Being in the moment

There are many things that I think one can learn from permaculture and more specifically, from gardening. One, is the importance of being in the present, the importance of enjoying the process. As a small-scale community gardener I have learned that, even when you plan for a great harvest, it often doesn't happen the way you plan. Last year my plot was overrun with cherry tomato plants - seeds from a previous year that were spread throughout the whole garden when the garden was plowed. I had more cherry tomatoes than I could ever eat or want. More cherry tomatoes than I could harvest. I told friends to help themselves to the tomatoes in my plot. I also had a super, crazily busy summer and, by the end, I was burnt out. I couldn't balance everything and let the gardening slip. I didn't harvest some of my plants including my lovely organic potatoes!

However, I still absolutely love gardening and will do it every year until I die. Even when I don't harvest everything, or something grows that wasn't supposed to (like the cheery tomatoes) while the things I really want to grow don't flourish. Why? The process of gardening from starting seeds inside to eating my bounty makes me incredibly happy and fills me with joy in the moment. Yes, I plan out my garden (carefully), yes I hope for a good harvest but it doesn't matter if things don't go exactly the way I plan. It is the act of gardening that makes me happy. I remember one day when I was feeling stressed about school and slightly ungrounded in my life. I went to the garden and just pulled weeds. The sun blared down on me and I got my dress completely dirty. After a while I looked at the time and realized that, in the blink of an eye, three hours had passed. I felt so much better, so grounded, so relaxed. It's like the soil/plants took my anxiety away in return for my hands working to make it/them healthier. I was completely burnt and dirty but so happy. It didn't matter if three weeks later I ate the veggies I was tending, I already had my reward.

Of course, I am not advocating wasting veggies; neglecting them come harvest time. I just think that there is so much to learn in just enjoying the process of gardening and - by extension - the process of living one's life and not worrying so much about the outcome. Gardeners know that there are no certainties: you get great seeds, nurture them, they grow into beautiful plants and than an early frost or band of raccoons destroy them.  It can be controlled to a certain extent but not entirely because we are working with something much bigger than ourselves. Life is like that too. We can't/don't control everything, we can't possibly know how things are going to turn out .So, it's better to enjoy and experience just being in the present. And with that in mind I recently quit school - 2-4 years of being stressed is not worth it to me and I simply don't enjoy it. I now have much more time for gardening, parenting, loved ones, taking my dog for walks, running, yoga, and simply sitting in coffee shops daydreaming. You know, the things that really matter.

Thank the Goddess for Buddha!