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!

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.

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

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,  

A Field of Angels

The subtitle of this courageous little book, written by Lillie Leonardi, “A Memoir about Flight 93, A Field of Angels and My Spiritual Homecoming” grabbed me more than the title, “In the Shadow of a Badge”. I always like to hear stories about Angels.

Seven years after the horrific events of 9/11, the author discusses her meeting with a former FEMA representative, he suffering from an illness in his lungs, as a result of prolonged exposure to the toxic conditions of Ground Zero. In sharing stories he told her, “If what you saw at the site injured your heart and your mind then you, too, are one of the walking wounded. There is no standard as to who was hurt more.” The words ring true; we were all wounded on that day. How reassuring that the forces of good were present that day as the first responders and recovery workers began their arduous task, although it does appear that they did suffer more than the rest of us, whether from a resultant physical disability and death or the psychiatric issue of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

A reappearing aspect in Ms. Leonardi story is her questioning of a long-held belief that an inferior status as a woman created the pathway for her to suffer PTSD, rather more than the men she associated with in her department who did not develop and confront the symptoms that she did. Only when she begins to meet and share her story with fellow sufferers, combined with her dream work, does she find peace from the shame.

I was pleased to see the author’s willingness to look into alternative healing practices as her frustration at her stalemate with anxiety, flashbacks, emotional and physical pain continued. Years later, a former boss from the FBI suggests that she ask her doctors about a therapy known as Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). Somewhat disappointing to me was the fact that although she describes the process as helping more than just to process the traumatic events of 9/11, they also helped expand her spirituality; deeper understanding of her faith, cleared sludge from her mind’s clogged passageways and more clarity of insight. That was end of her discussion of the therapy.

I also wish the author had spent more time revealing details of the healing processes she used and additionally, would have loved to have seen the little grotto she created in her backyard. She tells of anxiously visiting home after being on-site for several days to reconnect with the love and nurturing she experiences with her daughter and granddaughter in their shared home. This first visit brought much work in the form of creating a healing space. The author tells of her commitment to prayer and meditation by arranging for a friend’s backhoe to dig a hole for a pond where she would place a statue of the Blessed Mother.

In summary, the book brought forth emotional responses from me at times and I was happy that the author had the faith and support from her family that sustained her. I do wish she would have spent more time discussing the healing processes but I don’t think that was to be the purpose of the book. Referring back to the title, I would assume the book was to be about the Angelic vision and again I felt not enough time was spent regarding that experience. I think the purpose that came through was the revelation that the forces of good and evil had met on that playing field and her ability to see them was pivotal in her ability to heal from the psychic wounding she experienced at that time.

This beautiful book was a gift from Hay House in exchange for a written review. No requirements of a positive nature were requested. Only honest criticism was asked of me.

Get your own copy: 

Sugar-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Walnuts

3 oz Butter melted

1 Banana

½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce

2 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1 cup raisins

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, Cloves – ½ tsp. each

1 cup chopped Walnuts

½ cup Almond Milk

1 cup Flour

2 cups Old-Fashioned Oats

Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt – ½ tsp. each

Mix first 8 Ingredients in medium bowl

Mix last 3 Ingredients very well in large bowl

Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and Blend. 

Place tablespoon sized chunks on cookie sheet.

350 degrees F     12 minutes