Learning and Growing

Those 1st 3 1/2 years here, we worked pretty much 24/7. If we weren't working on the Farm or attending to other obligations, we were thinking about it. Yes, this shift in life styles was mostly new for us, so we had a lot to attend to. The learning curve was steep. Yes, we loved each and every minute of it.

But we got worn down. Working hard over the long haul takes its toll. Not only is the energy less, but the creative insights and our resiliency become constrained. Our major insight early in this year was to build in rest and play for the 3 C's.

For starters, we designated February as our month to rest. Yes, we had some things on the front burner during that time and they needed our attention. But we didn't take anything more on. Winter is the normal cycle of rest in Nature. Gardeners and Farmers need that in preparation for some pretty intense growing and harvesting Seasons ahead. We also agreed that we would cut back on some things for this growing season.

These days, we have added 2 sessions of Yoga and 1 round of Meditation each week. Sunday is now officially our day of rest. We try to build in personal time/rest time for each of us into every day. These little changes feel good. We can feel the energy returning.

Our Western model is an ever expanding growth model. The assumption is that if you did well today, you can do better and more tomorrow. That model forgets that we have a fixed set of resources and that we need to protect and replenish those resources. That certainly fits for insights on Human inputs, but it surely fits when thinking about our Great Mother, the Earth too.