Blog: Musings on the Earth, Mindful Living, and our Connections
Planning Your Garden Part 4: The Fall Garden
In the last few weeks, we have harvested lots of fruits and veggies, and some plants have completed their season. The garden looks different. There are big pockets of emptiness, soil with nothing growing in it. Harvesting turnips, beets...
Mindfulness, Chocolate and Walking
When you think of mindfulness, what comes to mind? I recognize that’s a pun of sorts. Apologies. When someone tells us to be mindful of something, they are seeking for us to pay attention, to focus ourselves to make sure we are present for a particular event, thought, or activity. Teaching mindfulness has the same goal. We...
Unexpected Interweavings
Life is filled with unexpected interweavings, cycles and circles. I experienced some of these this past week on my JMMTT – Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training – at Isabella Freedman retreat center and farm. Nestled in the woods of Falls Village, CT, about 90 minutes from the nearest airport, the center boasts trails and a pond, several greenhouses, a large network of yards and structures for goats and chickens, and extensive fields for produce and fruit orchards.
How Do We Measure Success?
Working with people is the joy of our work here at In the Gardens, whether it is helping them discover a love of fresh food as they grow and harvest, or guiding them to greater balance in their actions with self and others through mindfulness practice. It is in our interactions with the people that we serve and employ, our volunteers, and our donors that we fulfill our mission. Here are…
You Are Loved
On Friday I arrived to my part time congregation in Ames, Iowa, in the frigid cold to see chalk paintings on the walks leading up to the country-feeling congregational building. I thought to myself, How lovely. The religious schoolteachers must have brought the children outside to make chalk drawings. I remember that as a child, drawing peace signs was a common pastime.
The next day…
Listening to the Silence
I spent last week in silence. I was at the JMMTT—Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training—a 15-month program that began last May. It is an advanced step from the 18-month Clergy Leadership Program in mindfulness practices that I completed a year ago July.
As I posted on my Facebook page, I celebrated my birthday in silence. That was different. I also observed Election Day in silence. Our retreat guides were sensitive enough to the issues of our country to host an optional “election practice” evening in…
Kindness Shining Through
Throughout this High Holy Day season, I have been thinking about the importance of kindness, and what an important difference it makes. In that spirit I would like to share a (slightly updated) blog post with you that I wrote in February of 2012 for Find Fulfill Flourish, a book I co-authored with Steve Weitzenkorn. May it inspire us to offer kind deeds of our own, with the hope of setting greater kindness in motion in our world.
Last night…
Oh Deer, What Can the Matter Be?
… Growing food most closely informs my relationship with the earth so that is where I go to source these writings. Each year there are crops that grow well and others that disappoint. One crop, however, enthused and simultaneously disappointed beyond all: the grapes.
Pruning grapes is critical for a good crop. This year I discovered that April is the right time to prune, but still convinced I had no idea what I was doing, I feared that I
Welcome to In the Gardens!
Welcome to In the Gardens and our new blog. We have been awhile in the making. One year and one concussion later, we are finally launching our website and we are proud of it!
In our blog we will be musing (short posts, mostly!) on topics that relate to the earth and gardening, to mindfulness practice and mindful living, and to our interconnectedness – each of us to one another. It is our experience that working the earth helps to bring us