Day 315/366 days Towards Self-Mastery.
There's more to the growing of a food garden than meets the eyes and nourishes the tummy. Something I'm discovering as I do my daily rounds.
As I press my bare feet into the spongy earth each morning I give thanks for the nourishment she offers me as I'm aware that the microbes that lie beneath know my footprints, my gait and my greeting.
A freshly picked lime squeezed gently coats itself and my hands in it's oily essence, the scent taken deeply within my lungs clears and rejuvenates.
As I brush my hands through the various herbs tucked between crevices and around edges, I gather remnants of essential oils and pollens that nourish and restore.
The morning air is filled with the goodness of garden flowers sending out their spores and pollens to attract beneficial insects. I feel sure they provide all living creatures with the perfect medicine for their needs.
There's a fanciful feeling that I have that all the creatures and nature herself around me knows me and provides symbiotically for me. I've witnessed this in my various gardens, observing trees responding to my needs with beads of energetic offerings that match my moods and seem to restore my spirit.
The variety of birds in my garden know me and know the rhythm of my days. They introduce their young to me each spring, and meet me in the garden on my rounds each day.
There's little doubt that my plants respond to my loving care and attention in a dance of providing care and being cared for.
If your space is limited, try an herb garden. Herb gardens, medicinal and culinary, have been revered for thousands of years. You can grow them in pots in your apartment, on your windowsill or tucked in and around plants in your garden. The beauty of an herb spiral is a perfect kitchen garden addition.
Learning the medicinal benefits of herbs is a long term interest of mine. Perhaps you too will discover a reconnection to nature through herbs.
Most all our medicines at one time were derived from wild and propagated herbs. The ancients wrote tomes of wisdom, documenting the medicinal value of herbs.
Nowadays many medications are synthetic, attempting to emulate nature's magic. It's relatively easy to put a chemical formula together to create a synthetic medicine, however capturing the very essence of life that animates that herbal cannot be created in the laboratory. Nor can the adjustment that the plant makes to its environment of which I am an active participant, as it responds to align and merge with its surrounds in order that we all shall thrive. I suspect this goes some way to account for the many complications/side effects of the medicines we consume today and are designed as a one size fits all.
Taking herbals as nature provides them seems to me to be gentle on the digestion and provides a subtle balance of living energy that supports and prolongs life.
Try herbals in your indoor or outdoor garden.
366 days Towards Self-Mastery
When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)
I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.
As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.
My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?
I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.