Julie in Michigan

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

A Lovely Day in the Community Garden



We planted today. Three of us planted our own sections and the rest worked on plantings for the Food Pantry. I planted Comfrey=finally, and some Cilantro-a must have, plus Beets, Carrots, Lettuce and a handful of radishes. One fellow’s grandchildren were joining him to have their first experience with the wonder of gardening in the form of radish planting.


We lived next door to the most delightful woman as I was growing up. There was some turbulence in my home during my preteen years as my Father experienced several strokes, heart attacks and eventually, death.

Mrs. Mazey lived next door and she brought a ray of light into my heart. I remember her laying with me as I tried to fall asleep, her asking me to sing her my favorite hymns, all the while, they were working on my father in the living room—the rotation of the red blinking light through the open front door, down the hall and onto my bedroom door. And later as the years passed, she always spoke with me as though I were an adult no matter how immature I acted. She asked me interesting questions and listened thoughtfully to my answers. I'll always remember her.

Mrs. Mazey gardened. She taught me about lettuce and radishes, tomatoes and together with my mom, the joys of bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on homemade bread, toasted with mayonnaise. Nothing short of heaven.

So, today I planted and I’ll post some pictures in a couple of weeks to show you how its sprouting. In the meantime, our Sponsor, Gene Hanover, Manager at the Watervliet Fruit Exchange has let us know that the first plants are beginning to come in. He has tomato, pepper and cabbage plants; also strawberry, geranium and petunia plants. Additionally the Saturday classes have begun to fill up.

There is no cost associated with the Saturday Morning Gardening Classes, but he does appreciate a holler so he makes sure he’s got enough chairs ready for all who want to come. We’ll be posting the class schedule on the website soon.
See you there!

Monday, April 22, 2013

I recommend this one


From My Hands and Heart: Achieving Health and Balance with Craniosacral Therapy by Kate MacKinnon went far beyond my expectations to provide me with a much needed refresher on the CST course I took from Upledger Institute in 2002.


I believe this text would serve many people well, even those without a medical background. Craniosacral Therapy might seem mysterious and difficult to understand when it’s first explained. However, the author has the ability to walk the reader gently around clinical terms and anatomy to provide a very clear visual of the practice. At the same time, she doesn't simplify it as such to eliminate its usefulness to those who utilize the jargon in their daily lives.

She has titled the book to indicate that she is working deeper than the physical touch, to the depths of her heart. Her heart’s desire to assist in the healing of those who come to see her came through her words very clearly.

As mentioned previously, I have taken the training and found the practice very beneficial to the clients I saw over the next few years. It is amazing to see the profound results mirroring those described in this book. For myself, my life took a turn and I had not practiced on a client for the past several years. While reading Ms. MacKinnon’s very powerful work I came to the realization that I would greatly benefit from seeing a practitioner. Happily I acted on my inspiration and found someone close by. Within the next few days of my continued reading, I found the author’s instructions on how to find a practitioner exactly as the path I had just followed. She gives good instructions.

As I neared the end of the book, I again felt inspired, this time to start working on myself, an issue with my ankle.  As I worked on the area, I followed the energy as she shared and determined my issue to be connected with a hip problem; subsequently the resultant memory of a fall came to me. Alas, Ms. MacKinnon must have been reading my mind as she next described the process to work on oneself.

Again and again throughout the book as an issue or question came to my mind, the text seemed to follow my thinking and I would find the answer promptly in the next few paragraphs.

I guess you can understand why I so highly recommend this book. It’s a treasure and gratefully it was a free gift to me for writing this review. I was not compensated for the review and was under no obligation to write anything but the truth.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Coloma Community Garden Project

First Congregational UCC - Coloma, MI












Let’s Get Growing

Quoted from First Congregational UCC, Coloma

Blessing Our Community Garden
April 21, 2013
God bless this garden through which your glory shines 
May we see in its beauty the wonder of your love
God bless the soil rich and teeming with life
May we see in its fertility the promise of new creation 
God bless our toil as we dig deep to turn the soil 
May we see in our labor your call to be good stewards
God bless each seed that takes root and grows 
May we see in their flourishing the hope of transformation 
God bless the rains that water our efforts to bring forth life 
May we see in their constancy God’s faithful care 
God bless the harvest abundant and bountiful in season 
May we see in God’s generosity our need to share 
God bless this garden as you bless all creation with your love 
May we see in its glory your awesome majesty
 Amen

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

E-Squared


E-Squared by Pam Grout proclaims to have “nine do-it-yourself energy experiments that prove your thoughts create your reality” and she delivers! Her use of imagery in examples was excellent. I love the humor and the convenience of the appropriately named, space heater example. She tells of spending a cold night in a strange place, huddled under blankets only to awaken in the morning to find a space heater right next to the bed. All she needed to do was flip the switch… but she didn't know it was there. This was to emphasize her point, that her lack of awareness and consequential lack in that situation is much like those of us who struggle with need and desire, unaware of the energy field surrounding us, ready to respond if we will simply flip the switch.

While I didn't need more proof than I already had of the validity of her claim, I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by the extremely easy experiments and the quick responses. My favorite was the first, the “Dude Abides Principle”.  The hypothesis was written to provide evidence of the energy force available to us. The author asks us to simply ask for a blessing within 48 hours as evidence of its reality.

The next 48 hours brought several blessings to me, all could have been discarded as coincidences (if you believe in those) but the one that provided a slice of humorous, concrete evidence was the shim.

Soon after starting the experiment a thought crossed my mind, “I need a shim”. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, it’s commonly used in carpentry. According to the Free Dictionary, a shim is “a thin, often tapered piece of material, such as wood, stone, or metal, used to fill gaps, make something level, or adjust something to fit properly.” Since I’m not a carpenter it’s not something that I make reference to very often, although I have a few scattered around my house.  

That afternoon I left to visit a friend in a neighboring city and planned to spend the weekend. She had a few visitors in the next day for a brunch and as we were sitting discussing a myriad of topics, she turned to me and asked, “Do you need a shim?” At that she opened her hand revealing two teeny plastic shims with a hole in the fat end. They were more of a novelty item since they could be hung on a key chain. I very nearly fell out of my chair. I had not participated in more than the one single thought of needing a shim. I never wrote it on a shopping list nor mentioned it to a living soul. It was a single, isolated thought and the resultant provision was immediate and clear. Needless to say, the shim hangs on my key chain as a constant reminder of the power of a single thought.

Pam’s book is filled with experiments like this which all produced positive results for me. Her writing was clear and entertaining. She referenced leaders in the field who profess to believe in the power of our thoughts and how they create our reality, all favorites in my book. From TheCourse in Miracles to Dr. Masaru Emoto’s Water Crystals in What theBleep!? - Down the Rabbit Hole, she brought them all together.

I heartily recommend this book as a physical confirmation and reminder if you are a believer in the power of our thoughts on the energy field surrounding us.  I beg of you to read this book and perform these experiments as evidence of the unseen, if you are one who doubts its existence,