"Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be."
-Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
For awhile now it's been very in vogue the talk about 'the NOW'. I don't know who started it, but Eckhart Tolle certainly gave it a serious push in recent years and in the groups of people I end up spending time with the subject is still brought up with a certain about of reverence. It makes me wonder though, why aren't people gardening if that's what they really want?
Gardening is all about the here and now. Sure there may be considerations about how the plants might grow, how big they'll get, their yields, etc., but in when it comes to the acutally doing of working in the soil there is nothing but the present moment. When I go walking in the front yard, which more and more resembles a jungle with it's giant squash and rhubarb plants, everything has a very present quality. Plants, insects, soil, and weather all can change in moments and noticing them requires a certain quality of attention to what is happening in the moment I am there. There is so much to pay attention to in fact that all of the concerns about past and future can slip away in the midst of getting lost in the wonder and infinite complexity of growing plants.
I honestly believe that if a person wants to feel closer to something the best place to start is in the dirt. Working in the soil is a work of promoting life. It can be humbling, soothing, difficult, ecstatic, or any other number of things in succession. What never changes about it for me though is that as soon as my hori hori hits the soil I am transported in a place where only the moment matters, for better or for worse. Nothing more can be said for any other experience of enlightenment than that. If you want to 'Be Here Now', then get out in your yard. It's not a yoga studio, but it can feed you in more ways than just leaves and fruit.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Beginnings
"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet."
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64
It wasn't always this way with me. I wasn't always out in the soil getting my hands dirty, digging and planting in the noon sun. Looking back on the last several month, it amazes me how things have changed in my life and how I've become a genuinely happier person for it.
I'm a geek and a nerd by nature. I have always been quirky and fascinated my all things complex and esoteric, from the sciences and technology to philosophy and martial arts. I've walked a good handful of paths in my short life and in the past the only one that brought any lasting passion to me was the martial arts. I became enthralled with the energy, the fire, the pulse of it. It made me feel alive and I studied with everything I was for many years. For a long time there wasn't anything that compared to the thrill and soaring feeling of Kung Fu. This isn't to say that I didn't have other interests then, or now, but by far Kung Fu and it's related pratices far out stripped everything else for the pure joy it evoked in me.
Today I feel the same way about gardening. It all started when I met the beautiful woman I now call my partner. She did something I had never heard about called "Permaculture". As with almost everything new in my life I was deeply skeptical. Still as our relationship persisted and grew, so did my interest. It was the best that could have happened to me. Within weeks I went from curious to interested and then excited to attend my first Permaculture Design Course. From there I was off and running and I haven't looked back. My life has been fuller and full of more promise and joy since I started spending time on the business end of a shovel than it has been in years.
Many discussions and explorations have been had since and this blog is the outgrowth of one of the most recent. One day I decided that after enough experience I would write a book about how gardening changed my life and how I became convinced that it could save the would as well. Laura, my lovely partner in both life and plants, suggested I start a journal and that the book would later write itself from my entries. This is that journal.
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64
It wasn't always this way with me. I wasn't always out in the soil getting my hands dirty, digging and planting in the noon sun. Looking back on the last several month, it amazes me how things have changed in my life and how I've become a genuinely happier person for it.
I'm a geek and a nerd by nature. I have always been quirky and fascinated my all things complex and esoteric, from the sciences and technology to philosophy and martial arts. I've walked a good handful of paths in my short life and in the past the only one that brought any lasting passion to me was the martial arts. I became enthralled with the energy, the fire, the pulse of it. It made me feel alive and I studied with everything I was for many years. For a long time there wasn't anything that compared to the thrill and soaring feeling of Kung Fu. This isn't to say that I didn't have other interests then, or now, but by far Kung Fu and it's related pratices far out stripped everything else for the pure joy it evoked in me.
Today I feel the same way about gardening. It all started when I met the beautiful woman I now call my partner. She did something I had never heard about called "Permaculture". As with almost everything new in my life I was deeply skeptical. Still as our relationship persisted and grew, so did my interest. It was the best that could have happened to me. Within weeks I went from curious to interested and then excited to attend my first Permaculture Design Course. From there I was off and running and I haven't looked back. My life has been fuller and full of more promise and joy since I started spending time on the business end of a shovel than it has been in years.
Many discussions and explorations have been had since and this blog is the outgrowth of one of the most recent. One day I decided that after enough experience I would write a book about how gardening changed my life and how I became convinced that it could save the would as well. Laura, my lovely partner in both life and plants, suggested I start a journal and that the book would later write itself from my entries. This is that journal.
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