Lessons from the garden

Gardening offers gentle prompts in the most subtle ways. Life lessons and messages from spirit are everywhere when we keep our eyes and ears open.

For example, when we were planting the garden, a hawk perched up in the tree and watched us for a couple hours. Hawks remind us to stay focused on our goals. Use that long range vision to look ahead.

The gnome is enjoying the columbine that I thought had died during the winter, but it came back. He is getting a kick out of that. Before we tear something out and start over, we should always be certain that we are done with it before clearing it out. Plants with good roots will keep on coming back even after the freezing and droughts. Same thing with some of our business plans, and personal plans. We should take a good look so that we see everything clearly before we take action.

Garden snakes always startle us when they suddenly cross our path, but now we are used to seeing them and we know they are helping to keep mice and insects out of the garden. We don't try and harm them. As soon as they see us, they crawl back into hiding. Sometimes things that are unexpected can be very helpful. We might even like those unexpected developments.

Look at all the different physical arrangements we make so that plants will have the light, shade or water they need. Sometimes just moving a plant a few feet will inspire growth.

Then there are companion plants. Plants grow best when they are near plants they get along with. If they are not, they will suffer and fail. The same is true for people. When we are with great companions, we flourish. When we are not, we struggle and fail.

Yesterday while we were working in the garden, we watched a pair of woodpeckers nesting in the maple tree. There are a pair of towhees in the pine. The woodpeckers are all about persistence, continuous effort combined with intuition. They break through barriers to get to hidden opportunities.

Towhees are ground feeders and so they remind us to stay grounded, having respect for the natural world. They hop backwards to kick up leaves and see what is underneath. They can navigate dense, tangled underbrush. They look a lot like a Robin with white speckles on its wings and the bright burst of red/orange color on its breast grabs our attention and prompts attention to awakening passion and vigor.

When I saw the bees drinking out of the bird bath, the bees using the bee house I mounted on the pine, and see them visiting each of the flowers, I see a good omen for this year's garden. Lots of bees, lots of growth, fresh leaves and first flowers. We are efficient with our use of water, since we are aware that we have a drought. Drought doesn't mean you can't garden. It means you need to garden more carefully.

When we notice a change in a plant's behavior or color, we look at what we need to do. Change companion plants? Shade it more? More sun? Add fertilizer? Water more? Water less? Does it need protection from bugs, birds or squirrels?

Do we look at all the factors affecting our growth, health and happiness?

Working with the plants is a pleasure while making daily mental notes about what is working and what needs to be done brings a lot of joy even before they produce vegetables, fruits and herbs. A way to meditate right in your backyard.

 

Why do we garden?

Remember back during COVID, how there was a tremendous surge of people getting into gardening, cooking and baking? Yes, when we had to stay home, that prompted people to take up new hobbies. Many took on home repair or remodeling projects.

From the earliest times, we had to learn which plants were good to eat, which ones helped with healing, and then nurture these things where we lived. Not just farmers growing huge crops, but home gardeners. Once we settled down from our nomadic life, we wanted to have these foods and medicines available all the time. Flowers are needed for their beauty. Plants, trees, flowers, shrubs all contribute to a sense of home.

Now, as well as then, our sense of finding peace in nature as we plant seeds and watch them grow. From stem to leaf to flower to fruit, and see how the mood of the garden changes with the weather. And we observe how a little seed becomes a big plant. Watch how they respond to watering, sun and shade.

Our lives are like that too. We plant by the moon cycles, so we are feeling the energies of nature. We pay attention to companion plants. We find ways to get people to work together. Synergy gets better results.

Gardening is one activity that is universally practiced. It is the most popular hobby in the world. Why is that?

Because we enjoy working with life energies, finding joy and peace of mind from such a simple thing as planting and growing. We learn something every season. So we adjust as we see what works best.

From an edible perspective, growing food could help with a family food budget, but also the satisfaction of eating some vegetable or fruit they grew. And what better way to teach kids lessons about where their food comes from?

While we were planting, a hawk sat in the tree above, watching. We notice things like bird calls and songs. We keep binoculars near the garden so that we can get closer looks at them. The bird bath is clean and full. And the bee houses we put up have helped draw mason bees to pollinate our garden.

Take time to enjoy simple things and feel how peaceful and grounded you can get just sitting by the plants, enjoying their beauty, their fragrance, their touch, and notice how often you get prompts from spirit when you are doing this? Notice how new ideas pop into your head when you are simply being present with your plants. Aligning our energies with the energies of nature.

 

How do you feel?

All of the big changes we are going through right now are bringing us back to paying more attention to how we feel, now just how we think. After going through phases of life where we put thoughts first and feelings second, many of us discovered that we were losing our grip in significant ways.

Today, young people are entering into their careers choosing new paths because they are more conscious of the specter of AI wiping out some career fields.

When we choose careers that need a personal touch like massage, energy healing, yoga, tai chi, hair styling, aesthetics, nursing, medicine, physical rehab, science, engineering, and being a chef, for example, are jobs that AI will not be taking over. People who were not thinking of those careers in the past are changing their minds.

And the trades, like being an electrician, plumber, carpenter, welder, heating & air, tile setting, masonry, roofing, mechanics not only won't be replaced by AI. These are the skills that will build all those computer centers and energy centers.

It has always been best for any of us to do work we enjoy doing, rather than doing something we don't like simply to get a paycheck.

True, many of us have done jobs just to keep the cash flow happening while we were getting our own businesses off the ground and making solid progress. However, as soon as it was possible to leave the day job of side job behind so that we can devote our full attention to our real focus, we do that.

The plus side of AI and the Internet is that we can use it to develop other streams of income while we have our primary focus, and selling a product or service online can replace those side jobs. Example: Many people are selling on Etsy, Kickstarter, Ebay, Marketplace, Amazon, You Tube and Patreon at the same time as they are working on something else. There are probably a lot of other sites and methods that I do not know about, and that's why I didn't mention them.

We all have a gut instinct, which is our spirit guides helping to make our best choices by giving us a yes or no gut feeling. Our gut feeling can process our thoughts faster than the conscious mind. Recall decisions you have made and notice how often when you had a good feeling about a person or situation, it worked out well, and when you had a bad feeling, it did not work out well. Reviewing your own past choices will demonstrate to you how often your feelings led you in the right direction.

Notice how you might be offered an opportunity to make more money, but if you don't really want that job, and you take it out of fear, you will regret it.

Many people have found that being successful can have too high a cost, if that means that your personal relationships are failing because you are always working.

There is a satisfaction from a job well done, from being in a business you love, and the changes in the labor market plus new technology, and we savor that. When you get compliments on your work, it means a lot. It is part of your compensation when clients and peers thank you for doing such good work.

One of the other big distractions these days are all the social media swamping us constantly with bits of information that may or may not be true and may simply fill us with fear of we keep paying consuming that.

Let them is one of those slogans that many have picked up on. Don't worry about what other people think. Do what you need to do, make choices that are right for you. Worrying about what others think often stops some people from moving forward with their ideas. When we give up trying to control everything, we have more energy to focus on your own happiness and personal power. Yes, that is the name of a popular book by Mel Robbins, but certainly the concept has been around for eons. It is a popular idea now because more people are coming to realize how important it is.

Whenever we hear yourself saying "I better take this because I might not get a better offer," we are choosing from fear. Far better to be able to say "I would love to do that. I would love to be in that business. I would love to work with that person." now that is the feeling of being in the right place.

Be optimistic. It is human nature for people to help other people. So ask when you need help. Don't be shy. If you a reluctant, breaking out of that shyness can open up with a single question that will change your life. How do you feel about your options now?

 

Futuristic & Nostalgic at the same time

 

At this time of year, one of the places you will find me doing readings is for high school After Proms.

One of the things that I enjoy about reading at these events is that the students are always brimming with optimism and plans for the future.

This is one of the first big turning points in a person's life when their future dreams about businesses and careers will determine what path they choose, and how they begin to pursue it after high school.

It fascinates me to hear them talk about what kinds of plans they have and where they are going.

When I began high school, they were de-emphasizing trades, and shut down many of the schools workshops where skills like carpentry, metalwork, electronics, auto repair were taught, while encouraging us to go to college.

At the time, the ones who decide such things thought that the skills most in need would be management, marketing, publicity, finance, scientific research, and other topics.

Now here we are, decades later, and what we really need is more electricians, plumbers, welders, carpenters, heating and air, all those skilled trades are what needs to be brought back, because for all the talk about AI, these kinds of skills are essential to building all these plants to power AI. Ironic, isn't it?

When I hear the young ones talking about going into trades, I hear them making good decisions that will help them get good paying jobs that will enable them to build a career that earns enough to buy a house, supports a family and enjoy vacations.

I see a lot more choice among them too, for example, with young men going into nursing, aesthetics, massage, or design, which young women are choosing to be engineers, construction managers, electricians, carpenters and welders.

And there are others exploring newer paths, going into careers like Internet security, stem cell research, selling their art on Etsy or making music videos on You Tube or Podcast programs.

I think back and lots of the jobs that might be excellent opportunities for them did not even exist when I was going to school.

Then again, some of the careers that we were preparing for were different than what our parents did.

Remember the choices you were making when you graduated from high school? Remember how we thought about what is next?

A few generations back, many in my family were farmers or ranchers. They also had bigger families, with some having 8, 10 or 12 kids. Then the next generation picked up skilled trades and had families with 3,4, or 5 kids. Then when we got to our generation and the next ones, we were more likely to have 1, 2 or 3 and work in an office job. And now the generations further behind are having 1, 2 or no kids and more technical jobs.

Plus, of course, there will be some who join the military, and some who will go to college. College, however, is not as great a choice as it once was, since it costs so much more now that they could end up saddled with a huge debt that might not even help them make a good living.

Seeing all of this is very uplifting to me. Seeing the young people preparing to enter into the adult world of work and career is futuristic and nostalgic at the same time.

I was in the generation that had to learn to use computers as they entered the workplace, beginning from typewriters, carbon paper, adding machines and copy machines to the first word processors then to desktops, laptops notebooks, pads and smartphones.

Now there are generations that never thought of keeping quarters in their car's ashtray so that they could stop at a phone booth and call the office. And now we all have GPS in our phones so that paper map books are no longer needed, and answering machines are built into them so that we don't have to check our answering machine for messages. These are all great advancements, and I am glad that we have them.

I find it fascinating to observe the changes how how people are choosing and looking at what we are creating and what kinds of career and life paths they are creating.

And yet both of us, younger and older, are not at all certain how AI will be impacting our careers, among other factors.

Nostalgic and futuristic at the same time? How does it feel to have read 1984 when you were in school, thinking it was just a far out sci-fi story and then find yourself living in it?

Science fiction writers have always been some of the best at imagining futures.

Does it prompt any kind of thought in your mind when someone tells you they were born in 1984?

Let me leave you with a bit of humor. This year, people born in 1984 are 42, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says that 42 is that answer to everything. All you 42s are welcome to write me and tell me the answers to everything because I have not been able to figure it out yet. I am looking forward to hearing from some of you 42s.

Maybe you have some good ideas for re-imagining the future. 

With a spring in your step

The bees are getting busy with the flowering plants, and our thoughts are going that way too.

We are going to start gardening early this year. I do not think we are going to get more snow storms this spring. This is the least amount of snow we have seen in the mountains in 44 years.

I am willing to risk it. Some seeds are already int he ground and sprouting.

Our plant choices will be those that need less water, and we are using drip hoses in order to make things work during this drought. Some of our perennial herbs came back nicely and have fresh green shoots pushing up through the dirt.

What have you noticed in your gardens and plants? I have also noticed lots of birds singing lately, so they are enjoying spring as well.

Of course, this being Colorado, we are always aware of temperature fluctuations, like 70 - 90 in the day and in the 30s & 40s at night. So we pull covers over them on the cold nights.

Of course it is a bit of a calculated risk. But the usual warning is not to plant until after Mother's Day, and I do remember years when we had snow on that day, but I don't think that will happen this year. Of course, it is possible I will be wrong, but I feel like taking the risk and see how it goes.

Time to put a little spring in our step.

What do you think about gardening this year?

Happy springtime to all of you!

 

What is being uncovered?

One of the most interesting developments happening all around the world is the revelations of ancient civilizations laid bare by droughts, floods, fires, earthquakes and other earth changes.

Some of these concepts simply boggle my mind, like when they say that think skeletons, bones, beads, pottery and stone tools are three and a half million years old or something. I can't wrap my head around that kind of time span.

And now we have seen new kinds of dinosaurs, stones from previous civilizations, under Greek temples, under pyramids, under mounds.

We thought that the Native tribes were the first people on this continent, but who might have been here before them?

Who was more ancient than ancient people? Some people will say ETs and UFOs. Who knows?

The government is supposed to be releasing the info that they have on these topics to us. I will be as curious as anyone else to see what is revealed about all of that.

Neflix, You Tube, Gaia, PBS, Prime, and many other channels and apps offer documentaries on these topics. And my news feeds every day show new discoveries. It is fascinating to consider how other civilizations lived.

How is it possible, I wonder, that there used to be someone living under what is now Antarctica?

I guess that means that the poles were located somewhere else on earth long ago. I had never thought of that until recently. I used to think it was nothing but ice and snow.

And since they are finding new kinds of dinosaurs that they never saw before, and since all dino bones are not dated at the same age, that brings into question the theory that one day a huge meteor smashed into the earth and it killed all the dinosaurs at once. That theory always seemed sketchy to me.

In school,we learned that as time went on, we humans got smarter. In some ways, yes. We certainly have tools and machines that our ancestors didn't have. And they had some that we still don't understand, like the various pyramids and stone circles.

Yet, even the earliest humans had burial rituals. We know this from archeological digs. So that means that way before we were literate, even before we had languages, even cavemen and cavewomen knew that there was something more to us than our body.

What was that something else? Our spiritual essence. Our abilities beyond the physical.

Our earliest ancestors did not have any guidebooks or You Tube videos, so how did they know if they should eat this plant? Follow that path? Are these people who are approaching friends or enemies?

They had to make all of those decisions using gut instinct and insights seen with the psyche and the third eye. And we inherited those instincts from those ancient ancestors, and they have become refined and further developed over time and generations.

If more of the stuff that gets uncovered points to beings from other planets living on earth first, before humans or with humans, what does that mean for our future?

If our ancestors had civilizations that were all paved over before the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Babylonians, why did that happen? How did those things happen? Was there an Atlantis or Lemuria? Were there other continents that sank? We certainly know that there were whole ancient cities that sank because divers have found them and made films and pictures of them.

What do we really know about the beginnings and endings of civilizations on this planet? What difference does it make?

 

Mapping Synchronicity

How do we define synchronicity? And how does it affect us?

One way would be to say that they are events that appear to be related without having a discernible causal connection. You know the old saying that there are no accidents. Sometimes we view synchronicities as accidents.

But think about it. If someone cancels their appointment because of an unexpected development and five minutes later another person calls and asks if I have time to see them, do you think that the person who got the appointment was the one who needed to see me first?

How about the person who was unhappy in their job, and they are developing their own business on the side? Then they suddenly get laid off, so they shift their energy and focus to their own business and it takes off, totally replacing the old job. Was that just coincidence?

Another definition might be that a Synchronicity is spirit's way of guiding us.

When we are focused on something and suddenly something unexpected pops up to support or advance our choice of goals, spirit is letting us know that we are on the right path. And the synchronicity was sent to help us get there.

When things pop up that we were not thinking about, but they fit with our schedule, it may be spirit signaling us to check out something new or different.

This is something we have all experienced.

If you make a list of synchronicities in your life, do you notice any patterns in these events? Do you find them more when significant events are happening? Or every day?

Keep a record of your synchronicities and coincidences. When you look over your own notes, what do you see? The more you notice and pay attention to synchronicities, the more they will happen in your life.

Did you ever have an unexpected meeting with someone who conveyed important information to you, and that information helped you make a critical decision?

When you are trying to figure out what to do about a problem, do unexpected solutions pop up?

Always thank spirit for whatever information they bring you, whatever ideas they bring you.

You know the saying that where your thoughts go, your energy goes? Or the advice to keep your focus on the goal, not the how to?

If you want to receive an answer or a message, you have to open your mind to it. Synchronicity may Bring you things that seem odd until you start thinking outside the box.

So jot down all the synchronicities in your life, and look at how they map out developments in your life.

What magic is revealed?