Day 7
This gets harder to write every day.
- I am grateful for farming. Everyone should be because that’s honestly where the majority of our food should and does come from. But this art and symbiosis with the earth and our bodies has become something entirely different. Why am I using a passive tense? what am I saying? we did this! We made a commercial, capitalistic, artificial chemical, outsourcing mess of it all. My other half Jessica brought this up to me today; she said that one way “we” often think of farmers as are “hick, conservative, and totally un-relatable”. Growing up I always thought of farmers as jolly men in plaid shirts and overalls driving tractors with jolly wives that milked cows and baked pies. That still sounds like the life to me. However, the farmer Jess may be working for (which she is completely excited about) is apparently a vegan, meditation-loving yogi, and that’s awesome. She said that broke the stereotype she had assumed and made her more excited to farm. Farmers are cultivators of life. I plan to learn to farm soon, and do it for the rest of my life, and though it might seem like a step down on the economic ladder, I think it yields a higher quality of life. That’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it?
- I am so grateful for all of the encouragement I’ve received in doing this project. All of my friends and family are so incredibly supportive and inquiring in on my progress and philosophies about it. So thank you to everyone, for supporting me, but for being in my life in the first place.
http://www.ted.com/talks/laura_trice_suggests_we_all_say_thank_you.html
- I am also so grateful for the way this project is already changing my perception and understanding of the world. I feel like I can pick out a smile in a crowd. I’ve been considering so many other habit-changers as well. This has just become an incredible catalyst and I encourage anyone and everyone to do their own version of this challenge. I feel that making decisions are even easier. God knows I can be incredibly indecisive, but I’ve begun to focus and tune in to what I need and want. I am trying to be more adventurous, and I think the nose piercing shows that side emerging tee hee. I’m also enjoying the time I spend with my friends at exponential levels. Perhaps its that I know my time is limited with them?
Going off of that last thought in my gratitude, I wanted to share this. I can’t remember who exactly said this, but a renown Buddhist teacher was asked about relationships and how one should treat them in the light of impermanence. How do we treat relationships that we know will end? Well, all relationships end in a way, whether by separation, distance, or death (though I believe our connections last forever). So this teacher said that this is a positive thing, not a negative thing. Think of couples in which one of them has a terminal illness. The last years or months they spend together are overflowing with love and passion. They make the most of the time they have left. What if we treated every relationship like this? (carpe diem, anyone?) If we lived every relationship to the fullest, then the time spent with that person, whether it lasts long or not, would be such a gift. If we accept that things end, it forces us to make the most of the present.
