The Fruits of Summer

Summer arrived just in time this year. The garden is hardy and absolutely thriving on temperatures ninety degrees and upward. Raspberries are beginning to ripen, and just this morning I spied the first zucchini and cucumber of the year! Now the garden is growing itself and the living is easy...

Starting a garden involves a lot of mindfulness work. You compost all year, plan and prepare your space, select seeds and keep them wet around the clock, plant your starts, weed till your joints ache, all while watching and tending to what is happening. Then, all of a sudden you realize your attentiveness has nurtured something that will sustain you.

Now you can lie back and enjoy the fruits of summer, right? Talk to me again in July-August and I may be humming a different tune. But for now, let us dwell in the perfection of the moment, before the canning mayhem ensues!

Lately I have found myself trying too hard during my Yoga Nidra practice. Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation of self-inquiry and enlightenment. Today, in the spirit of summer, I let myself take a little snooze during my practice... My teacher always says it is no problem to take a nap during the practice because awareness is always awake and aware. There is a part of us that is always tuned in to a deeper reality.

It was quite possibly, the best nap I've ever had. It may not have been the best meditation session I've ever experienced, but then again, I suppose it was just what I needed. My phone rang almost immediately upon waking. It was my old boss, calling to offer a little contract work! Just the thing I have been looking for, but what a nice and pleasant surprise that it came to me without my searching and pining for it.


Namaste,
Jessica

P.S. I promise to post pictures of the garden soon!

After the Laundry, the Laundry

This spring our dryer knob broke off, forcing me to return to the old-fashioned, solar-powered clothes dryer. Tell you the truth, I am actually enjoying hanging each and every garment, towel and sheet out to dry on the clothesline. And then taking them down, one by one, and folding them before I even bring them inside. Hey, it solved my problem of dressing my family out of a huge pile on the living room floor 3 or 4 days a week. And I find that the mundane begins to take on a meditative quality.

The laundry is what initially inspired my exploration into the relationship between sustainable living and personal well-being. A book aptly titled, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, has been suggested to me -- once by a good friend and once by my yoga nidra teacher. It's about the paradoxical journey of enlightenment; enlightenment not as an end goal, but simply an experience. Try to attach to it, and it quickly eludes you.

I have yet to read the book, but every time I hear the title, I say yeah, and after the laundry, the laundry! At times I feel the everyday beckoning of household chores - clearing the clutter, cooking the meals, weeding the garden, and of course, doing the laundry - is all too much. I hate maintenance. And yet, it simply must be done if we are to live sustainably.

Okay, so I have no answers, folks. But here is what I tell myself:

Some days the laundry is easy, even mind-clearing. Other days it's damned near impossible and it just ain't gonna happen. That's life -- it's made up of ebbs and flows. Just go with it. Try not to worry about the laundry getting done, or the enlightenment coming on. Instead trust that it will, in its own time.

Love,
Jess