Sunday Story...Good Things

Sunday Story…Good Things

Come to those who wait. Delayed gratification is a skill and virtue over looked in our modern world. We are so conditioned to getting everything right now that when we have to wait, or worse yet we have to plan to wait that the idea is as foreign as eating insects.

I get my email (which is immediate) on my cell phone which is even more immediate. I get messages on my phone and the phone tells me right now. I no longer have to wait to get home and check the “answering machine”. If I want a cherry pie at 2AM in January I am probably only 10 or 20 minutes away from one. Strawberries in February? Mangoes and bananas so far from the tropics? We are conditioned to want things and conditioned to get them now.

It wasn’t always this way. It used to be we ate the food that was in season. If asparagus wasn’t being picked nearby we weren’t getting any and certainly not out of season. If we wanted to buy something we saved the money for it…we didn’t buy it today and pay for it tomorrow.

The smell of garlic cooking permeated my house last night. The tomatoes were roasting in the oven with copious amounts of garlic, basil, zucchini and eggplant. All the ingredients (except the garlic) had been harvested from the garden in the back yard. There will be so much that the freezer will be accepting some and next spring we will celebrate our 4th fundraiser by enjoying it with our friends and loved ones.

This meal was nearly 3 years in the making. Not literally but metaphorically. Some 3 years ago the germination of an idea began. The idea that we could grow food in a back yard and have enough to feed lots of people maybe even a community. When I moved into the house the back yard was non-existent. Weeds, weeds and more weeds, a non-functional watering system 10+ years old and a broken down fence. It was a blank slate waiting for a vision.

The vision was simple…a community garden run by the people who would benefit from it. No government interference, no strange rules governing the who, what, where and when, just people who saw the vision, aligned with the vision and were willing to work to see the vision come to life.
Frankly it hasn’t happened quite that way. The vision was to have people who are “food insecure” learn how to grow food in the garden and take that knowledge with them as well as fresh produce they helped to produce. They would begin to understand the concept of reaping what you sow, planning for the future, and setting goals and working toward them in small incremental steps. Has not come to pass.

But what has come to pass is pretty cool. The vision has modified and shifted somewhat and has become what may be a more workable model, at least for me. What has transpired is a small community of people…a core of 4 or 5, a number of other willing volunteers (10 or 20), and a interested host of observers…have dedicated hours of labor in the heat and the cold, have donated money to pay for seeds, plants, water and supplies, and have built a 2800’ foot garden in the middle of a town. A garden where the gate is open to anyone. A garden that has produced over the last 3 years almost 2000 pounds of food. A garden that has donated almost all that food to community members without regard to need or participation. A garden that has given wheel barrows of food to the food pantry.

Here may be the most special part…it is a garden where over 2 dozen children have learned how to handle tools, how plants grow, how to appreciate bugs, bees, and spiders, where soil comes from, and the value of work for the sake of work. These kids have sweated, laughed, killed bugs, burnt stuff, figured out how things work and just generally got some lessons you can only get in a garden. They have inspired the people around them to try new things (okra, eggplant), plant their own gardens and be more connected to the earth. And yesterday they expressed gratitude for the bounty they took with them.

From this single garden at least 3 new gardens are here that were not around 2 years ago. From this single garden a group of children now understand that you have to plan things if you want stuff in the future. From this single garden the awareness of eating healthy, natural food is now in the front of over 100 people minds where before it was in the rear. From this single garden hundreds of people have gotten physical sustenance, emotional nurturing and spiritual inspiration.

We sow then we reap. It doesn’t work the other way around. When we find a vision, set a goal, make a plan, and take action, good things happen. Look at all the good that happened…was the original vision fulfilled? Not yet. But having the flexibility to go with the vision that was shifting and changing, staying in action and being open to what the universe was creating in the absence of rigidity and judgment allowed a huge shift, a massive transformation to take place.

The number of people who need to be thanked for seeing the craziness through to this point is myriad. Each of you knows who you are. This amazing project could never have become real in the world without your freely given time, energy and money. I have so much gratitude for each of you and I have learned so much about this process in our work together that I am unable to express properly my gratitude. So I will just say, deeply, and with appreciation:
THANK YOU.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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