Happy Solstice

Happy Solstice!

Today we celebrate the first day of Winter, the shortest day of the year, followed by the longest night of the year. Tomorrow the light returns, so to speak, as the days begin to get longer.

It's a time to celebrate earth's cycles, which we are a part of. It's a time of rest and renewal and growth - in this long dark and stillness of winter, where the landscape sleeps.

What is the role and benefit of the long dark nights in our lives?

What blessing can it bring and how can it serve us?

Here is some food for thought, taken from "Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection" by Jessica Prentice:

"In "Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival", anthropologist T.S. Wiley puts forward a provocative hypothesis. She believes that the rise of degenerative diseases in industrialized countries (especially diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity) can be traced to the invention and widespread use of electricity. Her reasoning is that the use of electric lighting, televisions, and computers after the sun goes down (and our consequent ability to stay up later and sleep less) serves to keep our bodies in an artificial state of perpetual summer. This disrupts our natural hormonal functioning and deprives us of a period of semi-hibernation that our pre-agrarian and even many of our agrarian ancestors would have enjoyed: a winter season of long nights and lots of extra sleep.

Wiley believes that this is the cause of our cravings for sugars and carbohydrates. Our ice age hunter-gatherer ancestors would have had, for the most part, access to sugars and carbohydrates during the summer only, and would have lived on proteins and fats throughout the winter. Wiley claims that we crave sugar because our bodies think its summer all the time, and our bodies have evolved to use carbohydrates to store up energy for the long, sugarless winter--a winter that never really comes in our modern, electrically lit world."

Happy solstice friends. Enjoy the winter.

Everyone Needs a Garden

It’s garden dreaming season. The possibilities are endless and weeds are nil.

I believe everyone should have a garden to…
…provide for their family.
…provide for their pantry.
…experience successes and failures.
…learn new things.
…experience the awe and joy nature in the garden brings.
…build community.
…push boundaries.
…buck the system.
…taste garden fresh goodness.
…build purpose.
…take control of your own supply chain.
…see bees sleeping in flowers!

A garden is good for way more than food. From the fact that contact with dirt provides anti-depressant effects to that awe in the natural world it can inspire.

Right now is a time for dreaming. For visioning the garden for the new year ahead.

Each year is a grand experiment. One that may fail and disappoint, BUT there is always something good that blesses us, even in the worst years. One that may inspire and exceed expectation. It’s a joy and a blessing and sometimes a frustration, but I can’t imagine a year without the garden.

A garden can build resilience, self-sufficiency, confidence, community and so much more.

A garden can make you less reliant on the broken systems all around us.

It can improve your health - physical and mental.

Grow a garden. Whether it’s just a couple tomatoes, some herbs, or everything under the sun.

You may kill things. I do. I have. You may not plant something, you may plant less, or more, but just do.

Watch the self talk - no “I can’t.” Try “I’m still learning to…”

Build resilience.
Build skills.
Build yourself and your loved ones up. And ask if you need help!

Cheers to the gardens to come.

A Little Discomfort

 

“December’s wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer’s memory…” – John Geddes

And delighting in its own beauty. Sunrise on clean white snow. Sparkling snow from the light of dawn and dusk. Fluffs of snow atop dead grasses and flower heads. Tracks of rabbits and birds creating wonder in the snow.

We’ve come into the new season, ready or not, and there is beauty to be found everywhere. Easier on the days without blustery winds and freezing sleet, but hardship makes us feel alive. Human.

Change in seasons helps us traverse our own changes, helps us transition and pause and reflect.

I’ve often wondered what’s it’s like to farm in warm climates with no winter. I think I’d hate it (I especially thought this when doing veggies, the fruit trees would still have their cycles). I like the transition, the slow down, the change of tasks and rhythm. Animal chores would certainly be easier, but one needs a break at some point, from weeding the garden and canning tomatoes.

Winter is to be enjoyed for what it is, part of the lovely cycle we are only just a small part of. This may mean enjoying the skiing, snowshoeing, tucking in and reading more, baking, or whatever your winter vibes are. Step out and enjoy the hush snow brings. Notice the change in birds and their migrations. Feed the birds.

Being a little cold and facing the adversity of the season is good for us. A life of ease and consistent comfort is not what we were built for. We need a little discomfort to keep us in our human skin.

Just like getting sick takes us out of our place of comfort and ease, we are challenged and come out stronger - immune system more robust - for the challenge we have been through. We don’t grow without challenge. Whether that is taking on a new task or hobby, like fixing something or baking bread, or facing a stronger adversity, like sickness or loss.

Push back against the life of ease for a life of purpose. Learn to enjoy the challenge, see how it helps you grow. Let yourself feel the cold and how that makes you feel stronger and alive.