IMPERMANENCE
How great do I think I am?
Behold what my hands have created!
Yet here tomorrow this same shrine will begin to erode and crust.
Dilapidation awaits.
The dust and sand will bury.
What once was is now forgotten.

 

Week number One

I love the way that this year has drawn me in. First with lovely temperatures and then with horrible winds.
I respond with increased consumption of Redbull. Take that 2012.
You may endow other responses like reduced caloric intake. Pharma-loss pills. X ercise. or some other distillate of 25 cent advice.
Whether your sister christian is wholistic, spiritual or grass root science, I hope you will find the stimulus and response you desire to achieve the net zero...5# gain you hope to fight and lose to, this year.

Another year

Upon the cusp of 2012, I am excited. I am reflective. I look forward. 
Of course I would like to lose 20 pounds, find my center, and be a better Dad, and grow better crops.
I can do that.
My three year old boys have the courage to protest everything that is not to their liking.
With a simple, yet poignant, NO NO NO NO NO! They convey that supper, bath and bedtime do not meet with their designs. Elvira Kurt nailed it!
I could lose weight if I would just say NO NO NO NO NO to enormous portions.
I'm sure John Tesh will use this for the first week of January.
To succeed I need to have a reason. I need to know that this will result in some victory.
Victory is size 34 pants. Happiness is energy. Peace is growth.

Ancient Grains

Spring is nigh.

By nigh, I mean buried somewhere under a foot of snow.

Ancient stirrings within are prodding to embrace the tilthe. Cast the harvest of last fall back to the terra.

A row of carrots and a row of beets yet remain in the garden un-earthed from last year. They will produce seed this year. I have never actually seen how carrot or beet seed develops. This year will be a first.

I'm also eager to invest my energy and interest in ancient touchstones of the human existance. Namely, wheat. Specifically; khorasan wheat from Egypt, ethiopian blue tinged wheat, and Einkorn, the most ancient of all wheats.

This effort is to preserve the ancient varieties and eventually...bake a loaf of bread.

Bend Your Mind

What a fantastic journey life can be. Last post ....many months ago, touted my hope of prosperity and excited over my garden. Reaching out to the ancient touchstones. Wheat, corn, potatoes, earth.
My corn was a colossal failure, my wheat a futile effort, and potatoes not an honorable mention.
This was my conclusion at the immediate end of the growing season, then as I looked upon my efforts, I found a grain of ancient wisdom.
Despite how poor the weather and the growth and the harvest of those seeds, I still recieved more than I initially sowed.

New Spring Garden

The first week of May seemed full of promise and hope as we emerged from a snow storm and blackout the previous week. This hope was nevertheless crushed with another three day snow storm that enveloped and pounded mercilessly.
I have planted potatos. And look forward to planting Hopi Blue corn, Ethiopian Blue tinge Wheat, Utrecht Blue Wheat, Kamut, hard white spring wheat and the rest of the garden.
These plans haunt my nights as I lay in bed considering growing sugar beets, black beans, snap peas, Russian Blue Potato, ....let's just say eventually I sleep well.
Pictures to come.

HANTA YO

I would identify the first 'self help' story I ever read as being "The wonderful story of Henry Sugar" by Roald Dahl. It's theme aligned with all the religious teaching of my sect. Through supreme concentration those things just beyond natural sensory perception would be revealed.
I smuggled a candle and sought to concentrate on the center of the flame....nothing.
Robin Sharma and David Irvine each direct their disciples to take time to go within and align themselves with their authentic soul. Escape.
Hugh Pinnock, area NW area President warned the missionaries of the Canada-Vancouver Mission that any book they read or music they listened to, was an escape from the work they were called to do, and this distracted there-from and therefore would not be blessed. (Nor condoned)
Irvine's Father said to him, "If you define success by the world's standards (achievement, conformity, recognition,wealth, compliance, materialism, and pleasure), then success for you will be easy. But I don't wish success for you by these terms, I wish for you to have a meaningful life"
My synthesis of all this and countless pages of further substantiation, just as the mind requires sleep to subconsciously file the learnings of the day; A moment of solitude will loose the shackles, pour off the dross, winnow the wheat, and eventually define your purpose for the day.