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Before the end of May, my mother is going to give me a 101 crash course on planting for dummies and I promise to share the knowledge. In the planting department, I am definitely a dummy, and I have also been known to cut the life span short of many a budding sprout because my schedule got crazy and I neglected to nurture it. The goal this year, is to learn the trade and devote a little quality time and TLC to my veggies. If I am going to continue on with this lifestyle, I want to know that if I was stranded somewhere, I could survive, and also that I can create a little organic haven of my own right in my backyard of fresh produce full of life force.
A colleague of mine in New York whose is vegan once told me how he found some ripe edible fruit growing in the midst of the concrete jungle in Brooklyn. He washed it and started eating it, and this loud-mouthed female Brooklynite who was nearby made a comment about how it was nasty that he was eating a fruit from the tree. He laughed and tried to explain to her that the fruit from the tree was fresher and safer than a great deal of the produce she was used to at her local grocery store. It is incredible how many people actually think that fruit originates from Safeway, Pathmark, Whole Foods, or Harris Teeter! We are so far removed from nature and natural order, that if left in the wild many of us might walk around hungry when there was an acre of kale growing right in front of us. I’m sure that would happen to me, although I’m making some progress.
The little bit that I have worked in the garden helping my mother as she harvested and cared for her veggies, taught me some incredible life lessons. As we started to work she rambled on, and it started to hit home for me. In our own lives we reap what we sow, and the right conditions and care have to exist in order to claim our harvest. This applies to our dreams, our plans, our relationships, everything really goes through this process from seed or idea to plant or creation. While weeding, which is very therapeutic by the way–especially if you need to vent–she mentioned that certain people or toxic conditions can stifle the plant and keep it from growing and that it was important to pull the weeds from the root or else they will grow right back and stifle the plant. At the time I was noticing that certain negative people and situations were falling out of my life, and as I pulled the weeds, I understood, that I had to let go, truly let go, or else those people and situations would keep me from growing into the person that I was created to be.
Nature really is a miracle. Very often, I look around and am in awe of the variety, the colors, and the complexity of nature which has so much to teach all of us, and which offers us all we need already to be in perfect health and in perfect peace. All in all, I’m inspired to discover my green thumb, and I hope that you will be too. Below is a short video, with a glimpse of the collard greens, chard, and the last one I found out it is a type of kale, growing in my backyard pots. -XoXo Raw Girl
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZKqOSfDKYg]