Nirvana Day

Today is Nirvana Day, the celebration of Buddha's death at the age of 80, at around 487 BCE. It's celebrated in East Asia on February 15th, or on February 8th by some.

Buddhists celebrate the date of the death of the Buddha, because death is when the soul is released from the body to experience Nirvana. The word Nirvana means "to extinguish", but it's really more of a transformation to a new kind of existence. Nirvana is usually described as a state of bliss or peace, and a release from all physical suffering. The Buddha taught that Nirvana was beyond human imagination, and so speculation about what Nirvana is like is considered by some to be foolish.

Agenda for today:

1. Read the Buddha's teachings

2. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

3. Ancestor practice

4. Ongo Journal

5. Set intentions for Lent

Seed starting

I'm experimenting with new seed starting practices this year, to get away from using plastic and other ways we harm the earth; and also just because my seed starting hasn't been very successful lately.

Agenda:

1. Potting soil

2. Pots and trays

3. Lights and sun

4. Plant peppers

5. Brainstorm for Oneness with the Earth

Proaction

I've been working on Proaction for many years, but I think now I have a new handle on my dilemma - It's a battle of needs: My deeply ingrained need for justice and fairness, which I often respond to in a childish, reactive way, and my need for equanimity. It's a battle between red and blue parts of my personality, and my inner child and grandma.

Agenda:
1. Love cycle
2. Ongo journal
3. New narrative

4. Days of passion flow plan

Thursday Beginner's Mind

Agenda:

1. Read "The Book of Doing and Being"

2. Beginner's mind meditation for creativity

3. Pre-K school plans

4. Projects for the week

January Garden

My winter garden is alive and well. It's feeding my ducks, and wild birds, as well as other insects and animals I can't see, and providing us with a handful of greens and beets.

My main focus in January is to plan the next season's garden, and take care of the nature that continues to live here. The best tip I've read in any permaculture blog is: Be consistent with 15-minutes a day, year round. We've had a streak of amazing, dry weather, so I've got no excuse not to take a short daily tour of my garden - 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.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Serviceberry"

2. Ongo journal

3. January harvest

4. Garden plans

5. January tasks

6. Prepare a worm bin

7. Days of Passion

Third Quarter Moon of January and Nature-Culture Brainstorm

Today is the third Quarter moon. This waning moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work, renewal, and self-care. This isn’t a moment for starting new projects but for finishing up old ones, making peace with the past, and preparing for a fresh start at the next new moon.

Agenda:

1. Ongo journal

2. Ritual for Release and Realignment

3. Meditation and Evaluation Journal

4. Bird and butterfly garden planning

5.

 Start a phenology journal

6. Days of Passion

Third Day of Christmas and First Quarter Moon

This is the third day of the twelve-day festal tide - a sacred, festive season. I'm in Sabbath mode, spending these Twelve Days doing as little work as possible, resting, reflecting, and finding peace within.

And today I have a whole day alone!

Agenda:

1. Kwanzaa principle

2. Journal queries

3

.

 

Light a candle for Nature

4. Read "Serviceberry"

5. Soyal retreat practices for Nature

6. Nature brainstorm

7. Days of Passion and Full effort plan

November Wildlife Garden

November is a significant month for a wildlife garden because it's generally the turning point for the first frosts of winter. This fall has been warm, as was last year - we still have roses and raspberries in mid-November - but the rains have begun in earnest.

I'm writing a whole book about my Nature-Culture ideas: living my life as part of nature; sharing my resources with those who share theirs (the bees and the birds, etc.); becoming more aware of nature's needs so I can be a better neighbor; changing my habits so I can cause less harm.

My working definition of Nature-culture is "Humans living in unity with nature: acting in ways that create shared spaces that honor the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems."

Agenda:

1. Bird watching

2. Feed the birds

3. Add to my wildlife garden habitat

4. Winter vegetable garden tasks

5. Personal life-style goals

6. Education and advocacy plans

November Retreat for Synergy

Saturdays are usually my day of retreat and contemplation, though I've had a series of very busy Saturdays lately. Today I hope to settle in to a day of synergy, both inner and outer. I aim to seek unity, embrace teamwork, and work tirelessly towards a better end.

Agenda:

1. Read "Focus on the Good Stuff"

2. Write a gratitude

3. Generosity practice

4. Create inner synergy for Nature-Culture

Gratitude as Celebration

Gratitude is the celebration of needs met.

1. Ongo journal

2. Love meditation

3. Days of Passion

Build a World

I am building a world of Nature-Culture in book form, but I'm slipping a little. I do wake up thinking about my  project, but I rarely take an hour to write. And the other parts - actual garden work and research, painting and craftivism - are also slipping. 

Part of it is that the other big project we are doing is winding to a climax (12 days to a hot tub!) and demanding my attention, and part of it is lack of direction. I think I need a Nature-Culture retreat day soon, to recenter and plan synergy.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Evaluate my creativity habits

3. Craftivism plans

4. Preschool plans

5. Studio

6. Do the smallest thing

7. Love meditation

Halloween

Halloween is the modern name of the ancient Irish and Scottish holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-win), a Celtic-Gaelic word meaning “summers-end”. It begins at dusk on October 31, and marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle.

In the 7th-century CE the Pope established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Samhain became Halloween.

The Reformation put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. The celebration of Halloween was mostly forbidden among the early American colonists, until the 1800s.

Agenda

1. Days of Passion

2. Make a costume

3. Trick or Treats

Enough

What is enough? My days become a blur, and I can't catch up with my intentions. I can't make enough progress with my attention, my patience and equanimity, my wisdom and growth. My projects don't get done - where is time going?

Agenda for today:

1. Ongo journal

2. Days of Passion

3. Abundance journal

Water-wise

My focus of study this month is water, and becoming wise about it. Water-wisdom is concerned with planting to conserve water, but also with awareness of the water all around and within; we are water! 

Agenda:
1. Ongo journal

2. Love Meditation
3. Water-wise plans
4. Next steps for my wildlife garden
5. Days of Passion

Days of Passion

On Fridays I make a plan for Nature-Culture flow and writing through the next week. My Nature-Culture theme this month is water, drought, plastic and pollution, and rain gardens, and I'm also working on the idea of the intersection of Nature and Culture: Is there a balance point, like a Yin yang, between the two? How can I better incorporate a sense of my wild animal instinctual being into my days, and thinking like an earth dweller rather than a person from mars?

• S: Write about awareness and eco-spiritual practices with bodies of water; how to understand local fishes.
• Listen and advise the EC group; discuss the theme "Our Garden, Our Earth" and bring ideas for ways to stretch ourselves with minimal effort.
• Weed and mulch new butterfly beds, build hugelkulture, plant clover?
• Paint a moon painting in the studio.
• M: Write about rethinking cleaning supplies (because of streams); plastics, oil, what else?
• Plan for my own cleaning supplies and plastics.
• T: Write about Autumn awareness ideas 
• W: Write about celestial viewing; get Moon books.
• Th: Write about plastics advocacy and education, trout-friendly education and craftivism; 
• Th: Plan fall themes, projects, and skills for teaching Nature-Culture to kids - Outdoor preschool!
• Design a new craftivism fish tag
• F: Write about how to be an ally for the water that flows through your land; also stormwater rain gardens and water-wise planting.

Cusp of Autumn

 We are on the cusp of Autumn, and I want to take time to prepare myself - body, mind, and spirit. I'm taking this whole week to bring my attention to the shift we are undergoing - attempting to slow down, simplify my schedule where possible, and celebrate.

Agenda:

1. Read "Earth Walks"

2. Fall possibilities

3. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

4. Nature culture practices for fall

5. Fall vignettes

Liking People Again

Sometime in the last couple of years I've begun to quip, "I don't like people very much." I think it's time to make a shift in that thinking, before it becomes too real.

It's true that I'm disappointed in human kind, especially liberals, for not taking action to protect our planet; it's true that my attention has shifted to loving nature; but love is not a zero sum game, as they say. If I want to be an effective leader of people, I'm going to need to learn how to love them again.

Agenda: 

1. Read "Present Moment Awareness"

2. Love Meditation

3. Nature-Culture awareness

4. Inspiration and awe practice

Slow progress

I'm making slow progress on my big passion project, writing a book about Nature-Culture. The research of a new topic - water, drought, and pollution - is daunting. I have so much to learn. Also, I continue to be very busy with social obligations, doctor appointments, fundraiser events, and childcare. The trick is to get organized the night before so I don't eat into my writing time in the morning.

Agenda Today:

1. 

Read 

"Brainstorm"

2.

 Five days of passion

3. Outdoor preschool brainstorm

September Transitions

September is a transition month - the last weeks of the sun-baked summer, and the beginning of autumn. September's element is earth, which grounds and gives strength. And I need grounding, because Autumn is a wild and energizing time, when seeds ripen, and the everything is at its peak of unruliness. 

Even though I am feeling the urge to draw inward, now is not the time to completely retreat. September is a time to be open, and to respond to whatever life brings me; I am looking under rocks and turning things upside down. I am sorting out the ideas that come to me, holding each up to the light to see if it’s a keeper, looking and listening for crazy wisdom. I am maintaining an unruly kind of discipline. I am celebrating each new day and the Truth it brings.

This is the season to awaken the wild woman within and break some rules! I ask the important questions and misbehave (with integrity). But I am happily aware that I will never have an orderly shelf-full of the Truth. Truth is a mystery- it shifts and twists out of my grasp, and hides in the shadows. I am comforted to know this, because it releases me from the need to have all the answers. My real work is to ask all the questions.

Agenda:

1. Journal query

2. Read "Step into Nature"

3. Proaction
4. Reciprocity plans

5. Pockets

Doing Without Trying

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and prepare for Grandson fun.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Sweet Spot"

2. Home projects

3. Plan for Nature-Culture flow

4. Creative visualization