Ayathrem

Ayathrem is the fourth Gahambar celebrated by the Zoroastrian community, who honor the six seasons of the year with six Gahambars - the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Ayathrem celebrates the creation of plants, the time to sow winter crops, and the season when the herds come home from pasture. It takes place each year from October 12th through the 16th.

Tuesday is my receptivity day of the week, when I look at my social and emotional self and make an effort to shift my perspectives around how I view and treat the people in my life. 

And this is the yin time of the waxing crescent moon, a phase of growth, when I am planting my intentions and caring for them. I'll take time to discern and create clarity. 

Agenda:

1. Journal challenges and needs

2. Recite prayers

3. My synergy project - teamwork
4. Plant garlic

1. Journal challenges and needs:

I set synergy as my theme this month: the ability to seek unity, embrace teamwork, live holistically, and work tirelessly towards a better end. Synergy requires both clarity and flexibility. 

I remember that for each opportunity in life there is a challenge, and the challenges to synergy are rigidity and confusion: If I’m stubborn and uncompromising, I might crack, and if If I’m mystified about the direction I (or we) want to take I can’t be fully aware of our path. I need to practice centering, giving in, and being willing to help.

From my journal: Teamwork is not my forte; I can be stubborn and also just obtuse - not fully realizing what others are working towards. My growing edge is to hold a space for the truth, and to reach out to confirm I'm sensing others truthfully.

2. Recite Prayers:
The first four days of Ayathrem are devoted to services, and reciting prayers. Zoroastrians turn towards a flame while praying, which symbolizes the fire of creation and the spiritual flame within each of us-- and so I stand before a candle flame to recite the Ashem Vohu (invocation of Asha) from the Avesta (Zoroastrian Book of Common Prayer).

The Ashem Vohu is a prayer with universal appeal. The word Ashem has many meanings: Law, Order, Beauty, Truth, Righteousness, Purity, Freedom. This one word expresses Divine truth, purity of body and mind, and all the beauty of nature. It's a central idea in Zoroastrianism.

This prayer is like a mantra, to be chanted slowly. To hear it recited, go to this link.

ashem vohû vahishtem astî

Truth is the best good. 

ushtâ astî 

It is happiness. 

ushtâ ahmâi hyat ashâi vahishtâi ashem. 

Happiness is to one whose truth (represents) best truth.

3. My Synergy Project - teamwork plans and visuals:

Once a week I'd like to consider how I am creating synergy with my teams, developing trust relationships, and realistic expectations. Today I will design a plan for how to communicate my vision for projects, teamwork, projects, and chore expectations, and what to delegate.

• For kids: Make a visual project list + chore list for Aldo
• For EC Action Group: Reply to Marc and Kris with "I hear...", and a list of possible dates and options (also take envelopes for iris seed). 
• For Clerk Team: Pull out the bits from gathering plan I want Ethen's opinion on and send a detailed email. Send results to Clerks Support.
• For Saturday ECEF tabling: Memorize a list of things to say (read our voters statement).

4. Plant garlic:

The gahambars are seasonal festivals that originally provided an opportunity for the whole village to get together to share the labor required to finish the tasks of the season; for Ayathrem that is planting the winter crops, so this is the day that I plant my winter garlic.

Garlic (Allium sativum L) is one of the world’s oldest cultivated crops. Scientists debate its origin: It's a native of central or South Asia, or perhaps southwestern Siberia. Garlic lovers carried the pungent herb into Egypt, Pakistan, India and China. The crusaders brought it back to Europe.

Garlic is one of the easiest crops to grow and store to provide a year-round supply. Planting garlic in the fall gives it a head start in establishing its roots so that it is well-anchored in spring, and you can enjoy an early harvest in the summer. Besides being used in almost every cuisine of cooking, garlic also repels pests, so it makes an excellent companion plant to many annual vegetables, and is often planted along the drip-line of fruit trees.

Growing it yourself means you’ll have access to a wider variety of garlic flavors. You can plant organic garlic from the grocery store, but at a nursery you'll find more variety options. I have I planted Elephant garlic, and Northern White, and Shandong, a reddish variety from China's Shandong province.

Break your garlic bulbs up into single cloves; each clove will grown into a new bulb. Choose large cloves that are firm to the touch, free of blemishes, plump and have a healthy sheen. Make holes in loose soil 2-inches deep and 6-inches apart. Place your garlic cloves pointy side up into the holes and cover with soil and then a layer of mulch. (I'm going to plant my garlic near to my baby bok choy plants).