Third Quarter Moon of May (In the Garden)

Tonight is the waning Third Quarter moon of May. Today's 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.

May is a month of flowering and growth. Today I will pause to consider where my growing edge is.

Agenda today:

Agenda: 

1. Meditation and Evaluation Journal

2. Ritual for Release and Realignment

3. May planting

4. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Tuesday

Tuesday is my day to 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. 

Agenda:

1. Generosity practice

2. Read "Intrinsic Hope"
3. New narrative for naming feelings

4. Synergy and hope plans

5. Plant sunflowers!

St. Patrick's Day and Chaharshanbe Suri

St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday that falls on March 17 each year. In Ireland it's celebrated with parades, community feasts, singing, dancing, and church services, all in honor of St. Patrick, an English man who lived in about 400 A.D.

Pat’s whole name was Magnus Sucatus Patricus. When he was 16, Irish raiders carried him off from England to Ireland to work as a slave. He escaped six years later, traveled and studied for many years, and became a Christian missionary. He returned to Ireland, and grew famous for all the miracles he performed and for converting many Irish people to Christianity.

Chaharshanbe Suri, the Festival of Fire, is part of the ten day Zoroastrian festival, Farvardegan, which concludes with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on March 21. On this last Tuesday evening of the year, Iranians jump over bonfires.

Agenda:

1. Read the Sweet Spot

2. Family and community brainstorm

3. Synergy and hope plans

4. Prayer of St. Patrick

5. Plant peas and my straw doll

6. Enjoy hot Irish coffee

7. Make Ajeel

8. Build a fire and JUMP!

Spring Brainstorm

This week, at the new moon, I will transition from one focus to another, and a whole new field of opportunity. This next few days I'll take time to write down my goals, dreams, and exciting ideas for the next 30-days, including at least a few crazy, improbable notions. 

-Start with a list of seasonal themes and celebrations, vacations, and other events.

-Write about my biggest priorities this month, how they might fit into my life, and how they connect to my values and principles.

-Write about possible obstacles and factors such as the weather, upcoming schedule changes, or money problems.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

2. Ongo journal

3. Brainstorm for my priorities

4. Potting Day plans

Sabbath for the Cusp of Spring

Today is the start of my sabbath - for a couple of days at the end of my week I step out of the fray, and regroup. We are on the cusp of spring, and I want to take time to prepare myself - body, mind, and spirit.

My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule. - Unfortunately I have a work-related meeting today, but I will surround it with easy, peaceful vibes.

Agenda:

1. Brainstorm for Spring

2. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

3. Plant spinach

Early March Garden

March is when the gardening season increases in intensity. I will prepare my garden beds, and plant seeds indoors and out. Right now, it's still too cold to plant outside, but I have lots of preparation work to do!

Agenda:

1. Devotions

2. Beingness 

3. Ongo journal

4. March tasks
5. Plant indoors

6. Phenology journal

Full Egg Moon and Hina Matsuri

Hina Matsuri is a Japanese festival that falls every year on March 3. It began in ancient times as a Shinto effigy ceremony to prepare farmers for the planting of spring crops: They would rub their negative energy off onto a doll, then float it down the river.

Today girl's set up displays of dolls, have a tea party, and - yes - some people still send dolls down the river.

The full moon of March is the atcha-uyu or "Women Dig Camus" moon by the Kalapuya of my area, and the Egg Moon by others, because this is the month when birds begin to lay eggs again. The egg is a powerful symbol of hope, new beginnings, and completeness: My vague ideas take a solid shape, enclosed in a perfect shell, and I have created a whole new beautiful thing! The March Full Moon is a good time to ponder ​t​he wholeness of life.

We are now at the peak of the high-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the low-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Agenda:

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate strength

3. Synergy and hope plans

4. Make hina dolls and paper boats

5. The hina-okuri ceremony

6. Prepare to plant

7. Make hishi mochi and have a tea party

8. Plan a sabzeh

Retreat for Tying Loose Ends

Today I have nothing on my calendar: A free day to catch up with my garden, my earth care projects, and house tasks. It's a joy to finish things I've started!

Agenda:

1. Devotions

2. Beingness 

3. Earth Action

4. Planting

Pea Planting Day and Forgiveness Sunday

Pea Planting Day is a special anniversary for us. February 22 is listed on my planting calendar as the first day to plant peas in the Willamette Valley; it also happens that this is the day W and I got engaged to each other, 50 years ago!

Peas are traditionally the first vegetable sown outside in the spring because they will germinate and grow in very cool soil. We plant peas today to ceremonially kick off the start of the planting season, and also to remind ourselves of the beginnings of our relationship; the day we decided to be together forever.

Forgiveness Sunday is an Eastern Orthodox holiday that marks the start of Lent. The Western and Eastern churches usually celebrate Lent and Easter on different dates - the Western dates are calculated with the Gregorian calendar, and the Eastern dates use the Julian Calendar.

Agenda:

1. Devotions

2. Beingness 

3. Earth Action

4. Read "Revolutionary Witchcraft"

5. Ask forgiveness and offer forgiveness

6. Pea planting ceremony

7. Permaculture pea tips

8. Light a candle

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

St. Dorothy's Day

St. Dorothy lived in Caesarea in central Turkey, around the year 313 AD. She was tried for refusing to worship idols, and a mocking lawyer asked her to send him fruit from the garden of Paradise. In response to her prayer, an angel appeared and presented three roses and three apples.

"And then said the holy virgin with a glad semblant: Do to me what torment thou wilt, for I am all ready to suffer it for the love of my spouse Jesu Christ, in whose garden full of delices I have gathered roses, spices, and apples."

Because of this, she is the patron of gardeners. Also of brides, and brewers.

Agenda Today:

1. Garden visualization

2. February tasks

3. Prepare to plant

4. Make potting soil

5. Study soil health

6. Plant native plants

7. Make Persian Spiced Apples

New Kindly Moon

Tonight is the night of the new moon. The Chinese call this tenth new moon the Kindly Moon. In China, this is the season for winter crop planting, and this month brings the first “little snow” which gently (and kindly) moistens the winter wheat seedlings. We don't have snow yet, but we've had a kindly bit of rain.

The new moon is the start of the lunar cycle, a time of high energy and clear thinking. Historically, the new moon is when women took time to be alone; it's a time to retreat, set intentions, and initiate something new.

In late November everything begins to slow down, and I try to remember to be more aware of time flowing; to find the right tempo for each activity; and to transition calmly. Advent will bring a wealth of activity, so take time this week to savor the changing season. Remember, as Waverly Fitzgerald says in Slow Time, that time is "much more fluid and mysterious than I had imagined."

Agenda today:

1. Retreat Day

2. Read "Present Moment Awareness"

3. Choose a month theme

4. Set intentions

5. Proaction and reciprocity plans

6. Plant paper white bulbs

Mid-October Garden

October is often wet here in our valley, and finally the weather is starting to cool off, so I face the challenge of the lure of hibernation: I'd rather not garden in the rain!

But if I can be strong, get on my rain gear, and take a 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 this: 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. I notice the changes of the season, and how many bees I have. 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. October harvest

2. Save seeds

3. October garden care and bedding down

4. Fall planting

5. Raspberry pruning and thinning

6. Wildlife garden

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.

Agenda:

1. Ongo journal
2. Recite prayers
3. Renewal plans
4. Plant garlic
5. Start native iris seeds

6. Autumn awareness walk

October Garden

The season is moving along, and I'm trying to catch up. We were out of town for a week, and temperatures dropped and rain increased while we were gone. 

The garden looks pretty raggedy and needs some tender loving care!

I'm still harvesting tomatoes, beets, peppers, rhubarb, and a few beans.

Agenda this week:

1. Finish preparing beds

2. Planting

3. Save seeds

Mid-September Garden and End of Ghost Month

The September garden is cooler and calmer. We have had some rainy days to refresh the green, and I can relax with the watering. This is the time to begin a little garden clean-up, and prepare for winter.

Today is also the last day of Hungry Ghost month. On the last day of the seventh lunar month, before the next new moon, the gates of hell close up again. Asians celebrate this day in a variety of ways - they might burn paper money and clothing again, and taoist monks might chant to drive the ghosts away or release them; and the Toucheng Ghost Grappling Competition is held in Yilan's Toucheng Township in Taiwan(!)

 

Today:

1. Release my hungry ghosts

2. September garden tasks

3. Garden clean up and winterizing

4. Freeze tomatoes

5. Make a floating lantern

Early August Garden

Summer is a season with three distinct phases in my valley, and August is clearly Mid-summer. It's often very hot and very dry, but the days are noticeably shorter. It's time to think about the winter garden.

Agenda:

1. August harvest

2. Preserving garlic

3. Onion Chutney

4. August garden tasks

5. Prepare for the winter garden

6. August planting

7. Prune my raspberries

The June Garden

Serviceberry with berries!

The June garden is pure abundance. It's too late to start most summer veggies now in my valley, and too early to start fall crops, so my focus is on garden care - watering, weeding, mulching - and on HARVEST.

Agenda:
1. June harvest
2. June planting

3. June tasks

4. Phenology journal

Earth Week Friday

This week is Earth Week, and I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day, including some reading and education, contemplation, earth care actions, and artwork, to ground me in unity with the Earth. 

Agenda:

1. Read "The Serviceberry" 

2. Fossil free transitions

3. Late April planting

Fifth Sunday of Lent

April is spring; the yellows and violets of March explode into all the amazing colors of the rainbow: orange tulips, pink azaleas, red-flowering currant, fresh green, and the blue true dream of sky - that rich blue of patience, peace, and understanding.

During this middle month of spring, I celebrate the limitless energy of the maiden and the crazy wisdom of the fool. I turn everything upside down and inside out - anything is possible! April offers me happiness and wonder; maybe now I can say YES with vigor, enjoy the surprises, confusion, and chaos that life brings, and feel comfortable in the depths of my life.

Agenda:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"

2. Lent review and simple food plan

3. Early April planting