The "other" day.

I love........absolutely love being outdoors in the spring! I am a hog for fresh air. Today I have had to be inside and am grateful that it's cloudy. It's much easier to be inside. I notice that I am not very good at working in the office for part of the day and then gardening a bit and then going to teach a class. I used to think that I should be able to just switch gears. Now, I don't think it's necessary. I just need to do the work in a way that works for me. I like gardening all day, getting right into the muck of things and then a long bath that really soaks dirt off my feet and hands. I love gardening barefoot (I am earthing). And then working in the office another day with emails, phone calls, all the paper work and filing and organizing. A day for cleaning house and groceries and cooking. Teaching on the other days. Hmpf! It seems to me there aren't enough days.

I have a little fridge magnet that says: "I clean house every other day. This isn't the other day."

Today is a office and teaching day. And the sun is coming out. Perfect. A walk to work with the sun on my face.

Herbs

I can grow flowers, herbs, raspberries, bushes, and trees. Food seems hard to grow. Even my zucchini floundered last year. Today I planted some herbs in containers so I can still bring them in overnight. I love spring gardening and making plans and it seems the garden expands every year. One day I won't see any lawn at all. I spent a lot of time drinking tea as well......

The most important thing I do every day for my health and happiness is meditate. It really works to bring clarity to my life. Sometimes life is just a muddle of things that have to be done but meditation holds me in a space where life flows. I feel rooted to something that doesn't change. It's a grounding in sanity. The meditation I practice and also now teach is Ascension as taught by the Ishayas' of the Bright Path. It is a teaching that points towards my own heart. I didn't think there was such a teaching. A teaching that is about praise, gratitude, and love, which has simple techniques that effortlessly and gently bring awareness of the truth that I am whole and infinite.
www.thebrightpath.com

I have been in the garden daily cleaning and cleaning. I bought this little guy yesterday. He is just sitting on a stump waiting for his spot in the garden to be prepared.

Gardening advice: plant seeds and pull weeds. Sort of like life isn't it? I've been pulling weeds and dead things in the garden and also in myself. Parts of me magically appear on the surface of my experience and I am surprised to find out I still have those buttons to be pushed........the weeds are rooted deep and need pulling yet again.

Sweet beauty

It's a beautiful day!

It's all bullshit

Sometimes I have this overwhelming urge to tell everyone off. To tell everyone that everything we believe about ourselves is pretty much bullshit. It's just a story. I've noticed that when I buy into my own story of who I am, what I know, what I do, then I get really attached to that as the truth - and - don't you dare tell me otherwise. And I protect this story. What an ego! The ego is the story and I hold it dear to my heart. But when I drop my story I feel lighter. I feel free of the stuff in my head and even the story of other people. It's my attachment to my story that is heavy.....like carrying a massive suitcase around with me all day. Then opening it and showing my old, old story to everyone. The story of me. It's stale and old.

I notice I can see other people do this too. I wish for all of us to just stop. Just stop. And live fresh. Now. We won't forget how to do our work. We won't forget where we live. We will however, see everyone fresh with new eyes every day. We will see the beauty around us because we are not distorting it with our ideas of it. We will see the person in front of us as a new person today and not the stale old person of yesterday.

Anthony de Mello in his book Awareness says that everyone is crazy, you're crazy, I'm crazy, and the sooner we just realize that - the happier we will be.

Half-sweet, dirty chai latte

Last week I had a little sip of a skinny, half-sweet, dirty chai latte. It was super good and I've been thinking about it ever since. I usually place rather boring coffee orders, but in order to be a bit more savvy I picked up this drink, minus the skinny part, only because I couldn't remember all of it and well, I'm not much into skinny things. Oh man, I really enjoyed this morning after I pulled out my plants and we all sat in the sun together.
Half-sweet = half the syrupy sweetener
Dirty = a shot of espresso