A Birdseed Garden and a Duck Cafeteria

This spring I'm planting food for the birds, both the wild birds and my ducks, as part of my Unity Arts practice. 

Unity Arts is designed to open the doors of creative healing, to heal our connection to the earth - to Creation. We are all (de facto) connected because we are a part of nature, but we have built walls to keep nature separate, because our culture is human focused; we've been taught that we are more important than other parts of nature, and that's a hard lesson to unlearn.

Unity Art includes these parts: 

1. Set an intention
2. Collect seed and plants
3. Observing
4. Prepare the beds
5. Plant the beds
6. Creating

7. Sharing and giving thanks.

January garden

My winter garden is alive and well. It's feeding my ducks, and wild birds, as well as other animals I can't see. I wish we had veggies for ourselves, but, except for the beets, they all failed to thrive this year.

My main focus in January is to plan the next season's garden, and take care of the nature that continues to live here. As always, I'd rather not go into the garden in the rain and the mud, but if I can be strong, get on my rain gear, and take a short daily tour of my garden, I find many simple things to do, without getting too muddy.

The best tip I've read in any permaculture blog is: Be consistent with 15-minutes a day, year round. I try to take a 15-minute walk through my garden each day, and I alternate the front and back gardens so I don't feel rushed.

The consistency of the 15-minute daily visit keeps me connected to my garden even when I don't accomplish much. As Amy from 10-Acre Farm says, "It helps me to enjoy 'being' in the garden, rather than always focusing on the 'doing'."

Agenda:

1. Read "A Comfort of Crows"

2. Garden plans

3. January tasks

4. Prune the Grape

Retreat for Discernment

I'm having my New Moon retreat day this weekend, a couple of days to be unsocial, and give attention to my theme for the month, which is discernment. As luck would have it, we had a serious ice storm yesterday, and the whole town is shut down. All of my responsibilities have evaporated!

I've chosen the theme of discernment for this month, because I have so much figuring out going on. Today I will sink in to the quiet of the winter and open to leadings of the spirit.

Agenda:
1. Read "A Comfort of Crows"

2. Bird watching

3. Garden plans

4. Living room blessing

2023 Lent Calendar, Week One

My theme for Lent this year is Being Rooted in Creation: Being rooted means I have a secure sense of who I am and where I belong; I am firmly planted, sunk in, feet on the ground, and the earth is steady. Roots are our connection to the deeper places in our souls, to the past, and to the land we live on.

To be rooted means I belong here, strong and grounded in Love, Truth, and Creation, solidly living in the Now, connected to the Divine Whole, and radiant in peace, in health and resilience. It means I belong in my home, my family, and in my community, I'm integrated and whole.

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer. This Lent, I plan to study nature like I would prepare to visit a foreign country - learn the language of my bird and plant neighbors, and continue to explore my relationship to the natural world, the cycles of the seasons, and the history, culture, and ecosystem of my valley.

And I also observe Lent as a time of creative action, acting on my leading to become more rooted in Creation with small and large actions at home and in my community, and by sharing Medicine Art projects with my grandson and others.

My intentions this year are to:

• Read and Journal: I intend to learn more about the nature in my own backyard, starting with a dive into various web sites, and will also keep a daily nature journal with notes about the weather and things I notice.
• Explore resilience practices: I'm also reading from the book, "101 Mindful Ways to Build Resilience," by Donald Altman, which offers simple ideas for being more rooted in my body and mind.
• Take creative action: In the weeks of Lent, I intend to act on my leading to become more rooted in Creation by
• Tending my garden (and letting it tend me)
• Building habitat for plant and animal people
• Supporting and working directly on campaigns to defend the environment
• Witnessing to others with writing, talking, and artwork.
• Fast: This year, like last year, I intend to fast from all new single-use plastic, and continue to experiment with plastic alternatives. I'm also going to witness to why plastic production is so dangerous, and why we need to slow it down.