The Russian Comfrey is really something to see this year. As is the yarrow, marshmallow, and of course the many living things that have been here for years before I even was. But seriously tonight looking at the comfrey I planted only a few years back I was in awe of how someday soon the whole place is going to be overgrown with useful plants to work in partnership with.
Cheers to entering another growing season! It’s been a good couple months where I’ve been making use of every daylight hour to accomplish tasks. The pace seems a bit more frantic this year, my day job has been stressful and I bring that home along with this sense of urgency to check as many items off the to-do list as possible. There never seems to be enough time, which oddly enough is the exact same sentiment I was trying to escape by subscribing to the so called simple life.
But there have been moments that were infinitely and simply rewarding: watching our animals sunbathe, the methodic and mindful practice of transplanting, the smell of the garden after a good rain, observing the leaps and bounds by which plants grow this time of year, catching up with fellow urban farmers. There are things I experience here that can’t be experienced living any other way, so the goal is to figure out how I can linger for a longer time in the present moment and trust that what needs to be done will get done.
Part of the practice of mindfulness is accepting things as they are, something I do not do when it comes to projects on our property. I’m very attached to the process, to the outcome, and about how our place looks and functions. I think this is a natural extension of how much time I spend here and how much I have chosen to weave it into the part of the identity I present to the world. So a challenge for me as we approach midsummer is to laugh a bit more at the messy process and to inquire about the consequences of not getting something done “on time.” Maybe even take the time to just enjoy.
The way I look at it is if all goes well someday we will have a lot more self sustaining systems in place, so I’m going to have to figure out how to let go at some point. Better now than later.
