs to be connected to so that I know what I am made of and how I fit into this beautiful cosmos. The earth that I am looking forward to is one that doesn't think that money is so important that the distribution of it goes to the very few while "most" people on this planet suffer. I am pining for the society that sees a more intelligent way for humans spending their time investigating new constructs for sustainable communities. For example, maybe if each person donated two hours a day to the needs of the community then they could spend the rest of their time pursuing what their passion may be. That's all it would take, two hours from every single person.

For years I have been saying that we will waste valuable time trying to keep things the way they were when what we might want to do is leap forward with faith, imagination, an organic responsibilty to ourselves and each other bringing our brushes and pallettes to this canvas, an art project called humanity. Something we truly can't live without.

Pilgrimage - An Unfinished Opus

2011-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

'We only have to look around us to see how complexity and psychictemperature are still rising: and rising no longer on the scale of the individual but now on that of the planet. This indication is so familiar to us that we cannot but recognize the objective, experiential, reality of a transformation of the planet as a whole'.

We are heading through a period in history where we can no longer dismiss the wisdom of ancient peoples. Being that - the cosmic concept where intelligence is not just a function of humans on earth but an intrinsic part of energy space and time itself. Every religion comes to the same concept in the end - there is a hierarchy of sorts along with one creator. These beliefs, which I share, cause me to believe there is one full consciousness, so therefor there is only one identity. Singularity - the concept of oneness. The tricky part is that everything we see around us is part of a dream leading us to think that when we are looking at others we are looking at someone else. But really, as we are all part of the same consciousness - we are just looking at ourselves.

Yep, that's right folks. No pointing fingers or it's the other guys fault or how can she do that or boy, that so and so is really stupid.....in other words, all we are ever seeing in each and every face, is the face of God. A perfect human being made in God's image. This is my mantra when I begin to slip, finger getting ready to point - and then begin with an inner voice, "I can't be angry, I can't pass judgment, I am looking at the face of God.

The journey, pilgrimage, if you will, has not been an easy one for me. I did not come into this humaneness, adjust my halo, fluff my wings and begin loving everyone....Life just always seemed hard. Many reasons for that. Being an overly sensitive kid, mother on welfare and food stamps while my father ran around, no proper clothes to wear in a community where that was not the case for others. Then choosing the music business to go into at a time few women were singing in bands, developing a tough skin, while being forced to make decisions that did not make me the most popular girl in the neighborhood. More than half of my life, I was incredibly angry.

As I look around the world, so many of "us" are still angry. The world moving through its journey, is now dying it's angry death of what it has been. I am standing on a planet watching a rebirth, pulling us all in since we are included in the active elements of the universe. But maybe "journey" doesn't really explain it as the word seems to have a beginning and an end. So Pilgrimage may be more fitting. "Pilgrimage", because it is a journey of the spirit frequently beginning long before the journey commences and continuing long after the destination has been reached.

Believing that the earth/ universe/mankind, all part of a singular concept, we can look at the earth's pilgrimage, as if it applies to an individual (or the other way around?). How does a pilgrimage begin? Could be an invitation from a friend, a suggestion by a stranger, an unexpected prompting from within one's mind and heart can set a pilgrimage in motion. Haven't many of us, in our hearts and mind yearned for a more peaceful world? Because a pilgrimage is a spiritual journey, it makes the decision to go on a pilgrimage not come quickly or easily. Don't we still feel the pull of the negative even though it can only lead to our demise? Isn't there a tug of war within our own collective consciousness, playing out on a world stage? To displace oneself, that is, to leave the familiar and comfortable place and travel along an unknown and different path may require a season of prayer, the support of a praying community, and a process of discernment before the inner "yes" is freely and intentionally uttered. I am beginning to hear a collective yes, each day more affirmative revealing that awareness of the pilgrimage has already begun.

"The words community and solitary pilgrims may seem like they do not belong together in the same sentence. Yet, throughout the experience of pilgrimage the need for pilgrims to be alone and the need for them to be also in community complement and support one another. Pilgrims come together often with an innate contemplative attitude, a stance requiring periods of inner solitude and outer spaciousness so the spirit can be cared for by silence. Corresponding, when pilgrims come together and form a pilgrim community, the spirit of each pilgrim speaks to the spirit of the other, harmonizing and balancing the movements of each person's involvement in the divine cosmic dance of transformation".

What is the spirit in spiritual for the earth's and our pilgrimage? Maybe the answer begins with a premise-that we are not human beings seeking somehow to do something to become spiritual, but rather we are spiritual beings who long to become fully human. If that premise is accepted, then spirit is an element of being human, being alive and experiencing the emotional qualities of spirit, inner promptings that reflect certain conditions of the mind, heart and body.

As humans, if we can remember that we are truly pilgrims often encountering the shared experiences of a deeper life-giving spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and compassion, which affect the mind, the heart, and the body. Then we can realize this is the only way to combat intolerance, rebellion, hatred, violence, or bigotry. If our collective spirit can embrace that a pilgrimage is not always what it seems to be, it is not a vacation, it is uncomfortable, including moments of despair, doubt and conflict, then we can look around and understand what is happening providing more clarity to what is playing out.

Maybe while we percolate, grow and morph, we can bring intentional prayer, meditation, silence, shared reflection and a peace driven vision to the petri dish. We can keep at the forefront of our minds, that love, compassion, peace and knowing are the connection of the human heart to our higher self. And then maybe we can connect, protect and realize what is at stake. One of our greatest gifts....The Great Mother, Earth.

RESOLUTIONS

2011-01-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

Making a New Years resolution is like broadcasting your intentions to the Devil.".......Alan Watts, British Philosopher

That is a pretty heavy quote. Actually, my mother, a wise old soul put it differently. "Kathleen, the minute you want something, the universe puts up roadblocks, so it's best not to "want" anything." Or in another case, my dear friend, Johnny B said in reply to me stating that I "wanted" to practice acceptance, said, "Why do you want anything, just learn to be." Ah, the perils of being human! I have to say that my experience in the spiritual realm tells me there seems to be forces at work trying to keep me from becoming my best, that try to keep me from progressing on my spiritual journey. Whatever these forces are they don't have my best interest in mind which means that the progression of a spiritual path stalls and I end up staying right where I am at. And to not want anything? Of course, that is pretty impossible as a human being - over the years I seemed to always be in a state of "wanting" something or the other. Even with my Taoist leanings of "everything you need is in the moment", it seems that I get popped out of Taoist serenity all too often.

But it is getting better. My list shortens and has more purpose. This last year, so much was accomplished that I can't believe it. Losing weight, working out, finding spiritual teachers, meditating, gardening, organizing my lifeto be more efficient, getting rid of clutter, the garden, the produce stand, finishing a book of poetry, getting two websites up, setting up a fund for families in need, moving into working spaces that are conducive for what I want to do and training in the etheric, spiritual and physical so that it can be applied to the voice and all that goes with it. The list continues for the new year; find time to write/read/study, going vegetarian, recording my next CD & a children's record both with original songs, opening up my own Voice Institute, go camping more often this summer and step up the physical activity. And of course the little cross hairs that get in the way - balancing and working within a budget and improving communications in business affairs. It's not a big list nor are these insurmountable - however, some of them get brushed under a rug, sidetracked, bamboozled and skewered - because I don't really want to do it (budget) or just get lost in the shuffle.

Oh, this just doesn't work anymore because as long as my thinking and/or headspace is taken up with all the internal chatter of life's clutter and whether my checkbook is balanced, it steals all the energy away from what may have more purpose for duties that ring through to a higher level. So stinking thinking takes over and leaves little room for loftier thoughts. Because of this realization, resolutions have now become something more important - however, they are no longer, what I "want". Instead I place my "needs" into right now and manifest as if it has already happened. I no longer get into the "I want" or even "I need" but rather state it as "I Am". Then I seem to become a co-creator, if you will, as opposed to a victim - someone waiting for something to happen to them. It seems to be working as now, I sometimes move almost too quickly towards my goals.

We live in a society of wanting - wanting something other than what we have. This is tricky ground to walk, filled with ego-driven landmines. The tightrope for me has been turning wanting into what my actual needs are and then living as if they are already in place. It takes some meditation, guidance and thought - but keeping the heart pure and my eye on the goal of what I am here to accomplish - seems to keep the journey honorable.

Years ago, while working with women who were ex-addicts and trying to put together clean pregnancies - would come to me worrying about every little thing. My standard reply was, "What are you worried about? It's already happened, you just haven't gotten there yet." (Believe me, there was a lot of eye rolling after that statement). How many times have I looked back and thought, how the hell did that all happen? Between the experience of living life and of course, the garden, have taught me to just "be" - the Water Course or the Way of the Tao. When in the garden, I compost, plant, water and then lower my expectations. Because of this the Taoist lessons of try without trying to act without acting come into play.

By doing so, maybe I won't attract the attention of those who want me to fail.

Or am I the culprit of the failure.....hmmm.........

With the beginning of the New Year I want to take a minute and thank those of you who take time out of your busy lives to read this newsletter. You have no idea, how much it means to me when you drop a note to tell me how you look forward to reading it. It means a lot because it confirms my belief that all of us are on the same journey - different modes of operandi, but the journeys are the same. My purpose of writing this newsletter is to share some of what I move through, hoping that it will strike a chord with some of you. Afterall, we are all part of the same cosmos and need each other to grow, love and share.

May your New Years be as loving and rewarding as we all deserve.

From my garden to yours......

Songs of Peace

2011-01-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

"We sang all night and everybody went home early in the morning. It was emotionally so strong that the next day there were even more people. The day after, there were even more people. People took out their hidden flags. They had these flags hidden for 50 years and now they took these out and started to wave them."...Estonian

"They listened to the sounds of the wind, the mountains, the creeks, the rustling grass and imagined the many spirits surrounding them. The Tibetan monks, used this as part of the preparation for prayer as a way to cleanse themselves to pray to their deities"...Humming Your Way to Happiness

Sound is a healer because sound is who we are - a mass of beautiful vibrations as a result of connected harmonic strings informing us of all of that we are made of, beyond and etheric. We along with every living thing has a "cosmic hum" - which of course includes our planets (The Murmers of Earth, Carl Sagan). If we are so lucky as to be sensitive enough to hear the sound (Ah the ears of our furry critters), it is these hums, sounds, harmonics that I think prove that everything is humming along with everything - until there is a discord, putting us out of sync with the universal flow. And as we look around, there is much discord.

What we have forgotten is that most ancient cultures and indigenous peoples, regarded sound as a creative generative force associated with the creation of the Universe, and capable of being harnessed to produce impossible physical and spiritual feats. I reiiterate "physical and spiritual feats", which brings me to something that I wanted to write about.

Most people don't think about singing when thinking about revolutions and/or troubled times. But in Estonia song was the weapon of choice when, between 1987 and 1991, Estonians wanted to end decades of Soviet occupation. The Singing Revolution was the name given to the step-by-step process that led to the reestablishment of Estonian Indepedence in 1991. This was a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent occupation. It was called the Singing Revolution because of the role singing played in the protests of the mid-1980's. The movement started in 1987 with 10,000 people at a national music festival and by 1991 two million people joined hands while singing, making a human chain across 400 miles. In late December the Soviet regime was over.

Let's face it - it is just getting weird out there or should I say here. Afterall, it is happening on the same planet I live on. So what do I do about it? Do I ignore it - the answer is no. Do I feed into the power of the negative as every newscaster and heandliner cast an eye on an atrocity that happened in Tucson or anywhere else. - the answer is no. The more we feed into the "paying attention" of how horrible it all is and then having knee jerk reactions which will take away even more rights, enslaving pepole that have nothing to do with these atrocities, we have to come up with a solution. Or do we find a way to "counter" the darkness of all this by bringing light and prayer? And frankly, I just don't think that we have given these incredbily powerful tools their due. It is really easy to point fingers and guns. But really, what can we do to change it? To change us? To change our world? And not to just change it, but to evolve - to have vision. Isn't it love? Isn't it compassion? Isn't it light? And since music is the most powerful thing I have ever come across and more importantly the human voice - is that something we can utilize for change. I think so.

As a singer and more importantly as a voice teacher, I see people change every day as they and their voice connect. They are happier, more relaxed, more confident, their creative juices begin to flow, problem solving becomes easier and they and I have the most beautiful connection. They and I are changing, one cell at a time. Human to human, voice to voice, heart to heart. So why can't we inform change one person at a time?

That is just what I am going to do. I have been inspired by sound all of my life. It has taken me to heights that sadly, most people don't get to experience. I am going to take this and do something with it. But let's not call it revolution. Let's call it peace. Let's call it Peacesong.

From my sound filled, peaceful garden to yours.........

Unity In Action

2011-01-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

If in the seeking of such goals, a soul uses behaviors of separation; greed, theft, lies, betrayal etc., then such souls though creators, do not understand the Universal principle of Unity from which everything is birthed or created. Such souls then create chaos and havoc that each of you witnesses in your world. If other souls seek their dreams with behavioral actions that signify unity consciousness, then such are true masters and co-creators of not just the world, but of the Universe and they function in alignment with the natural order of the Universe...Unknown

Let's face it, the Cricket Garden Newsletter has morphed and most of the time, has little to do with gardening...or is that really true? If I follow the path that I have been guided to, then all things are inclusive and it seems through gardening, has driven this statement about inclusiveness to the core of who I am. I don't think it's just gardening that has brought me to this awareness. It is, most probable, the culmination of a very busy and varied life, which included the arts - once again bringing my awareness to the point of realizing that all information comes from somewhere above my hair.

There is practically no field of human endeavor that does not relate to gardening in some way. Seen from whatever perspective I might choose, nature touches on every single aspect of human life. Therefore, gardening becomes the metaphor for life or the other way around. But it doesn't matter as life and growing food are symbiotic with each other which has to be considered, as we improve on, reinvent and are inspired by, to move forward on an ever-changing planet. I might not immediately see the connection between everything, but I do act on faith that more information will come so that I can continue to be enlightened to the connectedness of all things.

So what's the point of all of this? I guess it's that I now know that science can no longer operate without the etheric/spiritual/cosmology of the universe as much as the other way around. Each modality, science and spiritual cosmology need each other. Quantum Physics takes on some of these issues as does Rupert Sheldrake, Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner. And I say, more of this!

I don't even know where to begin as my head swims with all kinds of new information i.e. sound therapy, eurythmy, essential oils (when I have time), organic gardening, becoming a vegetarian, studying different modalities for seed propagation and on and on and on.......but the more I open up to new information, the more it seems to me that everything seems to mimic everything else. I have to commit myself to a much broader way of looking at all of my interests while considering the life of the Earth itself. I must widen my outlook to include the cosmos.

Unfortunately, many of the cosmological influences have been diminished in their importance in this world of "only science is truth". It seems to me that some of the biggest revelations that have come through science, came through in dreams, intuition and mistakes. I have to ask that if you don't have the equipment to measure the unknown then how can you dismiss it? I would think, if I were in a position of doing scientific studies, than I would get busy discovering the instrumentation to disprove what I automatically was not believing. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not true. We have been fed the opposite for many many years, and I think are less of a visionary populous than ever before. Where is the magic in our lives? Where is our belief in the effects of the outer planets and how they affect us? Why don't we support our artists as we do politicians? And while I am on the subject, let's not forget the arts in all of this - is it no mistake that when we look at plants growing, trees blowing in the wind, birds chirping, dogs wagging their tails and cats purring that life is an intricate multi-dimensional quilt that lives with sound, texture, color and smell. Is this not a beautiful work of art? An all-encompassing involved tapestry created by something a little bigger than us? God if you will - or light or love or higher beings or universal design - but if I have something to do with adding to the beauty of this planet, I had a small part and got my marching orders from higher up. And even with this belief system, I plead guilty in forgetting this at times, while in pursuit of paying my rent or in my old life where I spent a lifetime of trying to be famous.

Certain truths are basic, universal, and transcend all man-made religions. For example, all cultures have believed in a sun god of their imagination since each day begins with a sunrise and ends with the a sunset. The rising and setting of the sun represented the resurrection and death of their sun god. The point here is that all cultures understood that the entire universe is a whole and living unity, which means that all things are connected. Nothing is separate as it appears to human perception, but everything is interlinked.

When the garden thaws and I am face to face with the growing of things, I hope to carry new knowledge so that I am adding to - not taking from - my precious loving Mother Earth. And with this new information, I can hold in my heart a basic truth; All things in our universe (including us) that appear to exist independently are actually parts of an all-compassing organic pattern, and that no parts of that pattern are ever really separate from it or from each other. With this, I can keep my heart open to all living things allowing a loving intimacy that can only enlighten spirit.

From my garden to yours............

The Way of Love

2010-12-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

The way of love is not a subtle argument. The door there is devastation. Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it? They fall, and falling, they're given wings. - Rumi

Joe the critters and I, are snuggled up in front of the fire - well, I took a break to write this - watching a winter wonderland form in our front yard. Friends, Gerry and Lisa and fellow lake dwellers, gave us the idea to turn out our lights and watch freighters float by. A spectacular sight as they are lit up like floating holiday ships so that all can be seen from a distance. Last night while watching the lake - two 1,000 foot freighters passed each other in the narrow South Channel - our front yard. I heard myself say out loud - "Oh my, this is so beautiful".

You'd think it'd be obvious to be moved by all things beautiful, but for a long time, I sat in a very dark place wanting and/or needing things to be some other way than the way they were. I found fault with everything and everyone. A lot of this was a silent dialogue between me, myself and I...however negative thoughts leaked out over and over creating a dark cloud that persistently hovered over-head. It's a horrible way to live. Finding fault with others, which you later learn are just huge disappointments in oneself, the culprit always being fear. But through nature, gardening, love of animals, my husband and eventually some cosmic guidance, my heart began to open. With this came faith in something bigger than me which led to replacing the fear that kept me blindsided.

We are meant to be happy

The answer, the key, is the heart. I have been told throughout my life to "follow my heart." But how? I wanted to, you know, as long as it was on my terms. Which of course, isn't the point. There are no terms. You love all and everything for what it is - but I constantly fell back into negative thoughts. And honestly, I just think, that through pure exhaustion of not feeling spiritually right is what finally brought me to my senses. Not only that, but I live in my head, where it a dangerous place to go alone - like a bad neighbourhood. Why is the heart the main connection to True Source? Why is the heart the centre of beautiful feelings? Why is the heart, not our brain or other parts of us, the key?

Maybe it's because our true self is within our heart and will continue to live on even after this lifetime has been completed. While our physical body is only a temporary "shell"-flesh and blood that will one day turn into dust-our relationship with the heart, our soul, is True Source eternal, forever and always.

Sitting still, watching snow fall, holding my husband's hand are tiny clues that tell me the heart, not the mind, is the true instrument of perception. When I am able to live in heart, the world becomes magical, full of beauty, abundance and joy. As I open to my Source, not only do I draw the reflection of love into every area of my life but my heart becomes a magnetic field for entraining the hearts of all humanity. The heart becomes a pure conduit for the light and love of God.

Cultivating Life and Garden

2010-12-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

It has frequently been emphasized that humanity's greatest riddle is itself. Both natural and spiritual science ultimately try to solve this riddleR12;the former by understanding the natural laws that govern our outer being, the latter by seeking the essence and purpose inherent in our existence...Rudolf Steiner

January is closing in, which seems to bring in waves of reflection not only about what I have accomplished but how I have accomplished it. Along with these thoughts, is added the responsibility to my higher self in how I have acted through this last year of social, physical and spiritual minefields. My internal work has been about building a stronger foundation. Which includes most things. Working out, losing weight, discipline (used to be an evil word for me) meditation time, budgeting and healthcare, to name some of my loose ends. While all the time doing this, manage in keeping an open heart. I continue to climb up the heavenly tree, one branch at a time.

About two years ago and by coincidence when I started the garden, it was clear to me, that there was a lot in my life that was still sloppy. The way I was communicating, paying my bills, leaving time for myself; I wasn't doing it well, it was bugging me. With this awareness, the universe began to line things up and soon I found myself on an accelerated path of...everything. As various realizations were made, it became clear that if I kept my mind cluttered with all the things that weren't working i.e. how much money is in my bank account, then I really couldn't move my thinking forward in any real way. With that, I began to step up the pace. Even with all of the work I have done, believe me, there are plenty of frayed loose ends left. For instance, I have to improve my communication skills when I have a problem with someone (I tend to just walk away) and on top of that, because things have been so accelerated, it has been hard for me to honor my word in all that I have promised to do, causing me to have to go back and apologize while pulling out with broken commitments. I try not to be too hard on myself and focus on the improvements that have been made, which I must say, have been achieved with the help of incredible teachers (cosmic and in the flesh), loving friends and an incredible husband. It takes a universe to raise a human.

And it takes a universe to grow a garden. The foundation of building a healthy environment is how it all begins. The minute you try and skip a step - plant too many seeds in one area, not pick the right spot or time to plant; forget to water or water too much; not have the proper nutrients; all leads to the fact that you will not achieve the end result you were hoping for. But not only what you do see, what about what you don't see. When working with this magical process of Sun, Moon, Earth (heck, all of the cosmos) and elements to grow something for you to eat, you begin to ask yourself some pretty big questions. What about the spiritual well-being of the garden? Isn't the garden connected to all that surrounds it? Can we afford to dispense with the mystery and magic of the awesome enigma of living existence? What breathes the breath of life into the substances of this world? How does a plant rise above gravity and lift matter up from the earth? Can we work with these forces of levity? Can we grow food that will truly nourish the life forces of our bodies? Can we grow food that will fuel the fires of the human heart, mind and spirit? Is the garden any different than us?

Rudolf Steiner asks many of these same questions. (Mr. Steiner is the creator of Biodynamic agriculture as a practical application of the spiritual science known as anthroposophy, anthropo (human) + sophia (wisdom). Anthroposophy is a comprehensive study that tries to seek, understand and nurture the truly human which lies at the heart of all anthroposophical pursuits). He believes the need to consider the cosmic as well as the earthly environment includes many elements; being in rhythm with the cosmos - the seven planets and their influence on plants; restrained and enhanced by water and warmth; and the relation of planetary rhythms to the life span and quality in growing plants.

Rudolf looks at the farm as an individual "standing on its head;" the soil as a diaphragm and the planetary forces active in the "head" (below ground) and in the "belly" (above ground.) The interchange between below and above; the difference in the four elements below and above; form and chaos in plant development; the morphology of the plant and the role of the planetary forces; how these forces are affected by different soils; significance of having the right animals on the farm; the influence of the planets on animal form and development. Along with this holistic view he adds cosmic and earthly forces working through substances of the Earth, along with the spiritual nature of the elements and the interaction of these substances. This is an involved and declared process, which we can be an integral part of allowing what we do to become what we are. or is that the other way around?

There is also a declaration with the habitation of the body that we inherit. We build up our body, over the years, from our inherited DNA and from our self. (I am I). We meet ourselves, each other and the world inwardly and outwardly. We have an inner life of meditation, reflection, imagination and learning. We also have an outer life of social, expression, growth and responsibility. We find our humanity consciously standing with heart and mindfulness in the middle of these two realms of being. Which, I find incredibly challenging at the best of times. We are beings of will, feeling and thought. To be a person of balance I know I must strengthen and integrate each sphere. For instance, my thinking needs to be guided by my heart; my heart must lead me forward with wisdom; and I must have the will to stay the course of self-knowledge, growth and doing. This is more than conceptual. Our nervous, rhythmic and metabolic systems are superbly developed and severely stretched and challenged in our modern times.

Challenged in modern times, is understating it. Most people are just trying to keep their head above water let alone finding the time to improve oneself. Heck, how can you care about your neighbor or the country on the other side of the world or the health of the people in worldwide catastrophes? I'm just trying to pay my rent. I keep these issues/questions in mind while I pick away at each problematic gopher when they stick their heads out of holes as I run around trying to plug them up. "Fixed this behavior, whoops, what is that over there? - another gopher?" But in this race against hole-plugging, it has caused me to realize the fact that I am the hub of the wheel. There's an old farm saying: the most important fertilizer is the farmer's footsteps. In other words, the farmer is responsible for helping the farm with its "I am I." I am the solution. I am the problem. I am the garden. The garden is me.

We are all farmers of this beautiful planet. Farming healthy ideas, compassion, love, improving ourselves, being kind and loving because it is the right thing to do and keeping our eye on the prize. Adding fertilizer to the need of recognizing the subtle interactions with nature and ourselves. If I can bring the shovel, hoe and spade of the universal consciousness and seek the purpose of my existence, I could consider the work of being human a pilgrimage. The pilgrimage between inhaling my first breath and exhaling my last. Between these two breaths I live and breathe and have my being. It is during this journey, becoming an "I", morally developing and contributing that can take up questions of the mysterious. It seems being human is as solid as the Earth and magical as a breath. With these actions I can then cultivate the most important of all ideas - the cultivation of the connectedness of all things.

From my garden to yours...

How To Find Your Path?

2010-11-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

Winter is knocking at my door but with it, it is bringing thick fog, not unlike the John Carpenter film with the same name. I love fog (unless I have to drive in it), especially living on the shipping channel of Lake Saint Clair. The deep rumblings of the foghorns call out to possible passersby, creating some sort of a longing for all who hear them. The resonant sounds of those horns, stir something inside me, making me think that I am supposed to be somewhere other than here. Which is silly, of course. If life has taught me anything, it has taught me that I am always right where I am supposed to be.

In the 80's up to present day there was an onslaught of self-help books, telling us how to do just about everything. How to be less co-dependent, how to manage marriages, how women are different than men, how to eat, how to diet, how to walk, how to run, how to make friends, how to attract the opposite sex and so on and so on and so on. I'm not saying that all self-help books were/are silly, but very few of them had something useful that we couldn't really figure out with some good ol' mythology or stories from our ancestors - which in most part are the same thing. But when I came across a book with the title "How to Find Your Path", that is when I thought, "Oh no, it's time for the shortest book ever written". Because when I take the time to reflect, I realize that I had very little to do with "my path" - how I got where I am. Maybe there was some co-creating going on before I ever entered this body, but really, I felt and still feel like a puppet on cosmic strings.

Of course, there may be a bit more to it than that. When it is time for life to take a turn, I begin to hear voices (some of us call it ideas) that I need to make a change. Before we moved from Seattle to Michigan, for an entire year, I began to say to my husband, "We have to move". Being a good Cancerian man -this is never a great idea in their book. He would say "Move where?" I didn't know but almost daily, I would tell him, "We have to move, we have to move, we have to move." Over and over again. Finally, Joe accepted that we did need to get the hell out of Seattle, and for both of us it changed our lives in ways we couldn't imagine. Who would think that Michigan is the preferred place to a gorgeous city like Seattle? But we found two slices of heaven where we have lived in this beautiful State, not to mention, the soulful people that live in this area. I toured all over the country and overseas - but the people in this State are the salt of the earth and can't do enough to help you if you need it. My point being, did I sit and worry about where I should live, or what I should do to be happy, or if I will ever meet my soul mate. Information came at a time it was supposed to, so worries, concerns, nervousness - only ended up making me feel bad. I am here for the experience. The experience. The experience. That is my religion, my gift from God - my experience. Is there a purpose in worrying about what might and might not happen? As a matter of fact, when I took this philosophy to heart in relation to finding a soul mate, Joe showed up almost instantly. Following that law of physics "The harder you push the more resistance you get."

I believe that my inspiration to hear the next message for my journey is always right where it should be allowing my readiness to hear the single factor that I can be concerned with-not where and when the message will be. Since I believe that "all" is right here and now, then the ultimate message is available in the present moment because all that is meaningful is "right now". Living in the now, not five minutes from now or ten minutes ago - but right now - that is where the seed of awakening seems to be planted. And once I began to entertain this idea there was no turning back. I became part of "us" and less about "me". When living in the present, the details of the moment (where all the magic is) became an inspiration. Every sound on the street, every person I met (whether I liked them or not), every seed I planted, every critter I held, every moment I spent in nature and every night I spent next to my husband all made me realize that love and life really was here and now.

So back to what I would have written in response to the book I saw in the mid-80's. "How to Find Your Path". Readers would open up the book to read a single page, "Live in the Now. Follow Your Feet." Then all could close that short little book and get on with their lives. Which, if it is meant to be, will lead them to the present moment. I know when I came upon that realization, like my garden, a seed had been planted allowing me to see that all happens lawfully and on time.

I continue to practice what I preach to some of you that are kind enough to read this newsletter. Each day needing more integrity than the one before. Cleaning up half-truths, negative thoughts and basic human foibles. With all the purification and stripping away of layers I realize that I and suspect most, have not lost one single neurosis. If we are lucky, we just make them user friendly. If I strive for satisfaction I live in ego so why not just observe and enjoy the moment no matter what it brings, respecting and paying attention to my experiences. I don't think I need to read the latest self-help book to realize that life has brought me to a place where I can live with an open loving heart as the world changes, bumps, grinds, shifts, rocks, rolls, accelerates and vibrates. When there is dark before there is light, when hatred feels like it is taking over before love conquers all, I will hold the thought in my heart that everything in the universe is subject to change and everything is on schedule.

I love you all.

Harvesting the Heart

2010-11-27T17:43:00.000-08:00

It's the end of November and if you are as lucky as Joe and I have been, over the holiday, you had plenty to give thanks for. For me, giving thanks, means that I am in a state of grace, taking an inventory of all that is in my eventful life. Our thanks include so many; Judy for helping us with the garden; Harsens Island residents for embracing us; my students for allowing me to learn as much from them as I hope, they learn from me; Joe and I for each other's love and company, our wonderful family members; our critters; the spiritual teachers who have shown us what is worth focusing on; beautiful Mother Earth for producing, replenishing and giving; and of course the Universal Consciousness for teaching us that the most important thing in the world is love. But where did Thanksgiving come from? Who was smart enough to designate a day to give thanks?

We would have to go back to the Pokanokut Indians and Pilgrims in 1621 at Plymouth Rock. The Pokanokut Indians were the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims to America in 1620. One year later, the Pokanokuts joined the Pilgrims to celebrate the first American Thanksgiving. (The first Indian inducted into the Continental Army was a Pokanokut, whose job it was to watch over Washington while he slept). To the Indians, the meaning of Thanksgiving was the gathering of the harvest as the Indians had 13 harvests per year, each celebrated during the full moon. Their November harvest became known as what we Americans now celebrate, Thanksgiving.

After the Pilgrims landed in 1620, their health deteriorated rapidly during their first winter on American soil. Squanto, a Pokanokut Indian, approached the settlers to offer his assistance. The settlers were startled to find out that Squanto spoke perfect English. In 1605, Squanto had traveled to England with a friendly English explorer, John Weymouth. Squanto returned to his native land in 1620. Squanto taught the settlers how to grow and harvest corn. He taught the Pilgrims how to erect wigwams, which protected the settlers from the harsh, cold New England winters. After the first year, Captain Miles Standish, who was head of the Plymouth colony, invited Squanto and the main leaders of the Pokanocut Indians, along with their immediate families, to join the settlers in a Thanksgiving celebration. Standish sat on one end of the table while Massasolt Ousamequin, the leader of the Pokanokut nation, sat on the other end. The meal consisted of pumpkins, corn, acorn squash, venison, lobsters, clams and wild game. Standish, however, was not prepared for the 90 Indians who attended the celebration. The Indians then provided five deer, wild turkey, corn soup, corn bread, cranberries and shared in the feast's celebration. The pilgrims and the Indians lived in peace and harmony for the next 54 years.

In 1675, war between the Indians, Pilgrims and Puritans broke out over land disputes. As more and more settlers arrived in America, more and more Indian tribes were being displaced from their lands. By 1676 the war was over; the Indians had lost and were banished to reservations in Connecticut. Throughout the decades, however, many of the Indian tribes returned to their native lands as American citizens.

Recently, Pokanokut spiritual leader, Clifford Guy (who's great great great grandfather was the one that watched over the sleeping Washington), returned to Jamestown after discovering that many of his previous ancestors from the tribe lived there. Long before the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth, the Indians believed in the Great Spirit, the Creator, God. "The Indians had no bible and even if they did, they couldn't read one" Guy said. The Indians believed that everything comes from the Great Spirit and that the Creator hears and sees everything. The Indians Creator's Creed was passed down orally from one generation to the next. The creed included such proclamations as "treat all men as they treat us, never break a bargain, it is a disgrace to tell a lie, never take a life and never take property without paying for it". Hmm...sound familiar?

Today, Native Americans observe five Thanksgivings per year. The first Thanksgiving is in March, to celebrate maple syrup. The second is in June, to celebrate the strawberry, which symbolizes the renewal of friendship. The third is the Thanksgiving of the green bean, which is celebrated in July. Its message is to never refuse anything offered to you because it's too small or too little. The fourth is November's Harvest Thanksgiving, which is the one that most celebrate today. And the fifth is the Indian summer, which the Indians claim is a gift from their Creator. Warm winds ascend after a great frost, which allowed the Indians to pick their harvest in October and prepare for the long, cold winter.

As I reviewed our history, so much comes to mind. Will we ever understand that identifying our dates with the cycles of nature will return us to a natural flow of time? Are we always going to fight with each other even though our basic belief systems are the same? Don't we understand that if one man is in chains that none of us are free? Can't we remind ourselves and each other that our Great Creator loves every one of us no matter what color, religion or creed? I have come to believe that if I don't contend with negative thoughts, feelings and forget to give thanks, then it will be a very easy road to a world of misplayed hostility, conflict and disruptive efforts. I have also realized that if I can approach these patterns with responsible consciousness and care, along with invoking the best with my fellow humans in resolving "situations", then patterns presented on my personal path can only lead to insight. And no doubt, through creative consciousness, I can be inspired while gleaning from all situations, instead of forging ahead without attention to personal awareness and insight. As days unfold before me and troubling times of conflict prevail, I have to look to the Pokankuts who faced conflict with an aspired consciousness. If I could bring this to my Thanksgiving table, it may just yield a harvest of creative solutions to lingering problems allowing me to tap into Clifford Guy's bestowed Indian name...the name of Lion Heart.

Specialization is for Insects, Diversification is for Humans

2010-11-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Robert A. Heinlein's character, Lazarus Long

What a day today! Still hitting the 50's in November in Michigan! I get to spend two hours in the garden today, finishing the mulching and putting all of the stray pots in the Greenhouse. Along with all my other garden duties, I am going to have to get a soil sample so that I can really know our soil and try and meet the needs. Most of our veggies' grew brilliantly, but it can always be better and since Joe and I have to be all things to the garden - soil experts, harvesters, planters, weeders, greenhouse keepers and insect savvy - We seem to continuously be learning something new and staying open so that we are understanding all things are joined in our lives and nature. The more information, the more we can live with integrity - a connectedness.

When I left performing, and because it really was at the top of my game - I heard all kinds of reasons why I left. My favorite continues to be that I am/was afraid of success. It is incomprehensible to many, especially musicians who crave big stages and big crowds, that leaving when you are successful, well, there just has to be something wrong with you. What never seems to be considered is that I had accomplished my vision. The group was fantastic, the crowds amazing, the music was the best that I have ever played in a live situation (Lucy Mongrel wins for recorded efforts) - but honestly, I had done it all before. I had accomplished what I set out to do. What was the point of doing the same thing over and over again? For applause? That becomes empty and meaningless quick. Besides I was teaching full time which was rocking my world and wanted to do solo recordings, learn to cook, have a huge garden, write books, poetry and songs, pursue my spiritual interests and the list keeps growing.

To just do one thing, pursue one career, seems to me, too specialized, pointless. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who are perfectly happy doing just that. And I say bless every one of them. But I wanted to be a citizen of the world, the universe - which meant that I needed to "know" what was happening around me. How are all things connected? What am I really made of? I love sitting at a table with a group of people and not know anything. Wow! You mean an opportunity to learn something else? And besides, the more I know the closer I get to understanding in a more compassionate way what makes people, the world and I, tick. If you have lived it, you can feel it. (Ask anyone who was a waitress if they ever got beyond over-tipping). I knew there were more questions, answers and knowledge, understanding how responsible I needed to be - specialization would only cut me off from what I was truly seeking - being connected.

But the myopic thinking in coming up with cures for what goes on in our world, the specialization if you will, looks just like the illness that we are suffering and trying to cure. A day does not go by in Washington without legislation intending to fix one problem ultimately affecting a host of other issues. It's the principle of unintended consequences, and a fact of life in our complex world where everything has become so compartmentalized that the whole picture is not considered - creating more problems. To be a great Politian would be daunting as you would have to have true knowledge in industrialization, history, economics, environment, infrastructures - while being compassionate, intelligent, spiritual and a true artist. Wow! Know anyone?

Or my favorite is when, for example, the Department of Natural Resources, introduces a non-indigenous animal, fish or plant to "quick fix" something which eventually eradicates all that stands in its way. They haven't concluded, if they keep looking at just that one problem "might' be impacted but not without huge consequences. For example, let's say the birds need more food so why not bring in a plant they can feed on. Before you know it, the indigenous plants have disappeared, along with the snakes, frogs and lack of nesting area for the birds they wanted to feed in the first place. This kind of thinking has never worked. Ever!

The toe bone connected to the heel bone, The heel bone connected to the foot bone, The foot bone connected to the leg bone, The leg bone connected to the knee bone, The knee bone connected to the thigh bone, The thigh bone connected to the back bone, The back bone connected to the neck bone, The neck bone.......

But where it really hits home for me is in the world of medicine. In the book Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies, the author, Leon Hammer, M. D. (along with being an acupuncturist) states that he gravitated towards Chinese medicine because it was the fulfillment of a search for a congenial system of healing that embodies the inseparability of body and mind, spirit and matter, nature and man, philosophy and reality. It is a personal, subtle, gentle, yet highly technical medical system, which allows him to be close to essence - the life force - both his own and that of others".

I remember being on a gruesome road trip with a woman who had set out to make all of our lives miserable. Then to add fire to the hell we were already in, the guitar player went psychotic (we later found out he did this with every band) and I had to fire him, picking up players on the way. It was horrible. But in the meantime my shoulder was shooting non-stop pain up my neck. I could not get it to stop. Every town we pulled into, the first thing I did was see a massage therapist or a chiropractor and yes, even went to an emergency room where they told me to take Tylenol - I was way past Tylenol. The pain was intolerable. I lived in Seattle at the time where my main healthcare practitioner was Jim Dowling, RN and Acupuncturist. He was an emergency nurse and had a thriving Chinese Acupuncture/Herb practice. I called him while on the road, begging him to help me somehow. He kept telling me, "It's not your shoulder, it's your liver". He knew that the rage I was repressing due to the circumstances, the emotions, were being held in the liver sending it up the meridian to my shoulder. Well, sure enough, as soon as I got home, I went to see him, he massaged, poked and cleansed my liver - it was incredible what was being released, oh and by the way, the shoulder pain was immediately gone. Because he had the knowledge of how the body worked as a whole, energetically, emotionally and physically - he could help me quickly and in a non-invasive way.

Not all problems are this simple to fix or is are we lucky enough to find the people that we need to help us out of our situations. I don't profess I have any of the answers. But I do have some big questions. Does it matter who I see as long as they have their eye on the big picture?. If we apply these modalities will it take us to not only a more profound result, but a long-lasting one? One that works? One that doesn't have the impact at someone or something else's expense? How connected is everything to everything? If we look at the whole, will more problems get fixed than just the one we are looking at?

If I am lucky, maybe one day, I will live in a world where all elements of living life have been taken into account - from the smallest critter to a universal alignment - allowing earth to become a masterpiece of harmony, intricacy and movement. A great work of art.

Politics Versus Compassion

2010-11-08T03:16:00.000-08:00

"May we move from the unreal to the real. May we move from darkness to light, from fear to strength, from ignorance to knowledge. May we all join together on a path to oneness. May we agree to disagree. May we bring an open mind into every moment."

I always want to write about something more than compassion, love and gardening. I have so many interests and thoughts...concepts I want to share. Today, I was sure it was going to be about the Hutchinson Effect (moving mass with sound), then at the last minute, I hear or read something - like the quote at the top of the page. Off I go into another tangent - not being able to help what seems to be coming through me from somewhere above my hair - I write about something I won't usually get into. But being that it was election time and because I don'tusually get into any kind of political discourse - I'm surprised that I feel I need to write about this. So here goes.

Just when it seems that so many citizens of the world are fighting for some reason that only God must know, the fact that fighting and disrespect is prevalent and continues during election time is disappointing and heartbreaking. I have no idea why anyone wants to vote for someone that is blaming, trashing their opponents and showing disrespect for another human being. Why would we want someone like that to represent us? I would think that the people we want to represent us should be held up to a higher moral standard. For me, it has to do with love and compassion.

When I look at business models or human beings that have made a difference, I don't think of name-calling politicians. I think of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Pete Seeger and Martin Luther King to name a few. As far as organizations go, the model for AA is stellar. Their whole paradigm is to live the "Big Book" and profess attraction rather than promotion. Not campaigning butattraction rather than promotion. This seems to work as they manage to keep things honest in a place where former thieves, liars and who knows what, are left to govern themselves. If you are honest, not influenced by the almighty dollar - maybe just maybe the righteous human might get a chance to speak their truth. But money is only part of it. If we vote for people that are calling each other names, bragging about what they have done, barrage us with ads and phone calls, take campaign money (I cannot tell you how opposed I am in this regard) - then we get what we deserve. We can't be against war while living in a warlike state. We can't say we hate people that vote against same sex marriages - or else we are the same as the people that we are rallying against. We can't say we believe in a better world when we continue to do the same thing we have always done. Hate begets hate. Period.

This is no longer about Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, gays and straights, blacks and whites, the west and the east - This is about us!!! Get it! We are all one. One and the same - there is no separation. If we hurt our brother, we hurt ourselves. Don't we?

Hate is never overcome by hate; hatred is only overcome by love. I know that I must look into my heart and mind and see what I -- individually,collectively, societally -- am doing to alleviate or to perpetuate these problems, and how I might become part of their eventual solution. I think an eye-for-an-eye retaliatory approach is not the most measured response at this time. Remembering that an eye for an eye only leaves both men blind.

Martin Luther King said that we have two choices: to peacefully coexist, or to destroy ourselves. How true as I don't believe that war begins on a battlefield, war begins with the cupidity, hatred, prejudice, racism, ignorance and cruelty in the human heart. This is because the true battlefield is the heart of man. If I want peace in the world -- and I do -- I need to face this fact and learn how to deal with anger, hatred and disarm my own heart, as well as work in larger contexts towards peace in our time. I need to think globally and act locally, beginning with myself and others -- at home, in the family, as well as outside at work and in the community, reaching out more and more in broad, all-embracing circles of collective caring and responsibility. This is the path to a more peaceful future for all of us.

I am not professing that this is an easy road. It isn't. With a world that is hell bent on filling us with fear opposed to hope, faith and love, it does seem, at times, the task becomes impossible. So as much as I try to give everyone basic respect, I fail often and have done so recently. I never feel good about it, and take a daily assessment on how I could have done it better.

I will continue to practice what I have been taught - Love my fellow man and have faith in the Divine - not the other way around. Today is a time to pray for wisdom and have reflection on what is most important in my life. To think about what steps I might take towards nonviolence within myself, my own life and towards a more peaceful world.

I love you all

The Law of Time

2010-11-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

The Law of Time

Now the time has come (Time) There's no place to run (Time) I might get burned up by the sun (Time) But I had my fun (Time)....Chambers Brothers, Lyrics from their 60's hit, "Time"

Do you ever feel like you have enough time? No one I know, feels like they have enough daylight to complete their "to-do list." Personally, I need time to meditate, pray, read, grocery shop, do laundry, research, study, exercise, clean my house, garden, can, teach 50 students, write my newsletter, work on artistic projects, cook, volunteer work, take care of the animals, 2 ½ hours of driving time four days a week, banking, take care of myself i.e. dentist, massage, upkeep on the car, dealing with AT&T, Comcast or whomever and of course look great and have time for my husband. And, I don't have kids - (I don't know how you moms and single dads do it). I know as I get older, it feels like time is my enemy. This elusive, not real, incredibly important concept called time, continues to be a mystery. When I consider how all-consuming and huge the concept of time is, the idea of managing it is really pretty funny. How in the world do I think, me, this lowly human can manage that? I'm still working on managing my checkbook.

To be honest, I didn't use to think of time much. Always seemed like I had plenty of it but the ticking of the clock has come to mean a lot more to me in the last couple of years. Not only how time plays out in my life, though I am connected to the bigger picture so yes, I'm sure in a way it does, but what it means to co-exist with nature, and even bigger still, how does it play out in the cosmos.

Not long ago, I had a dream that time was not linear but moved in a spiral. Somehow in my dream, I associated time with water as it spiraled down the drain in my sink. The thought that I was left with was that "time folded in on itself" whereas I concluded that maybe time travel was possible. Before you hit the delete button because you think I'm crazy, Stephen Hawking along with many of the quantum physicists believe it is possible. With the emergence of string theory and/or a multi-dimensional universe theory, brilliant minds are being changed.

I remember reading some years back a quote by Stephen Hawking. "If there is no such thing as time and if you can remember the past, then why can't you remember the future? (This phrase alone has made my head hurt). All of this is a little abstract in my daily life. I love to think about the concepts but how does it play out for me? Or us? Or the planet?

This brings me to Jose Arguelles. In my opinion, one of the great thinkers in the last 100 years. Jose believes that The Law of Time is a universal law and principle. He states that time is the universal factor of synchronization. He has been a proponent of a natural timing frequency that governs the universal order as opposed to an artificial timing frequency which sets modern human civilization apart from the rest of its environment, the biosphere. He believes that where civilization has gone wrong is basing daily life on artificial timing factors - irregular calendar and the mechanical clock. This has created an artificial global mantle. By consuming natural resources faster than they can be replaced and using more waste than can be eliminated, the techno sphere operates at the expense of the biosphere. Which gives us global crisis.

I'm not going to pretend that I really understand that. But what I do understand is that because we are not living with a natural calendar (13 month 28 day as opposed to the Gregorian Calendar instituted 400 years ago) we are out of sync with nature. With the natural calendar, we have to pay attention to nature. The moon becomes something we understand. Does anyone know what September means? October? They really mean nothing to us. But take the first moon phase July 26-August 22^nd in the natural calendar. In ancient times, it was thought of as the Magnetic Moon phase. All who followed and paid attention understood that it was about unification. Each moon phase has it's cycle and purpose giving us information that we can utilize in helping us to create a more meaningful and fruitful existence.

The Law of Time affirms that all of the planetary upheavals and social chaos that we are experiencing today are directly related to giving precedence to human laws and machine technology, rather than divine order and natural law. This is due to living a collective misperception of time known as the 12:60 frequency. This refers to the 12 month cycle of the irregular Gregorian calendar paced by the 60 minute clock.

Because we are living in artificial time it disconnects us both as a species and individually from our true nature. We always feel like we never have "enough time." In the 12:60 frequency, time is money. In the13:20 frequency, time is art. Jose states that "The Law of Time affirms that by the nature of the universal timing frequency the world is already as one. It is only humankind who has chosen separation. This separation is reinforced by separation in time, living by the clock and the irregular measure of the Gregorian which calendar keeps the world from being as one". (There was a movement in the 1930's to change the calendar back to its natural cycle - taken all the way to Congress). The Law of Time states that: Energy factored by time equals art. In this equation, (E) refers to all phenomena in their processes of unfoldment; (T) is the present moment functioning according to the ratio constant 13:20.

I run this through my mind over and over again - - Everything shaped by time is art. Being in sync with Nature is art. Earth's art. Our art. Our expression. Our values. All connected. All valued. All respected. Joining Heaven and Earth. Could anything be more beautiful. Maybe I have all the time in the world.

Recycle

2010-10-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

No'j - the essence of No'j is thought on No'j days, it is good to contemplate how our thoughts influence our actions of both conscious co-creation and intentional or unintentional destructive behavior

Okay, who loves Michigan falls more than me? I adore the warm days, cool breezes. This year the trees are turning very slowly allowing us to sort of revel in the color change. Previous years, the change has happened so quickly that I felt that I almost missed the spectacular colors. The earth is reminding us that it has its own cycles no matter what we do and with this change we seem to be getting more color.

And so the leaves will fall mulching the ground, the ground that helps to feed the trees that dropped the leaves in the first place. Nature's recycling. Elegant, efficient and for part of it, a treat for the eyes.

Frankly, I don't do enough when it comes to recycling. You would be able to go through my garbage and find bits here and there that should have gone into recycle. And let's not mention color glass! What the heck am I supposed to do with that? Our recycle center doesn't take it which is ridiculous so we "try" not to buy it in the first place. And recycling is not a small task. We have to load it into the truck and then drive off the island to the recycle center, becoming a weekly duty for Joe and I. Just part of the many "to do" things on our list. I guess it makes me feel more responsible but still, I know I have to do more when it comes to my part, which would take a lot more effort.

The effort and consciousness that needs more work on my part, has become really evident from a book that I have been reading called "American Indian Life". A lot of things struck me about the way the Indians lived before we got here. But what was most clear (besides that they lived in Teepees in the dead of winter without gortex) was that they used and recycled everything. For instance, in the book, a real life character T'ena, was being taught to be careful about whatever she found on the floor - bits of food, bone, feather, hair or skin. It was a rule that all such waste bits be put separate into baskets by the women, and carried to the haunts in the forest or on the river, of the creatures to which the bits belonged. Her partner, Cries-for-salmon, would go along with her to see how she dumped into the river from her canoe, the feathers of duck, goose or swan, that they might change back into birds such they had come from-as the feather drifted down the current, although invisible to her, Cries-for-salmon said, they became birds again to return to feed in their old haunts of mud and goose grass. She had learned this from her mother empting out fish bones to become fish, and she saw her take to the forest the bones of game animals. Were such bones left on the floor and stepped on, it would be a sin.

No longer are there barefooted archers lurking in the forest but while I write this, gunshots in the distance - a result of the beginning of duck hunting season. I wonder if any of the hunters will respect life the duck has given up to feed them as did Cries-for-Salmon - maybe, but I don't get that from most of the conversations I hear. Like just about everything else in life, many of us think that it is our right to eat what and when we want to, not understanding that it is a gift and a privilege to have something on the table. So much has to happen in nature just so one human being can be fed. Hard to remember when pushing the shopping carts down the aisles of Costco.

I continue to put in more effort to recycle. Putting my foot down about some packaging, buying just about everything used and of course doing my weekly recycle, though a hassle is worth it. Maybe just maybe we, or I should just speak for myself, it would do no harm in adopting these powerful lessons in living with nature, so that I may continue to live as the higher self I was meant to be. Recycling information allowing the industrial age to come to an end making it time for a new age, a new paradigm, a new consciousness - changing or recycling each one of us, one by one which in turn will lead us all into a world of change.

A Change is Gonna Come

2010-10-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

A Change is Gonna Come"-Sam Cooke

The weather here has been fricking brilliant! I have all these things I am supposed to be doing on the computer but I keep going back outside to bask in the sun along with the never say die marigolds and the constantly reappearing monarchs (besides, it's my birthday). The cats and cat/dog Little B lay slammed up next to the sliding glass doors, soaking up the heat with pretense of maybe just maybe, someday, they will be able to go outside and in Little B's case that would be without a leash.

With our new found lounge mode and just having more time to pay attention to the goings on of our animals, Joe and I have been reflecting back to the beginning of the year when naming the garden. We had many names we thought we would go with but after our first garden cat, Cricket died, it was clear that we name the garden after her. Our affection for our animals borders on the silly but to those who think of their furry children as family members, I'm sure you get how we feel.

From the time I got out of high school, I knew that I didn't want kids, wanted to live on a farm and have animals. There were other dreams tangled up with those but that is for another newsletter someday. I don't know where the love for animals came from, but from the time I was a child, I was a little gaga over them. Being that my mother was allergic to all critters it took my love for critters into a semi-fanatical longing. So everytime I would see someone with their pet on the street or in their home, all humans became blurred as the animals took center stage. There was no bigger compliment than some pet owner saying, "My cat doesn't like anyone but she sure loves you". Or "My dog really trusts you. He can't wait until you come over."

I would go to the library and look at pictures of animals and study how they should be held, then instructing all who would listen on properly holding their kitten or puppy. One day when I was about 8 years old, I caught a neighbor boy, about 13 years old, swinging my cat by the tail (this is when my mother tried to let me have a pet), I attacked him like a crazy banshee, sending him home crying. I don't remember much except that afterwards I was holding my then cat named "Kitty", sobbing as I ran home to tell my mother. From that moment on when that kid saw me, he would cross the street. It was there and then, I became the protector of critters - from everything to reprimanding people leaving their pets in hot cars to reporting abuse to the Humane Society.

So I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that knows me well, that I, or rather we (Joe is just as protective about animals as I am) would name our garden after a cat.

Cricket was our beautiful 10-year old calico. Crick demanded almost immediately that she was our garden cat and that she would protect the vegetables from the mice. Every time we would find a dead one (and there were plenty), we knew it was Cricket - the great hunter.

About a week before her death it seemed like she wasn't feeling well - or just seemed a little lackluster, sleeping alot, but then all cats do. By Saturday we knew that Cricket was really sick but by then it was too late. Joe and I knew she was dying so the only thing we could do was make her comfortable. We made a box for her, with our best towels so that she would have a nice cushy place to lie in. I put her in my walk-in closet along with her water and food. She never ate again and through Joe's persistence, drank small amounts of water.

The last night she was alive, we brought her out into the living room to have some family time while we watched T.V. She seemed uncomfortable due to the other cats who were hissing knowing there was something wrong - they could sense her death. And being the opportunistic creatures they are - gave her a hard time - we moved her back into the closet.

Joe checked in on her the next morning before leaving for work, about 5 a.m. Cricket was resting comfortably. I looked in on her that morning, finding that she had passed. Cricket was stretched out with her head bent, paws turned under as if she was in a private kitty prayer. Our precious cat, Cricket had died passing on to the special place where cats run free and big boxes of catnip are on every corner with mice standing on top singing songs only cats can hear. She was missed by so many since Cricket's thing was to adopt company as if they would take her home - she loved to be the center of attention - especially with strangers. We were optional - she never did forgive us for not being an only cat.

The year before, when we had moved into the cottage, Joe and I debated on whether or not we should let the cats out. For the last seven years they were house cats (in Seattle they were outdoor cats)....we decided outdoors was okay because honestly, those cats are so darn happy. Every time we think of Cricket we think of how thrilled she was to be in the garden - Joe called her his special garden cat. He would work in the garden, while Crick would find the shadiest place, close by and lie on her side, sprawled out as if lounging in the south of France.

The garden, our pets, the beautiful flowers, the air we breathe, the river that flows in front of our cottage, the wind through the trees - all of it is teaching us to love and pay attention to all living things. When I begin to forget that life is incredibly precious, no matter what form it is in, I have these beautiful animals and nature to remind me to be grateful.

Though losing Cricket was heartbreaking, it not only reminded us to keep our hearts open but that change is a part of life. Buddy and Minky Monkey continue to hunt the mice, in memory of their sister, taking over the position so proudly held by her. And so the change continues - Clouds do not stand still. Trees bloom then shed their leaves. Tides come to shore, then retreat. Night follows day which in turn follows night. Life is a consistent cycle. Ever changing. And we are part of it all. Aren't we the lucky ones.

Recycle

2010-10-12T12:18:00.001-07:00

The weather here has been fricking brilliant! I have all these things I am supposed to be doing on the computer but I keep going back outside to bask in the sun along with the never say die marigolds and the constantly reappearing monarchs (besides, it’s my birthday). The cats and cat/dog Little B lay slammed up next to the sliding glass doors, soaking up the heat with pretense of maybe just maybe, someday, they will be able to go outside and in Little B’s case that would be without a leash.

From the time I got out of high school, I knew that I didn’t want kids, wanted to live on a farm and have animals. There were other dreams tangled up with those but that is for another newsletter someday. I don’t know where the love for animals came from, but from the time I was a child, I was a little gaga over them. Being that my mother was allergic to all critters it took my love for critters into a semi-fanatical longing. So everytime I would see someone with their pet on the street or in their home, all humans became blurred as the animals took center stage. There was no bigger compliment than some pet owner saying, “My cat doesn’t like anyone but she sure loves you”. Or “My dog really trusts you. He can’t wait until you come over.”

I would go to the library and look at pictures of animals and study how they should be held, then instructing all who would listen on properly holding their kitten or puppy. One day when I was about 8 years old, I caught a neighbor boy, about 13 years old, swinging my cat by the tail (this is when my mother tried to let me have a pet), I attacked him like a crazy banshee, sending him home crying. I don’t remember much except that afterwards I was holding my then cat named “Kitty”, sobbing as I ran home to tell my mother. From that moment on when that kid saw me, he would cross the street. It was there and then, I became the protector of critters – from everything to reprimanding people leaving their pets in hot cars to reporting abuse to the Humane Society.

So I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone that knows me well, that I, or rather we (Joe is just as protective about animals as I am) would name our garden after a cat.

The garden, our pets, the beautiful flowers, the air we breathe, the river that flows in front of our cottage, the wind through the trees – all of it is teaching us to love and pay attention to all living things. When I begin to forget that life is incredibly precious, no matter what form it is in, I have these beautiful animals and nature to remind me to be grateful.

One Season into the Next

2010-10-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember September going by? I sure don't. It really does feel like I'm not in the center of the day, hour, moment......I seem to be off to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. Sort of ironic as I really thought of my move to Harsens Island as one of quiet and solitude so that I could write and garden. But obviously I don't know myself very well. Everything I do becomes some sort of a project. Will I never learn? However, Joe and I were having dinner eating the stuffed cabbage recipe I sent out last week (are you kidding me! It is amazing), talking about how incredibly rewarding the year has been. For me, it has been a diamond kind of existence with many facets. The garden, writing the newsletter, meeting the farmers, Bluegrass Festival - with which we have committed to establishing monies for an emergency fund for families in need), produce stand and teaching voice, voice over workshops and voice classes at Michigan Actors Studio. This summer I also saw four royalty checks for my CD that was released last year - as any indie musician will tell you, that is amazing. But I have CD Baby, the Airlines, Satellite Radio and Brian Ball's Women;s Radio to thank for that. It has reminded me that it is time to record as the material is already written, I just need to decide what direction I want to go in. Great timing as our garden "to do " list is beginning to shrink.

We thought that we would continue the produce stand until November but it looks like island life does go into hibernation a tad early so we are going to be open in a casual way selling canned goods. For all of you islanders who read this newsletter, feel free to stop by anytime and we will accommodate you. Next week we will provide a list of what we have - much of it will be great for gifts with the holidays coming up. We are still pulling food out of the ground i.e. spinach, heirloom strawberry lettuce, sweet potatoes, herbs, beets, onions, parsnips, tomatoes (if you can believe it - thanks to everything I read about raised gardens), kale, eggplant, cabbage and collards. This last week, Joe canned the green beans, tomato sauce, pickled beets and green tomatoes. I made applesauce, salsa, corn succotash, eggplant puree, green tomato bread, stuffed cabbage and both of us mashed and froze the potatoes - oh wait, let's not forget the pounds of pesto......it continues to be a lot of work but again, incredibly rewarding. (By the way, the eggplant puree is to die for - you could actually use that as a dip or sandwich spread - as I often say - SHUT UP it's so good).

I will continue the newsletter and that is when I will move into some other earth friendly subjects that have struck my fancy. There is so much that I read about that I want to share and of course get feedback on - I am really looking forward to it. I have spoken to my webmaster - the fab Doug Van Slembrouk. He is going to post my two books on my site http://www.katehart.com in the next couple of weeks. I will let you know when they are done so that if you are interested, you can download a chapter at a time - or just leave it online and read it there. Along with that, we are going to get the Magik Nuts website up (I already have orders for 50 lbs) and create a page for Cricket Garden. That too should be done in a couple of weeks.

I do want to apologize if I have ever come off as being a bit preachy. I do have to continue, on a daily basis, to keep a wise ol' saying running through my brain- "Those who know, don't speak. Those who speak, don't know." (Politicians anyone???) My goal will be to take on each newsletter with love and humility with no intention other than to share what I think is interesting but at no time demanding you should think the way that I do. That never gets anyone anywhere does it?

We are going to miss visiting with our wonderful neighbors every week as you come and get your produce. Buddy, our garden cat, will also miss doing his meet and greet at the front of the driveway, welcoming you into his domain, bringing dead mice for all of us to admire and then jumping up on the stand for one last petting extravaganza. With all of these wonderful spring and summer memories, please don't be strangers - it seems that our beautiful garden opened up a little magical door where good intentions could thrive and with that we could make new friends. From one season into the next we send our love and may the fall and winter bring sustenance and peace to your family.

Home Sweet Home

2010-10-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

Fall is really here. Isn't it funny how our bodies, minds, spirits begin to crave and do different things? I know my days are changing dramatically due to less sunlight, cooler temperatures and taking on a full work schedule. Four to five days a I have an hour drive coming to and from work. The drive to work is on the meditative side. The drive home not so much, as it is dark which means I don't have the spectacular view. Since so many of you don't know Harsens Island I would love to clue you in on my slice of heaven.

When Joe and I moved out to Harsens Island we had several agendas to fulfill by being here. First of all, and maybe the most important was to be close to nature. Secondly, we wanted to be in a place where there was a sense of community. Third, due to feeling beat up from being on the road, running bands, dealing with club owners, agents and managers - I could feel a stagnation of spirit and because of that, I was up for an adventure. But finally and most important, the great Lake St. Clair is an important piece of Joe's young history. He had such a "soul" connection with this magical lake. Since nature and the connection to the earth is so important to us, I will lead with that.

When you get off the island and head west, almost immediately you are in Saint John's Marsh. Besides being the largest freshwater delta in the world, the St. Clair River Delta contains the greatest area of unaltered coastal marsh in the state. It is under management by the St. Clair Flats Wildlife Association which protects 745 acres. St. John's Marsh is part of a cluster of lake plain prairies within the St. Clair River delta. Lake plain prairies are relatively flat, occurring on sand ridges overlaying clay. Close to 160 different kinds of plants thrive in the area. The Natural Area is adjacent to 3,000 acres of St. John's Marsh which is occasionally managed with fires.

What I have found so far is that the shaping of Michigan's landscape began during the great Ice Age, sculpting four massive continental glaciers rapidly moving across the Midwest. Michigan experienced the last great ice sheet, known as the Wisconsin Glacier, about fourteen thousand years ago. Actually, some say it was 13,500 years ago and this is a cycle that happens every 13,500 years and believe me, last winter, with all the ice, I believe them. Okay, back to the history of the Marsh. This huge mass was a mile thick and almost four million miles square. As the "river of ice" crept over the underlying rocks, its base scraped millions of tons of earth like a giant bulldozer over the land. The debris composed of soil, pebbles, cobbles and boulders - all being pushed forward, grinding rocks into dust, while boulders scratched their way through the bedrock. Then the climate began to warm. Melt-water carried the soils and rocks away from the melting glacier, depositing over the landscape. As this blend of soils and rocks was dropped away from the ice, the low hills, were created across the state. The weight of the glacier was lessening and the earth began to rebound, like a sponge returning to its original shape when the squeezing stopped. The landscape began to emerge like a slowly rising phoenix. Plants began to appear on the drying landscape. Communities formed as plants found a suitable growing environment near each other. Okay, I did ramble a bit - hope this wasn't too dry, but I find it really fascinating that all of this happened and here I am, little ol' me, lucky enough to live next to it.

But this is only a part of what I see. In addition, there is an incredible array of river fowl, deer, raccoons, beavers (love their twig huts that stick out of the marsh like summer built igloos), swans, ducks and geese. Other animals species include great blue heron (which nests on the islands and I am privy to see almost daily), the Eastern fox snake (one of which kept slithering up to my produce stand - I eventually grew fearless, picking him up and putting him back in the weeds by the canal - oh and let's not forget his babies that were in my house) restricted to coastal marshes of Saginaw Bay, Lake St. Clair, and Lake Erie, King rail, and the rare Forster's Tern (nests on the channel levees that extend west from Dickinson Island). The Marsh is a well-known stop-over for migrating waterfowl, and provides nesting habitat for other birds, including some of the state-threatened birds. Along with the animal life are the incredible prairie wildflowers/grasses, such as blazing star, tall sun flower, big blue stem grass and Indian grass. On Dickinson Island, next to Harsens Island, small areas of wet prairie exist between the oaks on the ancient delta formation and meadow of the younger delta wetland. Wet prairie sites on both Dickinson and Harsens Islands provide habitat for rare plant species.

My daily drives and living on the island reflect all of the above. As a matter of fact, when driving home early on a Sunday last winter, the iced up canal had one small opening, exposing a bit of fresh water with two swans huddled, waiting for lunch to swim by. Other days I might see, ice fisherman, in cars, trucks, portable and more permanent looking shanties, dotted long the lake. In the summer I'll see canoeing, fishing, hunting, nature study groups, photographers and birdwatchers. Beats looking at the back end of a car on the freeway.

When people ask me, "Isn't it hard to drive that far? or "Doesn't it get to you when you can't get off the island?" I have to smile. In my opinion, the disconnectedness with nature has just about ruined this planet. Being with nature while trying to live a life in the modern world, is not easy. But the hardship is worth it. There is a high price for not paying attention to this incredible earth that we are living on. I once wrote a children's story about a girl named Fig who lived in a world where all the trees were disappearing because people just stopped thinking about them. Maybe I can take my lead from Fig while I slowly pick away at living a life that won't be a terrible impact on earth. Everything from plans to purchase a small car, to putting in a wood stove for heat. But none of this would be foremost in my mind, if I weren't living in a place that was a constant reminder of what is really important - and that my friends, is the ground we stand on and the earth that feeds us. Home Sweet Home!

Now what you want to know about , the food!

Recipe of the Week

Thai Pumpkin Soup

This is a spicy variety on our favorite pumpkin soup. You can make it mild spicy or hot spicy by using different types of chilies. Instead of the traditional sour cream, this recipe uses coconut milk. Quick n' easy!

Ingredients

1 tbl. vegetable oil
1 tbl. butter
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
2 sm. fresh red chili peppers, chopped
1 tbl. chopped lemon grass
2 1/8 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 bunch fresh basil leaves

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat oil and butter over low heat. Cook garlic, shallots, chilies and lemongrass in oil until fragrant (be careful not to burn the garlic). Stir in chicken stock, coconut milk and pumpkin; bring to a boil. Cook until pumpkin softens.

2. In a blender, blend the soup in batches to a smooth or slightly chunky consistency, whatever you prefer. Serve with basil leaves.

Letters From...YOU!

Barbara from Austin, TX writes...

"I just LOVE your newsletters! Thank you so much for sharing all that you do and all that you are with us. These are thoroughly enjoyable Many thanks again."

More from our valued readers...

"Hi Kate! Great newsletter this week and last! But even greater still...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! All my love, Laurie"

"I've heard you sing on CD - I have a Detroit Women CD - love it. That's how I originally got on your newsletter. I always wanted to hear you LIVE, but, do you sing at all anymore?"

"I forward your garden newsletters to my mom also - she's a Master Gardener in Indiana - and she loves getting them! What a great service you are providing to so many people - spreading your joy: first, through music and now, this. You are gifted. Thank you for blessing all of us - and helping to heal the planet in so many ways. Namaste.

Produce Stand

New Paradigms or Everything I've Let Go Of Has Clawmarks On It.

2010-09-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have so much that I want to write about that each day, I'm sure I know what it is and then I have another thought and another thought - I can feel a book coming on! Oh no! Not another book!!! I can hear you all the way from Harsens Island. Well, let's just see where this all goes and if I'm lucky some of you will keep me company along the way. I know this is a garden newsletter so really, I should keep all things garden-like. But coming from a family of soap box preachers - my great grandfather used to stand in a park in Romania preaching politics, later followed by my grandfather who was one of the founders of the Detroit auto union at GM - I guess I just can't help myself. What's the worse-case scenario? You can delete me from your inbox, but oh, I don't think I could bear that, so I will try and be a good girl!

No one wants their belief system to be smashed to bits. We spend years fixing our minds on what our truth is. This covers a broad spectrum i.e. religion, politics, weight loss, medicine, anthropology, living conditions, life on other planets - you name it and we have probably formed an opinion in our young lives, building, dismissing, editing all information throughout the years. So when we begin to entertain the fact we need to find another way to live, it is not going to be a simple process. Instead of moving into the world of "Let's find a way that really works" we go into "What about me?" "Hey, that's not how I've always done it." "Why should I change." and "My life works just the way it is." One of the easier answers is that it really is a numbers game. There are so many people on this planet that we not only have to think about what is good for the individual but each other. But here's the big AH HA! If you are thinking about your neighbor, you begin to change and leave the world of kindergarten what about me I'm the most important thing on the planet, to being a much happier fulfilled human being. At least that has been my experience.

This was a tactic that I had to utilize when running a band. Some of you may remember, I had groups with six to seven women singers and a four-piece band. If I left my ego at the door, than they had to leave theirs. I would always put myself last in song choices and importance unless it was for the good of the group to take a more leadership position. But because of this sacrifice the group and concept were incredibly popular allowing all of us to achieve our collective dreams that we couldn't achieve individually. It really did work.

But we are humans and change is scary. Scary means fear and fear means lack of faith. Therefore lack of faith equals fear. Faith can mean anything to you. A higher power or maybe just your life's experience that things do happen the way they are supposed to. Or better yet maybe faith in this case, could be the collective consciousness of the group. I agree that at times, it is all too overwhelming. However I know that I forget that there are only three kinds of fear - fear of being wrong, fear of being lonely and fear of being hurt. I have often been in a place where I believed I had faith but yet, still remained fearful - hmmmmm - forgetting that faith is an action word. There is a disconnect there, isn't there? I find, the other part of our human condition, is that we don't change our minds because life looks like a Walt Disney movie with bluebirds landing on our shoulders and fairies doing our housework. We change our minds because we cannot stand the pain anymore. We absolutely feel like we are going to die so therefore maybe there might be a different way - hence, everything I have let go of has claw marks on it. It reminds me of the old joke where the guy falls off the cliff and is hanging with one hand to a branch keeping him from dropping to his death. God himself comes out of the clouds and says "Just let go." The guy thinks a minute and says, "Can I get a second opinion?"

I am going to make this particular "paradigm" newsletter in three parts. Part 2 will be sent next week and Part 3 the week after. There are many new paradigms I have been reading about which truly fascinate me that I would like to share. But let's start with seeds as I don't want to be deleted from your email just yet! So see, it is about gardening!!

With all of my talk about "new paradigms" it doesn't leave out that maybe going back and relearning something that mankind "used" to know just might be a good idea. Because it's not modern doesn't mean it's not good. Which brings me to the following:

A recent book, Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty, by John Burke presents scientific evidence that the old-world engineers who built the massive henges, pyramids, mounds and dolmen of the ancient world may well have understood a true secret - lost to modern man until now. Burke, is an unusual combination in that he is an anthropologist and a physicist, doing most of his research at Harvard. He and his team have found that these structures are overwhelmingly sited at locations where the local geology magnified naturally-occurring electromagnetic fluctuations in the earth's crust and, further, that pyramidal and corbel-roofed stone structures erected at these locations enhanced this effect. Additionally, they reveal that indigenous seeds, when placed at theselocations (for various periods of time, depending upon the type of seed) show significant increases in growth rate and yield when subsequently planted-as well as increasedresistance to plant stressors (lack of sunlight and/or drought conditions). Such results would of course, be of enormous importance to ancient peoples. Burke suggests that the monument-builders not only knew these facts, but deliberately chose these sites and structure-shapes in order to insure their culture's food production. I find it extremely interesting that Burke's experiments with seeds indigenous to each specific location studied produced similar results. Seeds placed on top of the "Lost World" pyramid at Tikal show increased growth-rate relative to their controls.

In America they conducted these experiments on ancient Indian burial grounds, with the same results. Leading them to believe that these mounds were built on "lines of energy" for manydifferent reasons. All kinds of questions come up. How did these ancient peoples know where these places were? Did they just feel it? How did they know what these energies would do? Was it a hit and miss sort of thing? Did they think, well, "I feel better when I sit there, maybe this magical spot is good for other living things"?

In March I am going to get a group of gardeners together and head on down to Ohio where there are some serious mounds and lay my seeds out for two or three hours and see if there is a difference. With the changes in the weather, creating new strains of disease for the vegetation, I really have nothing to lose. I tried to talk my husband in going last year - but in his defense, I think the two of us were just too busy. If any of you would like to make a "seed of knowledge trip" let me know and we can make a weekend of it.

As I grow older I am forced to face that I really don't know much. My new mantra is that I believe everything and nothing. I am working on allowing information to come through without my opinions attached and corrupting what might be a new idea that counters all that I believe in and maybe, hopefully, might help in allowing this planet to be an even better place to live.

Church of the Earth

2010-09-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

I always think I know what I am going to write about, each week, mulling it over as I work in the garden. I was sure that I was going to write about how much I love the island and what it means to my heart to be accepted by all of you. But when I got home late last night after teaching for 12 hours, I got a note from former school chum and new Vineyard owner, Wendy. She wrote;

"Thanks for the newsletters, they are fun and informative. We have been tucking, suckering, hedging, spraying and mulching the vineyard non-stop. Every morning 5am still too hot. Overwhelmed to say the least. But learning like crazy and loving it. The clusters of grapes are beautiful! Nothing like "The Church of the Earth" is there?"

The church of the earth! That's it, isn't it? This is our sacred ground and we it's guardians, protectors, ministers, if you will. And our job, to be dutiful in caring for it. I just don't seem to be doing all that I can. If only I didn't have to drive, buy gas and being a part of this madness. Or why is everything wrapped in plastic? Why, on the rare occasion that Joe and I eat out, do we have to bring our food home in styrofoam? When will this end? When do we find our connection to earth realizing that there are answers in us as individuals in knowing what we can do to make things better? We can't rely on politicians or policies or government or wishful thinking. The answer lies in each and every one of us. And even though I know this, it takes complete focus and energy to live in a different way. As we are all being bombarded with what others think we need and should have, we never realize we really don't need much at all. So onward and upward as we look for a new ways to solve old problems. As Albert Einstein said "If we knew what we were doing, they wouldn't call it research."

My goal next week, since I have it off, is to get rid of every bit of what I don't need dropping it off to Salvation Army. Begin to live in a simpler way, without clutter and see if the lack of clutter, will unclutter my brain, giving me room to think about what it is that I can do. But, in the meantime, I have been in my church, with my hands in the dirt. This week, I dug up most of the garlic, planted cabbage, cauliflower and transplanted tomato plants. The green peppers are getting big enough to pick, the elephant garlic is huge, the green beans are being harvested, along with the zucchini and squash. Joe planted beets and Judy has wandered around the garden finding places for heirloom seeds that she wants to try. We are always running out of space, so it is a good thing that we pulled the last of our amazing beets, giving us another place to dig. This morning, with cup of coffee in hand, I sat in the garden with grateful thanks that I have had the opportunity to do something that matters, no matter how small in the scheme of things.

Waste Not Want Not

2010-09-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

While we travel up our sharp learning curve, with the back-drop of the humidity, Joe, Judy and I, still remain passionate about fresh produce and learning everything we can about it. Not only are we educating ourselves on what is healthy, what you are willing to buy, how much we should charge when it cost us more than the grocery store, (trying not to pass it on to you and still make a little bit of money), when/how much the next planting should go in and be - but let's not forget the "Oh my gosh, what do we do with the leftover food!" Like I said, it is a sharp curve but answers are coming fast. But first, I would like to talk about prices and how we come up with what we do.

Everything is organic. If we don't grow it, then we buy it. Organic food cost a lot. I never knew why, before. But I sure do now. You lose crops caused by blights, and lack of sprays due to being committed to a healthier planet and palate. The food spoils faster because it is not genetically modified also driving the cost up. Another factor is we don't order in large amounts. And since, I almost never walk into a grocery store (I have always hated them, just the lighting and music drives me bonkers, let alone the food) I really don't compare. When I go to the Farmer's Market I do check their prices and try and stay pretty much where they are. My tomatoes were more expensive because I was getting them from the only grower in Michigan that had them ready in May, which was a real luxury. If a few tomatoes go bad or are bruised, which always happens, you can kiss your profit good-bye. And, you aren't adding the ferry trip and gas...blah blah blah. Hey, no one makes me do this, I love it, just thought I would explain to the one old guy that told me my tomatoes were too expensive. Now that ours our coming in, we have dropped the prices by 75 cents a pound which, I know helps your pocket book and we can make a little.

(As a side note: Our Locavore distributor told me how Kroger has a warehouse in Illinois that is the size of 18 football fields. He said it is packed with unripened food from California, Mexico, and South America to name a few. Then to ripen the food before it is to go out to us, they spray it with the gas Ethanol. Let's not go into how they wax the eggs so they will keep for several months in their coolers; a high price to keep food prices down)

I have a friend who sells essential oils. She was telling me how many plants it takes to make one bottle of oil. She said that if they followed the same price costs they had in the 1920's the product would be 20 times more than what it is now. She laughed when I told her that after watching how long it takes for a watermelon to grow, they should be priced at $100.00. The awareness for me, has been what it takes for something to grow. The weather must be conducive, good soil conditions, planting, fertilizing, watering every day, unless mother nature wants to cooperate and then of course weeding. Which if you are anything like Joe and I, is just a fricking losing battle. After seeing Jackie at RC Organics fabulous farm (she co-ops 50 families) and all of her weeds and the fact that they don't seem to bother her, I have decided to let go a little on this and/or get help when we can afford it. This is not a Zen Garden or will probably ever be on the garden tour, but it does do what it is supposed to, which is to feed us and others.

Now, what do we do with the extra food? I have gotten really good at getting on the internet and discovering that you are able to can radishes, make vegetable soup with just about anything and if you have a hydrator, can make kale chips. Right now we are on our third huge pot of vegetable soup, getting it ready for canning. It has turnips, corn, cauliflower, green beans, parsnips, garlic, onion, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini and squash. We call it roots soup. Cook it up, pour it into the jars, seal them up and can away. Viola! Veggie soup! A lot of work? Yes! But if you were raised by the mother I was raised by, wasting food is a sin tantamount to "Though shall not commit adultery". She ground her own meat, put all the vegetable scraps in the soup pot that was never not on the stove and created on the spot recipes. Hopefully, we can return to some of this good ol' common sense and in the meantime be healthier for it. So if you don't buy my incredible green peppers this weekend, I will pull out her insanely good recipe for stuffed peppers with lamb, rice and tomato. I also have a recipe where you stuff the peppers with black beans and rice! Yummy!

We continue to explore, plant, weed, water, discuss, learn, dig, laugh, cry, cook, bake, sell, organize and live this new lifestyle and hopefully inspire you to do the same.

Warm Fuzzy Monsters

2010-09-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

The great stories and recipes you share with us are so appreciated. One of my favorite stories was told to me as two of our customers and I were picking pole beans from the vine, about a gardener friend of theirs who was trying to do the same thing as us (produce stand). One day a lady wouldn't buy his carrots because she thought he was lying about how he pulled them out of the ground. She was positive that carrots grew on trees. You got to love that (I have to admit that broccoli was always a mystery to me) but growing on trees is a stretch.

Every single day, three or four people tell us how much they love what we are doing. It means the world to not only Joe and I but to Judy who has really helped and guided us in this huge undertaking. We do understand driving around the island trying to find a fresh tomato. Eating something other than some wilted veggie is what prompted this whole shindig. There are so many of you that want organic food and/or your food to come from Michigan. And believe me this is no easy feat. If you go to Eastern Market almost all of the distributors sell crops that are from out-0f- state. Only one distributor specializes in Michigan produce (his stuff is amazing). That is where I get the tomatoes, butter lettuce, melons (when he has them), cherries, blueberries, apricots and now the soda, salsa and blueberry/cherry products. The rest comes from either our garden, local organic farmer, Jackie or Don Dull, who has taken us under his wing. Speaking of wings, this is where I want to thank my mentor, Judy Jessup as her no-nonsense ways and big open heart are one of the reasons we are getting this right because my friends, this is a huge learning curve. Not only in what we should plant and how much, but buying wholesale and selling retail is another world that I barely have had time to investigate.

The journey continues, refining, planning and expanding. We are going to put in nine more raised beds in August. We would like most of the food we sell, to come from the island. It supports the whole idea of sustainability within the neighborhood and it is something we can all take pride in - especially if this could become more of a community garden. But baby steps are the only way to learn how to walk properly. So please be patient as we learn and find our way through permits in doing something year round. We will continue to expand on the cooperative concept and I will forge ahead on writing about our experiences. And in the meantime, all of you scary monsters. keep ringing the doorbell.

Finding My Niche

2010-09-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

As the Bluegrass festival approaches, Joe and I are getting busier and busier. Right now, technically I have three jobs. The garden/produce stand, teaching voice and voice over workshops (training voices for commercials) and festival producer. I get up in the mornings and literally pace, until I can find the rhythm of what I should do first. It is overwhelming and I only have myself to blame. Why I would think that producing a Bluegrass Festival is a good idea at this time in my life, really has me stumped. When I look back a few months ago at when I shot off my big mouth that this would be a great fundraiser, I really didn't think it through. Now, I have done this before and it usually turns out just fine, but I am training myself to say no, to just about everything. Is it selfish, you bet! Is that okay? You bet! Because this selfishness will give me the energy to do something that may actually matter before I move on into the next world.

I have lived a life that many people envy. Everything from writing a play that ran close to a dozen times, to being nominated and/or the recipient for over 50 industry awards, to performing for thousands of people, to producing major events. But I am here to tell you, that none of that is enviable. That life is hard, self-serving, narcisstic and as far as I can tell, didn't really do much to help make this planet a better place. I have a tendency to always compare what is going on in my small life with the backdrop of world events. This week, 10 million Chinese were misplaced due to mudslides. In Pakistan, thousands have been killed and many more due to flooding. In Moscow, almost a million acres have burned due to wild fires with no end in sight. So how important is my silly career? Or a festival? Or if I win or don't win an award. In the scheme of things, it means nothing.

All I can come up with for a meaningful existence is to be kind (I fail at this daily, someone always pisses me off; this week the phone company), have an open heart and try to live consciously, hence the garden, recycle, organic, neighborhood sustainability and love. One of my favorite customers, told me that I exude passion for the produce stand and sharing the food. It's true, I do feel passion for the first time, in a long time. As passion dissipated, towards the end of my career, this beautiful island rescued me. It has filled my heart with beauty, solitude and maybe one day, peace, if I can sit still long enough to appreciate it.

I received a note from one of my customers, Karen Kelly. She wrote; "I want to commend you, Joe and Judy.. think about mother earth and her rewards! I look forward to reading your email's each week. They're heartfelt and informative. They truly show your commitment to the process of community and living organic! My husband and I have a cottage on the north channel with an organic vegetable/flower garden. I've been canning organic salsa for at least 10 years. I also make homemade pesto and freeze it for the winter. As you know, some years yield more tomatoes then others and my basil always grows good so I always have pesto in my freezer. We plant beans, tomatoes(cherry, regular & roma), basil, zucchini, Japanese cucumbers, Japanese eggplants, green & red peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, chili peppers & habanero's. We try to eat it all, give it to our kids or freeze it for later in the winter! I read that you are having trouble with the weeds in your garden. We use our grass clippings as mulch for our garden. This really knocks down the weeds. Also, as you know, if you plant flowers in with your veggies, they bring in the good bugs that will eat the bad bugs on your veggies. Thank you again for all of the organic gardening tips and recipes! What a great summer it's been for our veggie and flower gardens. As I sit on my dock at sunset and look around me at all of the nature...I truly think I've got my own slice of heaven! Mother Earth, she's a powerful gal!!!

That note is more powerful than all the applause in China. If I am one of the lucky ones, I will continue to grow into a better human being with the aid of my beautiful garden, which teaches me patience, quest for knowledge, appreciation for detail, the collaborative rhythm of nature and most of all providing me with my niche for the first time in my life.

Go With The Flow

2010-09-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

This is the first time, I have sat down to take a breath. Though the Bluegrass Festival was over on Sunday, there was still lots of follow-up to do over the last three days. And on top of all the paperwork, budgeting, phone calls and let's not forget cleaning house, it has been a bit challenging. To top it all off Joe has pneumonia and it seems everything in the garden needs to be harvested, i.e. corn, beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, melons, potatoes, green peppers, basil, green onions and hot peppers. The Okra is looking pretty darn healthy as is the eggplant. You wouldn't know we staggered the plantings since everything seems to be coming in at once. So much for best laid plans. Like the all to true saying "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans". However, I have one that I like even better. "A planned life can never be lived, it can only be endured". Which brings me to the subject of this newsletter.

I never imagined that I would end up in Michigan again, let alone on Harsens Island, let alone with a produce stand. The garden part I already had in place in Seattle. But the divine conspiracy that took place to get Joe and I here, is just too, well, divine. When living in Seattle, (we met there but both of us are from here), and after about 27 years of West Coast narcissism, I was ready to make another major move. I had some choices which included, the Rocky Mountains, the incredible Southwest (Flagstaff), or Florida. At the time, we were looking at places where Joe could work and I could continue with a singing career. This was eight years ago and the dot com world had come crashing down in Seattle crippling anyone that had anything to do with computers, which included Joe. Seattle is a very expensive place to live so if you don't have a decent job, then good fricking luck. Joe got an offer in Florida, off he went, while I packed up our wonderful little house, closed the garden, located a portable aquarium for our turtle, Howie, who now lives in the Greenhouse, tried to find drugs to knock out four cats who had to travel cross country, find a home for my parrot who hated everyone but me meaning I couldn't put Joe through that hell in a car as the bird continuously stalked him, and worst of all, put my old lab, Shebee the Love Dog to sleep. Just when I was selling the last of our belongings I got a call from Joe in Florida that the job had been downsized and he was let go. After coming out of shock, I told him to come home, we then drove cross country with our little zoo (by the way, none of them needed drugs, it was as if they were glad to make the trip), rekindling our sense of adventure.

Arriving in Detroit the winter of 2002 at my dad's house, was a little much for someone that was just turning 50, leaving me in shock. Starting over at 50! But I had no choice and decided to look at it as a mid-life adventure. The same way I do when I am going to plant something new, or try a new seed, or a new technique to make something grow faster and/or stronger. All I can tell you is that it is the best thing that ever happened to both of us. Within a year, Joe had a wonderful job, my new band and racked up 24 nominations for the Detroit Music Awards and my groups, Detroit Women and the Kate Hart band had been cited by the Metro Times as two of the influential groups in Detroit's Music History over the last 100 years. (We were included among many impressive names). My musical career only went up from there. Here I thought I was done with the whole "music is my career" thing, only to have life inform me that I just wasn't done, yet. It was as if I was the puppet and someone was pulling the strings. But the point is, I didn't plan it, but because I was and continue to be open to all possibilities, I was lucky to be present enough to fully experience all of these surprises while it was happening. I trusted the flow of life.

Now, I am at the precipice of another adventure. My challenge continues to be that I have enough energy and time to do it all. Some evenings Joe and I (and of course, Little B) sit on our porch swing that I found on the side of the road, painted different shades of pink by one of my voice students. Slowly rocking we listen to the crickets chirp as if they are thrilled that there is a garden that holds the same name. I marvel at the luck of the draw or, er...life's plan, on how we ended up here of all the places we could have gone. Not only is it beautiful, but Joe and I might actually be of some use to our community with the produce stand, the garden and now the Bluegrass Festival, becoming an annual event, with the proceeds providing help to those who need it. I had been looking for a charity or organization that I could be a part of or be useful to, and once again, life has dropped it in my lap.

There is a purpose for every living thing, but most of the time I don't know what it is, and I highly suspect that none of it is my business. What I am really here to do is experience life, which if I am really lucky, will teach me compassion. Maybe everything in this world isn't screwed up. Maybe there is perfection in all things, if I pay attention, live, and experience an unplanned life. And maybe just maybe when looking at the heartbreak that goes on in the world what is really behind it, is the beginning of us finding a new way to live. If that is true, then this could be the most exciting time to be living on this beautiful planet.

Connected to the Earth

2010-09-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

How about this muggy weather? Could anything be better for the garden? My garden looks like it is thriving on some tropical island in the South Pacific! Joe and I come home from work every night and marvel at how magnificent it all is. The herbs look positively atomic not to mention that I already have green peppers at half size! Such a joy to be a part of this incredible process of growing vegetables. Really, all I am in this food chain of sun, rain, earth and seed is the stupid human that dug the hole. But still the pride that I feel when a seedling pokes his head out, feels like I just gave birth...um, well, without the labor pains.

Being connected to the earth has changed me. And I have to say, in the last year, the change has been profound. I am beginning to understand the wisdom of eating what is locally grown and only what is in season. This of course, takes a huge amount of planning and commitment, but hey, what else am I going to do? Watch television? So I am slowly making the adjustment of walking the talk so that I can live with a little more integrity and show real respect for this incredible planet that we all get to live on, our Mother Earth. Let us all revel in the pleasure of the sun on our backs, the breeze in our hair, the smell of freshly dug soil and a feeling of well-being after a good workout in the fresh air.

Being a Part of the Food Chain

2010-09-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

goff

How about this muggy weather? Could anything be better for the garden?
My garden looks like it is thriving on some tropical island in the South
Pacific! Joe and I come home from work every night and marvel at how
magnificent it all is. The herbs look positively atomic not to mention
that I already have green peppers at half size! Such a joy to be a part of
this incredible process of growing vegetables. Really, all I am in this food
chain of sun, rain, earth and seed is the stupid human that dug the hole.
But still the pride that I feel when a seedling pokes his head out, feels
like I just gave birth...um, well, without the labor pains.

Being connected to the earth has changed me. And I have to say, in the
last year, the change has been profound. I am beginning to understand the
wisdom of eating what is locally grown and only what is in season. This of
course, takes a huge amount of planning and commitment, but hey, what else am I going to do? Watch television? So I am slowly making the adjustment of
walking the talk so that I can live with a little more integrity and show
real respect for this incredible planet that we all get to live on, our
Mother Earth. Let us all revel in the pleasure of the sun on our backs,
the breeze in our hair, the smell of freshly dug soil and a feeling of
well-being after a good workout in the fresh air.

Flexibility, Sustainability and Simplicity

2010-09-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

The garden is winding down, though Joe and I continue to plant. Our third planting is showing great signs; the heirloom strawberry lettuce, green with red specks, that Judy found fascinating is ready to sell, beets are gorgeous, second planting of tomatoes with incredibly high yields, the cabbage and broccoli are looking full and healthy as I transplant them from pot to raised bed. Now I have time to paint yard furniture, weed and fuss over all of the little things that I didn't have time to get to while everything was growing like crazy. I do have a basket of small melons, more beans - green and fava to pick so it's not like I don't have anything to do. Let's not mention the 2,000 ground cherries I am shucking so that Deb and I can make chutney. Oh yeah, and we have 10 small pumpkins that survived some kind of weird fungus that took over the leaves. Joe put up 24 quarts of tomato sauce - next we have to do the pesto because the basil looks like a fragrant Italian forest, so gorgeous that it is making it hard to pick. And showing itself is the cilantro. Delicate, fragrant and demanding I cook something where it is a key ingredient.

As we move towards the idea of neighborhood sustainability, selling vegetables has been a real learning experience. I couldn't sell a yellow string bean if my life depended on it. But the farmer I get them from sells pounds every weekend at the local markets. I had 24 eggplants but could never sell more than 12. But the basics i.e. green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, mushrooms, lettuce, beets, corn, peaches, strawberries and blueberries - no problem. I'm still harping on the kale, collard greens, turnips, Swiss chard, mustard greens, parsnips and soon the okra. Do I get smarter for next year and just plant the basics? Or do I continue to try and convince customers, neighbors and friends to try and go with the heartier vegetable that will sustain the harsher climates while providing everyone with incredible nutrition. I mean you just can't eat anything healthier than kale. Through this experience I have had to learn how to be flexible and really, keep it simple. With my artistic nature, my ideas can be a bit grandiose and time-consuming. So once again the garden and what may lay ahead of me are already showing me how to improve as a person and maybe even how to be more useful.

Because I will have time to write as the days grow cooler and shorter, I have been collecting my thoughts about just what "I" think having a sustainable neighborhood really means. How many people does it include? I guess the fact that I live on an island make the boundaries fairly clear - but what about the urban neighborhoods or the more rural communities? What is the definition of a neighborhood? What do you need to not just survive but thrive? There are some things that are clear - land that can be farmed, fresh water and seeds. But then who has the farm equipment? Who has dairy products? Then let's not forget machinery that needs to be fixed and maybe even built to suit the needs of the demands. I guess that it is by necessity that these answers become clear and the issues at hand are dealt with. But then there are the overviews of questions, like "Shouldn't the way we do things become simpler?" I mean just because you have the technology to do something, should you do it?

In regards to simplicity, flexibility and sustainability, where does bartering come in? Karen Golden and I had a really interesting conversation today about that very subject. She is the gal whose family has had a cottage on the island since the 50's and an organic farm in Highland. Her specialty being heirloom tomatoes and peppers. This year she began to barter - pounds of tomatoes to her hairdresser for haircuts for her and her husband throughout the year. Her neighbor had more than enough concord grapes - they bartered so he could have his canned tomato sauce and she could have her jelly.

I have bartered many services throughout the last few years - my friend Walt, a handyman extraordinaire and an aspiring singer - traded his services for voice lessons. I bartered with my graphic designer and now her daughter gets voice lessons. The whole bartering concept really does seem incredibly civilized and simple. Not to mention that we might have to get fairly flexible on receiving goods we need if the world economic situation continues to tank.

Civilized or not what it may come down to is the concept of "simpler is better." Buckminster Fuller a great proponent of this concept is worth reviewing with his geodesic domes among other cutting edge concepts. At the age of 32 he found himself on the shore of Lake Michigan wondering whether to end his life there. Fuller took a decision to devote his life to others by embarking on "an experiment to discover what the little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity". The following year he made his first 4D tower, a lightweight, prefab, multi-story apartment tower to be delivered anywhere in the world by airship. Once delivered the towers would generate their own light and heat with an independent sewage disposal system. Driven by his philosophy of "more for less", Fuller threw himself into a new way of housing mankind, in "Lightful Houses" so-called because they were full of light. This program and his vision of a world united by the most modern means of transport and telecommunication evolved into Fuller's philosophy of four-dimensional design. He defined this as thinking in time instead of only the three dimensions of space: thinking of consequences for humanity instead of only immediate personal gain. Hundreds of thousands of geodesic domes have since been constructed all over the world, often in extreme conditions, to offer inexpensive shelter to homeless families in Africa, or to house weather stations in 180 mph winds in the Antarctic. In 1960 Fuller designed a dome of two miles in diameter to encase midtown Manhattan in a controlled climate. He calculated that it would pay for itself within ten years simply by saving on snow removal costs.

When it comes to growing a garden, taking on new projects, writing a song and of course, living my life - maybe I can incorporate these words like Buckminster Fuller did in everything he took on. Simplicity, Sustainability and Flexibility may be the key in not wasting my time in trying to keep things the way they have always been but rather moving forward on a less stagnant path towards a brand new world.

Power of the Seed

2010-08-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

We have no idea who planted the first seed. Who was the first participant in the mystery, magic and cycle of nature? Did they know that it would transform landscape? Did they know that at some point it would transform them as a culture, a civilization or just their own personal realm? did they know that they would change the course of human history? Was the seed found or gleaned? Was it a matter of the first gardener just paying attention, seeing a pod fall, unaided from the plant and burying itself into the soil, only to grow up - a miracle really. Or an accident? The seed gathered and then scattered by humans, flourishing months later the germ of an idea becomes planted in the mind? Bits of the flower, fruit or plant harvested and then the slow waiting, time and again, generation after generation?

The discovery of planting was probably born of need but it couldn't have been long before the first gardeners, over 10,000 years ago, recognized that more than just an empty stomach was being fed. We know that, in time, the storytellers acknowledged the mysterious forces that gave them the gifts of seed and plant, of earth and water, the cycles of the seasons, and of the moon and sun. Humans gave these forces names and forms, and offered them thanks. These ancient but once-sacred stories - preserved for us only as statues of now-nameless grain goddesses-are lost to us but later sacred stories-of the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, the Greek Demeter, or the Native American Changing Woman-remind us that humanity has always understood the provenance of earth's gifts as sacral in nature.

Nature is who we are. there is no separation!

The awesome power of the seed-its literal and symbolic promise of life, renewal, growth, death- must have changed how human beings lived on the face of the earth and their spiritual understanding. sowing the seed permitted them to settle, farm, and claim land as their own. Introducing or maybe enhancing what they already knew or suspected that the rhythm of life was real. What could be more important than not only becoming aware of the ever-renewing cycle of nature but being a part of it. It had to change the individual, the collective consciousness- a potent metaphor for human resurrection, reflected in the much later custom of the ancient Greeks, who kept a pot of seeds representing the household's dead near the hearth.

The cycle of nature-the progress from seed to fruition to dying-off and then renewal in the spring-was mirrored in the wild fields and the garden alike, while the fragile harvest- the possible interruption of the cycle by drought, wind, or other natural calamities-established the pattern of how humans understood the workings of the cosmos. The oldest of surviving sacred stories have their roots in the garden and reflect how humanity sought to understand the changeable patterns of their world and, at the same time, to imagine a world no longer subject to change. It's no accident that our own word "paradise" comes from a Persian word for an enclosed garden.

Gardening also helps us come to terms with the cycle of human life. Many of us tend to see our lives as linear, moving from birth to death at opposite ends of the continuum, but the garden teaches another lesson entirely. In nature, beginnings and endings, birth and death, are inseparable: implicit in the flower's blooming is its dying -off as well as its eventual renewal. The perennials in our winter garden-dead above ground, still awake below-teach us about time and hidden mysteries. The withered annual is a symbol for the larger pattern that extends beyond us and our gardens: Seeds borne by the wind and birds bring small pieces of our lives into other places and other lives, making new, if unseen, connections. Planting seeds makes us active participants in the cycle of life, while tending our gardens teaches us about larger patterns of the cycles that are beyond our control. We learn patience from the long wait from planting to sprouting to blooming, as we learn acceptance when nature takes its own course. We gain humility when we catch a true glimpse of the extraordinary complexity of the natural world.

So where we are, with all of these experiences to be shared; our lives are enriched when we understand that the seeds in our hands are the promise of tomorrow. With all of our senses engaged, seeing becomes understanding in the garden. Just as the medieval monks could see God's presence in His handiwork and could make it the starting point for a meditation, so too, we are learning to go into the garden to glimpse the "larger pattern"- regardless.

We Created A Monster!

2010-07-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

Because of weather, either extreme heat or thunderstorms, two of the three days we closed the produce stand down early. On Saturday, Joe and I were sitting down to a just picked from the garden meal, and several people knocked on our dining room window to get tomatoes. Up Joe went and fetched the tomatoes. The following day after the thunderstorm, we closed early and to celebrate Joe's birthday wanted to take out the inflatable Achilles I bought him for his birthday that week. As we were dragging the boat out of the driveway, three or four people drove up and asked if they could just get a few things. So back to the garage to get more produce. Later that afternoon, we went up to the Schoolhouse to get some dinner (which was fabulous by the way) and when returning, there were people waiting in our driveway. I looked at Joe and said "I think we created a monster." A warm fuzzy, friendly, let us know how much you love us, Puff the Magic Dragon kind of monster....and we couldn't be happier.

Every single day, three or four people tell us how much they love what we are doing. It means the world to not only Joe and I but to Judy who has really helped and guided us in a huge undertaking. We do understand driving around the island looking for a fresh tomato. Eating something other than some wilted vegi is what started this whole shindig. There are so many of you that want organic food and/or your food to come from Michigan. And believe me this is no easy feat. If you go to Eastern Market almost all of the distributors sell crops that are out-0f- state. Only one distributor specializes in Michigan produce (his stuff is amazing). That is where I get the tomatoes, butter lettuce, melons (when he has them), cherries, blueberries, apricots and now the soda, salsa and blueberry/cherry products. The rest comes from either our garden, local organic farmer, Jackie or Don Dull, who has taken us under his wing. Speaking of wings, this is where I want to thank my mentor, Judy Jessup as her no-nonsense ways and big open heart is one of the reasons we are getting this right because my friends, this is a huge learning curve. Not only in what we should plant and how much, but buying wholesale and selling retail is another world that I barely have had time to investigate.

The journey continues, refining, planning and expanding. We are going to put in nine more raised beds in August. We would like most of the food to come from the island. It supports the whole idea of sustainability within the neighborhood and it is something we can all take pride in - especially if this could become more of a community garden. But baby steps are the only way to learn how to walk properly. So please be patient as we learn and find our way through permits in doing something year round. We will continue to expand on the cooperative concept and I will forge ahead on writing about our experiences.

Just a side note - some of you have suggested that we approach some of the other stores on the island to either bake bread and/or other products. We have talked about this, but really, what we are doing is not in direct competition with the stores on the island. What we wanted to do is something very different. If I begin to carry the same products they do, then I am competing and that is not our intention. We want to have Michigan made, in season and organic - that is our niche and something we can genuinely be proud of.

Sustainability in the Neighborhood Cooperative

2010-07-13T09:32:00.001-07:00

One of the gifts I have been blessed with is the gift of paying attention. From when I was very young to the present, I just seem to see little things that others miss. Most writers have this gift as do artists. I read somewhere that "God" is in the details - and as I look around that seems to be true. The small Zennia bud bursting out of the green foilage. The birds flying back and forth from branch to bird feeder. The mother swan tilting down her wing so that her baby can crawl back on her back. The vegetable seedlings poking their little arms and heads through the soil. The sheets on the clothesline blowing in the wind. You would be surprised how many people do not stop to pay attention or as they say "smell the flowers".

When you are paying attention, hopefully in a non-judgemental way, many facts seem to be revealed to you. Which brings me to the next point. The more I look around, listen, study history and connect the dots, the more I know that the next step for us is to come together in a sustainable manner in regards to smaller communities. How do we rely on each other for what it is that we need? What is the best way to do this? How can it be fair and all -inclusive? These kinds of questions are something that I am asking myself and hence will begin to study and formalize as the answers are being revealed.

When I was younger, everything I let go of had claw marks on it. No matter how wonderful the new way might be, I was going to do it the same way because, well at least it was familiar. I came to believe by paying attention, that change is a good thing. We have wasted alot of time trying to keep things the way they are, even when they don't work. Our society has become increasingly myopic not seeing what the end result will be. And even though throughout history, the same mistakes were made, leading to the demise of very healthy cultures, we still haven't learned much.

I think the world is going a little wonky (that is putting it mildly), but it is too heartbreaking and really impossible to wrap my arms around "the world". All I can do is deal with what is at my front door or if you will, my neighborhood. If I/we can set an example, a model of what is possible, this can be a template for not only us but the neighborhood that is next door, and then, one that is next to that neighborhood and one that is next to that neighborhood....

In the next month, I am going to interview and visit other cooperatives so that I can have some sort of guideline to begin this. If this is a concept that appeals to you, please feel free to call me or stop by.

Let me say, that there are no politics in what I write about. I really am a political athesist. If someone like Ghandi or the Dali Llama would run for President, then I would go into action. But in the meantime, I will put my faith into something a little less human and a little more divine -like Mother Earth and pray to something bigger than me that we come to rely on and love one another.

Garden Friends

2010-06-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

“There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.”…Benjamin Franklin

From the moment Joe and I knew we were going to have an organic garden, all of the pieces in our life came together. It was as if life was rewarding us for listening to our intuition and for doing the right thing. But the real bonuses began to happen as we met the people who live, play, visit and love the island. Some of you have grandparents who were born here or maybe you were. Some of our visitors have never been here before…but those of you who took the time to stop and tell us a little about yourselves, just make this experience a richer one.

What is it about a garden that thrills some of us and to share our stories causing us to become quick friends. Is it because the ego takes a back seat to what is real and natural without us even thinking about it? Why are we so intensely moved by watching a seed become a plant, become a flower, become a fruit or become something that we eat. I think it's because it is at the core of what life really is, a metaphor really. I am positive I'm not the first one to make this connection. But I do know that gardening has made me more patient, loving and moved me into connecting with mother nature on an hourly basis.

I hate when dusk comes, and I can't see my garden out the back kitchen window. I can no longer view the borage attracting the bees, as they become ecstatic on their little bluecocktails. Or the birds feeding their babies that live in the open end of the pole that holds up the clothes line. I can't see the monolithic catnip, where our garden cats, Minky Monkey and Buddy, along with the neighbors striped cat (we call him "Fella") lay hidden underneath looking a little bit like drunken sailors after a long time at sea.

But the next day begins and while I am setting up the produce stand one of my neighbors, on her daily walk, will yell out, "What have you got good this week, Kate?" Or the jazz singer and her boyfriend (singer too) who love the Kale and wander around the garden taking pictures. Then he told his sister about the kale, who is an anthropologist and is interested in sustainability in urban environments. I can’t get over the gal who is a truck driver so she can’t maintain a garden, missing it so much that she pulled weeds as she wandered through the raised beds. We had the conservator of the Belle Isle Arboretum stop by and admire the garden which thrilled Joe and I. If that wasn't enough, Debbie and her husband Mike, who have stopped by twice, brought a gift of beautiful tiles that she had her students make with names of the vegetables for me to hang on wires (I will be getting to that this week). He has had plants named after him and she is an artist with wonderful ideas and stories. My favorite being the one about the bee whisperer. Sunday, I met Kathy the muralist who loves it here in the winter, like Joe and I do and scans the island for junk which is one of my favorite past times. Or the incredible Karen who is a pond specialist and has a farm where she grows over 100 heirloom tomatoes and 50 types of peppers. So many of you have touched my heart and appreciate what we are doing.

It seems that as the garden reveals it's magic, relationships grow in tandem, all of us feeling, or at least I know I am feeling, that all things are connected, special and if we are lucky enough, are present enough to know when it happens. And that my friends is truly a gift