”Growing Your Own Food Is Like Printing Your Own Money!” ~Ron Finley
“You’d be surprised what soil can do if you let it be your canvas!” ~Ron Finley
A TED Talk with Ron Finley, an artist who installs food gardens in South Los Angeles.
He describes how he got in trouble with the city for planting the strip between the sidewalk and street with vegetables.
John from ‘Grow Your Greens’ interviews Ron Finley at his home/garden
A program like this can make a positive impact on a rural family.
Odd how we know this is true for other people, but our own government does not allow us to do this in the USA. Yes, it is true that a person cannnot (in general) really raise a cow and sell the milk legally…. to sell milk requires a great deal of governmental approval and oversight for ‘the health of the people’….. We talk of the unwillingness of Americans to work, and we’ll talk of how our own grandparents raised pigs, cows, orchards, vineyards, sold eggs and raw milk and meat from a shed where they butchered animals. But we don’t speak of how in the ‘modern agribusiness climate’ we must have a separate license and permit and training and sanitary facilities to be allowed to any of those processes. And with the ‘economy of scale’ that results from legislation, people are forced to curtail any activity that does not adequately pay for the cost of expenditures required by law. Therefor we end up with pig factories with 50,000 pigs, not a weed or garden in sight, and the family buying their porkchops from the butcher.
After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t always mean security
And you begin to learn
That kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman
Not the grief of a child
And you learn
To build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is
Too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way
Of falling down in mid flight
After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns
if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers
And you learn
That you really can endure
That you are really strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and you learn
With every ‘good-bye’ you learn
Our minds hold most of the success or failure of our lives.
Your mind can determine your attitude.
Your attitude will have almost complete control over your future.
Learn to control your mind, and you will learn to control yourself completely.
Control over one’s own life and destiny is the greatest power.
In California, we depend on the rain to replenish the groundwater we pump during the summer. The rain also brings forth many native plants that are either annuals or drop their leaves in summer. The hills become like a giant crumpled green blanket, the folds of the hills where water drains thickly forested with oaks. We have rain forecast every-other day in the next ten days. This is almost perfect weather conditions for the young grasses and forbs starting out life. Right now the sprouts are tiny, having just started sprouting the last month, but a week of showers and warm sunshine will lead to luxurient growth, and a heavy seed fall in springtime when the native plants yield their grains and seeds. I spoke yesterday with a fellow nearby who wants to farm starting next year…. I told him to go and scatter annual ryegrass on his two acres that he plowed last spring, “sow it now while we’ve got this rain coming in, it’ll sprout now, the conditions cannot really be more perfect than now!”…. “but” he demurred “I need to get the sprinkler system in in the springtime and don’t want to plant anything until it’s in”… he didn’t seem to ‘get’ that a cover crop is not only easy to do when the ground is out of production, it is in fact a good crop to improve the land…. without it his soil is open to the wind and rain all winter…. in the spring when he digs his trenches he can mow the ryegrass beforehand and trench right through it…. in fact, the ground will be less muddy and challenging to work with plants over the top of it….. I think the point of this rambling discourse is to impress upon folks the fact that you can work WITH nature much easier than working against nature. The forces of nature are simply too large to push into bodily…. Force cannot conquer a gale, you have to find ways around, over or under things… or simply do them at the opportune time… but these all require research, planning and preparation. If the weather says there is ten days of sprinkles and you have no ryegrass seed, you can’t plant. So it all takes some looking around, thinking, and even more, listening to folks who have been doing it for a bit. Not everything anyone says will all work in one’s own circumstances, so you still have to ‘toggle’ inputs and expectations to reflect changing conditions. The main thing is to keep aware, thinking, and above all, listening.
Terrace P(a) with the grass of winter growing heavily
It seems to me the mind is like a terminal board…. and most folks have most of the wires running between the terminals properly for the most part…. everyone has a few wires crossed leaking energy onto other wires when they are activated.. sometimes there’s a wire not connected at one end and it’ll slip around sometimes touching a terminal, triggering it… some terminals have multiple wires and are super-charged… those give exceptional abilities to that terminal… this might be good or bad impulse…. also those wires mean another terminal that either has no wire so has no function evident, or has an improper wiring…. the schematic is pretty complex…. it’s a giant file system…. each terminal connected to a folder leading to a trigger of an event, or an ability, thought or impulse…. are the papers inside filed correctly? In order and easily retrievable? What substances or thoughts might try to push those papers down? What cuts the wires? What makes splices?
Good electrical tape is worth its weight in gold when you really need it.
Natalie Merchant reaches deep and finds some of the dark depths we all have…
they say a deep-water fish should not be brought up….
should we plumb the depths of our own souls?
How deep can we go before it is too dark….
darkness within darkness
enfolded within enigma and riddles,
half truths and distortions of the abyss
Watch your time and depths….
don’t tarry, or narcosis is the result
and when you stare into the abyss,
you may not see what is looking back into your own depths
the eyes mirror the soul
keep yours bright
know the dark,
but keep to the light
polish the glass to your soul
so the light can shine in
Natalie Merchant
‘I May Know The Word’
I may know the word, but not say it I may know the truth, but not face it I may hear a sound, a whisper sacred and profound but turn my head indifferent
I may know the word, but not say it I may love the fruit, but not taste it I may know the way to comfort and to soothe a worried face but fold my hands indifferent
If I’m on my knees, I’m begging now if I’m on my knees, groping in the dark I’d be praying for deliverance from the night and into the day but it’s all grey here
it’s all grey in here but it’s all grey to me
I may know the word, but not say it this may be the time, but I might waste it though this may be the hour something move me, someone prove me wrong before the night comes with indifference
if I’m on my knees, I’m begging now if I’m on my knees, groping in the dark I’d be praying for deliverance
from the night and into the day but it’s all grey here but it’s all grey to me
I recognize the walls inside me I recognize them all I’ve paced between them chasing demons down until they fall in fitful sleep enough to keep their strength enough to crawl into my head with tangled threads they riddle me to solve again and again and again
Tips for Management
Business, family or friend…
I suppose it’s about the same.
I suppose even with growing plants or raising animals….
it’s all in the management techniques….
I treat the plants like I think a manager should treat people….
I give them the right tools (fertile soil, water and sun) step back and them them do their thing,
I help where problems arise (pests, broken pipelines)…
… You only get out what you put in….
~Kahlil Gibran~
And what is it to work with love?
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
Here’s some snippets I found particularly likeable….
“The Tin Man didn’t have a heart, but he still had the capacity to care. I am sure you have heard that it is better to give than to receive, but you also should know that if you want success, the best way to get it is to help someone else be successful. If you focus on providing value first, the benefits will far outweigh the costs.”
“Don’t let fear stand in the way of your success. Realize right now that you are going to fail, probably many times throughout your life, but those failures should not dissuade you from trying again. In words borrowed from another great film, Rocky Balboa, “It ain’t about how hard you are hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward!” The Lion was scared, but he didn’t let that hold him back, and neither should you.”
“The Scarecrow is my favorite character, and arguably the most complex. Throughout the movie he not only shows his intelligence even though he lacks a brain, but he also shows his leadership. At the end, The Wizard gives him a degree, but it comes only after he has done plenty of great thinking. Don’t be stalled by your lack of credentials. Yes, education is important, and I wouldn’t suggest anyone not pursue higher education if possible, but it is not mandatory in order to succeed. You don’t have to look far to find the Michael Dell’s and Bill Gates of the world that succeeded on their own merits rather than on credentials. Get out there, be persistent, don’t be afraid to fail, and go after your dreams!”
“Our main character is just a little girl, but she learns something that many business people have not yet realized. You have to surround yourself with good people, and you can’t do everything on your own….. The Wizard provides challenges along the way to reveal the strengths that everyone already had but were not aware they possessed. You need to build a team around you that can help you along your road to success no matter the color of bricks. You never want to be the smartest person in the room, find people that are experts in their field, and focus on what you do best!”
“The Wizard is a very interesting character in that he held dominion over Oz for essentially no reason at all. Unlike the other characters that had their ability within them but did not realize it, The Wizard had no ability yet he ruled on the fact that he presented himself in such a way that everyone thought he was great and powerful.”
In general humans are what we call a ‘social animal’…… like canines and equines we tend to want to band together for mutual benefit. This is true whether it is a business, commune, family or society, we are greater together than the sum of our parts. What one person cannot do well another might be able to do easily and with greater efficiency….. and we all have some talent and love for something that makes us excell in that endeavor. Find YOUR talent, pursue your dreams and engage yourself with your life. When you provide talent and skill to the process, you benefit others also.
‘Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.’ ~Aristotle
“Your Talent Is God’s Gift To You….Using Your Talent Is Your Gift To God” ~Anon
Passion and creativity walk hand in hand, and where these two are given full rein, excellence is their child ~John Dicus
Han Shan was a Chinese philosopher/poet who lived in a wild area deep in the mountains at a place he called ‘Cold Mountain’.
He was said by the nearby people to be crazy…. his hair always messed up, and his clothes on crooked…. he’d beg for food from monks at a monastery, they’d feed him while trying to tell him to ‘act right’… they got upset because he had ‘inappropriate laughter’ and other …’issues’ that made people uncomfortable to be around him. He was probably from an aristocratic family because some of his poems mention falcons, and using horses for racing and hunting…. things the common people did not do. He also mentions trying to apply for government positions, but says he has illnesses that are exposed by the doctors. After he died hikers and wanderers that visited his caves and cliffs found poems carved into the trees and stones…. they are beautiful in a strange way… and a bit of a look into a person that was perhaps wounded, and trying to heal himself in the wilds.
I’ve lived at Cold Mountain – how many autumns.
Alone, I hum a song – utterly without regret.
Hungry, I eat one grain of Immortal medicine
Mind solid and sharp; leaning on a stone.
On top of Cold Mountain the lone round moon
Lights the whole clear cloudless sky.
Honor this priceless natural treasure
Concealed in five shadows, sunk deep in the flesh.
My home was at Cold Mountain from the start,
Rambling among the hills, far from trouble.
Gone, and a million things leave no trace
Loosed, and it flows through galaxies
A fountain of light, into the very mind -
Not a thing, and yet it appears before me:
Now I know the pearl of the Buddha nature
Know its use: a boundless perfect sphere.
I spur my horse past the ruined city;
the ruined city, that wakes the traveler’s thoughts:
ancient battlements, high and low;
old grave mounds, great and small.
… Where the shadow of a single tumbleweed trembles
and the voice of the great trees clings forever,
I sigh over all these common bones –
No roll of the immortals bears their names
Children I implore you
get out of the burning house now
three carts wait outside
to save you from a homeless life
relax in the village square
… before the sky everything’s empty
no direction is better or worse
east is just as good as west
those who know the meaning of this
are free to go where they want
Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there’s been no rain
The pine sings, but there’s no wind.
Who can leap the world’s ties
And sit with me among the white clouds?
Here’s a message for the faithful
what is it that you cherish
to find the Way to see your nature
your nature is naturally so
what Heaven bestows is perfect
looking for proof leads you astray
leaving the trunk to search among the twigs
all you get is stupid
Cold Cliff’s remoteness
Is what I love
No one travels this way
Clouds lie around on the peaks
A lone gibbon howls on the ridge
What else do I cherish?
It’s good to grow old content
Cold and heat change my
Appearance;the pearl
Of my mind stays safe
