Lately when I get ready to write one of these messages it seems as if there’s nothing going on except the Farm. Yet I know that’s not true. What I realize is that the Farm is such a big part of life here in Sequim that, for me, it tends to eclipse all else happening in Practice. In fact, there’s quite a lot else going on in practice.
February isn’t quite over and we’ve gotten a good start on the Beginner’s Mind retreat, finished an email class, opened registration for the Yearlong retreat, kept up with all the usual programs and farmed.
Apparently, it was obvious to a number of folks that I really enjoyed the email class. It is true that I enjoy all of them, but I thought the format of this one was particularly good. Because the question was straightforward—where are you stuck in practice?—and folks had up to a hundred words to frame their answer, it felt as if we could dig into some deep aspects of life and practice. The other thing that I thought worked was having only eight responses come out a day. People reported that they could keep up with the responses rather than having that slowly-buried-have-to-give-up feeling that can come with a daily avalanche of pages hitting the inbox.
To me, it's such a unique opportunity to be privy to so many people speaking to the same simple question. I don’t think we have to be particularly egocentric to fall into an assumption that other people, at least some other people, will have the same response as our self when asked the same question. What we got to find out is that while there are some similarities, a lot of other people are giving very different answers than we’ve given, and yet, we can each relate to what everyone says.
One aspect in particular that makes the process so intimate and at the same time so safe is the Privileged Environment. No one knows who’s saying what. There’s none of the distraction that would come with reading something while simultaneously considering what we know/think about the person writing it. We don’t know. Could be anybody. There’s none of the “Huh, I wouldn’t have thought s/he would have said something like that,” or “Gosh, I would think s/he would be way past that after so many years of practice.” None of that. We all just get to be exactly where and how we are—anonymously! To me, it’s one of the very best parts of our particular practice.
Over the years that Privileged Environment has kept a lot of people out of this practice. People who want to do practice and want that practice also to be social don’t last long. That’s fine. There are lots of places for folks to be social, including places that offer both. But for the folks who don’t want to have to be social, don’t want to need to be a personality, those folks love the Privileged Environment. We’re the place for people who want to practice in every aspect of our life, but don’t want our practice to be like all the other aspects of our life.
I don’t know if it was anyone else’s experience, but one practice “tool” that seemed to come to the fore in this class was “standing up.” There was the reminder that we do not need to assume the position of second-class citizen in a relationship with egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate. It’s often assumed, with no evidence to back it up, that ego-I, those voices in the head that act as if they’re divinity or at least royalty, can take over our life, push us around, say hateful things to us and we must simply acquiesce. Why? I don’t know. Fear that if we don’t do and feel as they say, they’ll do something worse to us?
Doesn’t have to be that way. We can say no. We can use what the voices say to learn what their game is and then use what we learn to move past them. They tell us clearly what we need to transcend. And we can take advantage. Once we catch on to their schtick, we can refuse to give them attention. We hear them start with the same old same old and we redirect attention to what we choose. (Unconditional Love is always a good choice!)
Speaking of Unconditional Love, let me tell you a little about the Farm.
This is the week we pick up the 400 tiny new trees: 100 red alders; 100 western red cedar; 100 western hemlock; and 100 Douglas fir. Brian has been working closely with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to come up with a plan for the Farm that can include all we hope for with reforestation, habitat, and a market garden.
Those 400 trees will need 400 cozy spots to grow in. Hard to imagine “cozy” with that much snow, but it’s melting quickly and we’re hopeful for a few days of dry and warmer.
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| Brian and Bob prepping homes for the tiny trees |
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| Once in the ground each tree will get tucked in with a bit of compost, some mole dirt, and a blanket of straw for warmth. I have become such a fan of moles. Truly, they are some of a gardener’s or farmer’s best friends. They never disturb a plant, but create mounds of the most beautifully textured soil to go in a planting mix. Fortunately, they’re very busy and hard working. |  |
We gather it and, in this case, load it into large tubs in the back of Rosie to be taken out to the planting area.
The last step is to give each of the little trees a “dress” of chicken wire to protect them from deer who would happily munch the tiny tops. Ordinarily, these would probably be called cages, but that doesn’t have the same “we’re so glad you’re here with us” feel as does “getting dressed.” As you’ve no doubt calculated, we need 400 of those as well.
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| A dressmaking operation | Finished dresses being stacked |
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And if that weren’t enough happiness for one farm, we’ve been blessed with the return of Kevin and Martha and what we can only guess are their grown children. Last year they settled in the pond and started their family, and after their abrupt departure we wondered if we’d ever see them again. Here they are! |
If you’d like to see all the rest of the Farm activity, please stop by The Farm Channel.
The eighth raised bed has been completed from dirt clods dug up for drainage and hauled by a sled dubbed “Clodia” across the fields. Our neighbors loaned us a converted cement mixer that can sift compost into the fine bits needed to go into a “potting” mixture. (We call her Tina Turner.) The greenhouse is fairly bursting its seams with propagated tree starts and herbs. Blocks are being made to contain the hundreds of lettuce and tomato starts that will need to go into the ground in a shockingly short period of time. 
Tina Turner in Action
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Clodia in action
I tend to talk about all of this as fun. Which it is. But it’s so much more than that. It’s good. At a time when there’s much in the world that can feel hard and painful and discouraging, nurturing the land, caring for new life, just feels good in every sense of that word. And, it’s practice. It requires attention and commitment and caring and a strong willingness to do for the love of others what we won’t always do for our self.
It's good to get to participate in something that is nothing but good. This is just one of the things this Sangha is doing for a world that can use all the good we can give it. I know everyone is doing the very best they can to make a difference, and I hope you feel good about what you’re doing to help this particular bit of goodness thrive.
In Gasshō,
ch