tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12882303318603088182024-03-19T06:43:34.446-04:00Four Truths Homestead: Plants, Peace, Ritual, Purpose 園Buddhism, veganic gardening, compassion, and the vegan life calls all to deepen our relationships with Mother Earth and each other. Live sustainably, authentically, and lightly on the Earth. Manifest compassion for all sentient beings. Love, forgive, and experience life as sacred.Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comBlogger957125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-66981103159482979362019-10-04T12:14:00.000-04:002019-10-04T12:14:53.045-04:00Song for Samhain<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m moving plants indoors and preparing them for
winter in the house. The mango tree is in a south-facing window and under a
grow light. Last year’s hippeastrum (amaryllis) bulbs were pulled out of cold
storage yesterday in preparation for Christmas blooms. I’ll carefully peel off the dead material
and pot them up. Winter project: I’m water-propagating gorgeous sansevieria
trifasciata, <span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">orange
kalanchoe, pink sedum, hoya carnosa, and other favorites. I bought a big monstera
deliciosa for the indoor jungle, and it’s my new obsession.</span><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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food gardens are done save for one tomato plant that’s still producing beautiful
German Pinks. I’m giving some away to friends who are thrilled to have fresh
garden tomatoes in October. I’ve been collecting sunflower, zinnia, and rosa
rugosa seeds from the gardens for next year’s flowers. We’ve been getting the
grounds ready for winter. Hummingbird feeders have been taken down and cleaned.
Bird feeders will go up in a couple of weeks. My husband prepped and scrubbed
the fireplace. Leaves are dreaming now. Winter is moving in.</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Shaanti
xo</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-80356748541466269032019-08-22T14:49:00.001-04:002019-08-25T09:51:54.560-04:00Summer's End<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOesPG4sBCIQuAdARphuOYk5K0HodDTrO5XEH4fJnporLVlapyBoVO9w4Dz27SFHHIkb6whJaWti2WwWVKUCZFheSllqyfkR2fUR2vBRPE8sExM1ICj45zNZ2mCiZJ-OmCt93rlts8ow/s1600/gettyimages-5691928351-800x533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOesPG4sBCIQuAdARphuOYk5K0HodDTrO5XEH4fJnporLVlapyBoVO9w4Dz27SFHHIkb6whJaWti2WwWVKUCZFheSllqyfkR2fUR2vBRPE8sExM1ICj45zNZ2mCiZJ-OmCt93rlts8ow/s320/gettyimages-5691928351-800x533.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Welcome to the last act of summer. The tomato plants
are showing their age, and cucumber production has slowed. Basil from
a second planting in July is going strong but will flower soon, and that will
be that. We’re still getting great pole beans, and there are lots of squash
blossoms on summer squash plants that were part of a second planting last
month. Black bears got our corn again this season. We have tons of sunflowers
and zinnias, hot peppers, arugula, ginger, and herbs. I jarred up tomato sauce
this week. And our peach trees are giving us big, sweet peaches – the best
we’ve had so far. Today, I picked up a large bag of hyacinth bulbs for winter
indoor forcing. They’ll go into the fridge for 14-16 weeks to sleep. Then, when
the snow flies, I’ll pull them out and pot them up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Summer reading has focused mostly on astrology, which I now
know is far too broad and deep a subject to self-teach. So, I’ve contacted two
respected entities in the state: the Astrological Society of Connecticut, and
the Academy of AstroPsychology, headquartered in Haddam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While there are no astrology degree programs in the U.S.,
ASC and the academy offer in-depth studies in astrology and astropsychology, respectively. Astropsychology is a hybrid astrology/psychology discipline that
explores ideas like personality theory and uses diagnostic tools like birth
charts to explain human behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My husband and I have been on the boat a lot and out of the
house, and I haven’t been doing much creative cooking except for Kenyan fare,
which we both like. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As deeply as I love the ocean, I’ve been talking to my
husband about the possibility of living at least a few years in the
Colorado/Utah/Nevada area. Truth is, all my life I’ve felt torn between life on
the water or life as a mountain girl. Both possibilities bring me joy. Lately,
I’ve been feeling the mountains calling. Ideally, we would settle in an area
that offers water as well as high altitudes, like Tahoe. Skiing in July in
short sleeves? Yes, please. But the man isn’t feeling it like I am, so I think
when we leave Connecticut, we’ll be making a beeline to the ocean. I can be at
peace with that. It’s hard to beat the tide rolling in at your feet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We have nine days until September. The days are just
sprinting past us. Soon, I’ll be keeping a kettle of tea warm all day to chase
away chills. The awesome freedom of bare feet and few clothes will be exchanged
for boots and layers. And the nights will become long and dark. I’m not going
to bum myself out about it. We’ll find ways to be of service through winter;
and being of service brings the greatest peace. Love the pitcher less and the
water more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-49196063015573650222019-07-09T12:22:00.000-04:002019-07-09T12:22:52.057-04:00Summer Harmony<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6msEW0Nm3L_H351s2-idZ7o7nZI_WwFrpcNK5Rp53a5wnqMXTl-6YzVVxzjNojH1wWaxTpB2M0X_lpwrvx2COVL09E4AMbdyhy6ClyA0O2dVkMpzroEelMqorX4GMIiaJbUPqlV1-FD0/s1600/Was-the-buddha-really-an-atheist.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6msEW0Nm3L_H351s2-idZ7o7nZI_WwFrpcNK5Rp53a5wnqMXTl-6YzVVxzjNojH1wWaxTpB2M0X_lpwrvx2COVL09E4AMbdyhy6ClyA0O2dVkMpzroEelMqorX4GMIiaJbUPqlV1-FD0/s320/Was-the-buddha-really-an-atheist.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We had a beautiful Fourth of July weekend on the boat. Our
first view of fireworks from the deck of the boat was amazing. A few nights on
the water and four days exploring Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island
waters, islands, and restaurants was just as good as a plane ticket if not
better, and cost very little in comparison. We’re grateful and renewed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Coming back home, we found that the food gardens had
started giving in our absence. Big summer squash were ready to pick, so we
grabbed five and grilled them with fresh mango, garden mint, pink salt, and
pepper. My husband had a side of beef and I made ugali, my latest obsession.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve been making Kenyan foods all summer. There’s a wonderful
variety of plant-based foods in Kenyan cuisine. Ugali is a simple, soft
cornmeal bread mixed and steamed in a heavy pot. It’s fluffy and mild. It goes
with everything, especially greens and tomatoes, in a dish called sukuma wiki. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sukuma wiki is made in Africa using collard greens. I’ve
been using our young garden kale. Soon, we’ll have garden tomatoes for sukuma wiki.
Together with ugali and maybe some stewed beans and we have a yummy plant-based
meal that’s packed with minerals and plant protein. All good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s been a summer of blessings at the homestead. The
weather has been great. We built a hummingbird feeding station with three
feeders that is like hummingbird central every morning. We spend lots of time
on the water. Safe to say we’ll never fall out of love with the ocean. We
celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary in June with a day at Block Island watching
the Off Soundings Regatta and dinner at The Oar. My husband received an
important promotion at work, accompanied by a salary increase that makes our
lives a little bit nicer. When that happened, we decided on a way to pay it
forward and keep the good Karma flowing. I’ll tell you about that another time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My interest in astrology is deepening and with it, a renewed
interest in bioenergies and visual clairvoyance. When training as a Reiki Master
years ago, my teacher gave me a simple technique for viewing prana – the energy
that emits from all life. With a bit of disciplined practice, I learned to see
auras all day long. The book ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ guided me deeper into the
experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, I’d like to have a professional clairvoyant use Kirlian
photography to document my current aura and give me a reading. I found a place
nearby that offers both services and am scheduled to go. Typically, summer is
not a time that I turn inward. For whatever reason, I have, and so it’s a good
time for an aura image and a review of the findings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In August, I’m taking refuge at a weekend retreat at Dae
Yen Sa, a Korean Buddhist temple in Connecticut that I visited two summers ago
for a day of Ganhwa Seon. That day triggered a deep interest in the Buddhism of
cultures besides Tibet’s. Next month’s visit will widen my understanding of
Korean Buddhism and Seungsahn and I’m looking forward to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m aware of and thankful for the blessings that have come
our way. Summer 2019 has been about harmony and good vibes and opportunities to
expand our consciousness while being of service to others. Keeping that good prana moving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-69084617053675235482019-06-13T14:47:00.001-04:002019-06-13T15:40:28.639-04:00A Film Recommendation: The Yogis of Tibet<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaZxqnQiDfDthH55aRcGj7Uiuap8ZVLTTkGPFb3kELiwqWxKHbr3TnH9sAwW0NEIN5vcmU0j2hCykkN1vfp3NheSepF_5bpkyDOyCjjp71yMra4cgPkgDuzYlp7XsFAKiNgNis6OnpJg/s1600/61tKJx5fEJL._SL1087_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1087" data-original-width="748" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaZxqnQiDfDthH55aRcGj7Uiuap8ZVLTTkGPFb3kELiwqWxKHbr3TnH9sAwW0NEIN5vcmU0j2hCykkN1vfp3NheSepF_5bpkyDOyCjjp71yMra4cgPkgDuzYlp7XsFAKiNgNis6OnpJg/s320/61tKJx5fEJL._SL1087_.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Last night we watched the re-release of a great 2002
documentary called ‘The Yogis of Tibet’ and I want to commend it to you. This
is one of the great biopics out there right now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The film is a never-before-seen look at the lives
of the reclusive Buddhist yogis and yoginis of Tibet, a small group of ordained
men and women who go into seclusion, often for years at a time, in order to awaken
their minds through continuous meditation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They are a Sangha of advanced thinkers of the ancient Ngakpa
lineage of Tibet, some young and some very old, who apply meditation – the
Yogic science of the mind - to improve the inward and outward lives of all
sentient beings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This film also revisits Mao Zedong’s ruthless invasion of
Tibet beginning in 1950 with the People’s Liberation Army’s seizure of Chamdo. It’s
hard to grasp Tibet’s loss since that day 69 years ago. China’s
annexation led to a complete overthrow of the Tibetan government, the burning
of thousands of monasteries and the killings of tens of thousands of monks, and
the murder of more than one million Tibetans. Tibet was forcibly incorporated into the People’s Republic of China and historical Tibet was wiped off
the map. Today, there are more Chinese people in parts of Tibet than Tibetans.
And Buddhism was devastated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tibetan Buddhist monks are no strangers to war and
turbulence. But peace is their forever quest, and for a select few - the
ordained yogis and yoginis - extensive retreats of solitude and deep, deep
meditation are transformative. There they enter into the Dharma, training the
mind to always be at peace, until the Dharma lives within the yogi and the yogi
lives within the Dharma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We hear and watch brief interviews with yogis and
yoginis during and after their seclusion. They describe the emotional and moral
responses of their minds to constant meditation (some sit in asana non-stop,
even in sleep) and how, after many months or years, emerge with a profound
understanding of the true nature of all phenomena.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Western studies of the brain and body have affirmed the
effects of meditation. Many westerners, like myself, meditate regularly. But
we’re also surrounded by a world of virtually nonstop activity. The deepest
states of meditation are hard to reach while the monkey mind is encouraged to
chatter away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a lot to glean from this film besides the routines
of reclusive monks. Solitude – a diminishing aspect of all our lives – is soul
food, a chance to connect with our Buddha nature. Meditation is an undervalued
practice that brings peace to the mind and medicine to the world, and its value
can never be overestimated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The world is a dizzying place, pushing us further from our
true selves and our true purposes. This is tied to all the signs of diminishing
compassion within society, and the increase in divisions, borders, barriers, violence,
greed, anger, delusion, duality, and trauma. The yogis and yoginis of Tibet sit
in silence, striving for the benefit all sentient beings. This is socially
engaged Buddhism. It’s contemplation and action. Take a little more than an
hour from your schedule and watch this amazing film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-48732660690842811022019-06-07T12:25:00.004-04:002019-06-07T18:53:50.981-04:00The Coming Age of Aquarius<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIlrOEY0rghhZJHM2jLk1nfXUDsarmOrGhHObS9ND7LfhkCHCM2B5I6Me2lBOziwWpVwLgQSkdxg4JMCZLM3_6bCmtvZrOkXb3w1cYRgGNhLTb2T2f0AA1Ye8sQBJ6iXygdz-u2OLNtfs/s1600/Christ+in+Aquarius_iStock_000010300071Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="591" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIlrOEY0rghhZJHM2jLk1nfXUDsarmOrGhHObS9ND7LfhkCHCM2B5I6Me2lBOziwWpVwLgQSkdxg4JMCZLM3_6bCmtvZrOkXb3w1cYRgGNhLTb2T2f0AA1Ye8sQBJ6iXygdz-u2OLNtfs/s320/Christ+in+Aquarius_iStock_000010300071Small.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Talk lately about the coming paradigm shift – the
precession from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius, which is expected to
happen between 2020 and 2025 – has piqued my interest in astrology, a subject I
never took too seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With that, I’ve been reading the books and listening to the
podcasts of respected British astrologer Barbara Goldsmith. Her teachings on
the New Age and what it means for the global community are inspiring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Aquarius and the Aquarian influence is all about the new. Aquarius
is an air sign and represents movement and communication. Communication
– new media, mass communication, digital communication, mental connections –
are, for better or worse, what life is now all about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The zodiac transition is expected to happen when the vernal
equinox point (in the month of March) moves out of Pisces and into Aquarius. The
sun’s position will move in front of the next zodiac constellation – Aquarius.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With all this Aquarian energy coming in, changes are
predicted. Next year, the U.S. votes in the presidential election.
Many of us hope that malignant structures will fall to make way for a new wave.
Patterns will be interrupted. Boundaries and borders will expand rather than
tighten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I solemnly believe that this change in the sun’s position
is going to bring new connections for all of us. I see a world of interbeing
coming – humans connecting with the rhythms of animals, waking up from drugs
and programming, and taking our own power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Right now, we’re all getting shaken up from the outside –
fears of terrorism and tyrannical political leaders, genetic technologies,
concerns of privacy and autonomy, dangerous and scary climate shifts. It feels
like the weight of the New Age and the outcomes of the Industrial Age are
bearing down on everything that lives, including Mama Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Aquarian age – the air element – is poised to shake us
up on the inside. We’ll be doing deep mind work and connecting intimately.
We’ll feel free to embrace Mother Nature and let her soothe us. Sameness will
displace differences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Studies being done with Millennials and Gen Z show that
they are far more interested in community, giving, volunteering, living simply,
and connecting than my grasping generation ever was. I admire the millennial
generation. I love that they’re rejecting consumerism and competition. I
understand their anger and frustration with the world that’s been handed to
them. I see them as the first generation in a while to really wake up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The shift of the vernal equinox point sometime within the
next few years is the zodiac start of the new age, but the changes themselves
will only be propelled by us and the work we do. That applies to my generation
and those older than us – we don’t get a free ride on the backs of younger
people who were handed a world full of worry. We have to change and adapt and
contribute, take less, and give more. I’ve been looking to the heavens lately, anticipating
the coming of a new age, an Aquarian energy that is going to support a whole
new way of being. These are exciting times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-51517607958265520192019-06-04T15:25:00.005-04:002019-06-04T15:28:23.290-04:00Tree Prana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqd4bCCMEnkENw9Ogqvxqyy5Md5np71fDWskEwHMroEqgbf6KQ1dLH-kDLVreZ1xAaR-zmO1xNaZkcqA3hTpPMzSu-_E9atTSECmCY99IzuVMPDsaXeLPyVWTjxGpNtavisKSW1ppxqyM/s1600/ta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="616" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqd4bCCMEnkENw9Ogqvxqyy5Md5np71fDWskEwHMroEqgbf6KQ1dLH-kDLVreZ1xAaR-zmO1xNaZkcqA3hTpPMzSu-_E9atTSECmCY99IzuVMPDsaXeLPyVWTjxGpNtavisKSW1ppxqyM/s320/ta.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Todd and I will mark our seventh wedding anniversary in less than a
week. Last night, we walked though Granby and stopped to visit one of the
oldest trees in Connecticut – the Dewey-Granby Oak tree on Day Street. We
visited this noble tree on one of our earliest dates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Other than a small plaque, there is thankfully no big
fanfare or signage near the beautiful tree, so it can easily be passed by
without noticing much more than its regal size. This is a good thing. We humans
tend to ruin things once we discover them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Of course, I bear hug the Dewey-Granby tree every time we
stop there. Tree hugging is a typecast hippie pastime but let me assure you:
there is powerful prana in trees, and wrapping oneself around the trunk of a
tree like this one is potent plant medicine. I’ve had many amazing
communications with trees. I’ve always known their healing properties, and I’ve
protected and respected them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xf20Ig6OR_8HfnssluA7mWhGstHZnMRTLizeNVeqtuYlr4t7Q5UZzeEkDxBOp9pZkw4EGiu469LmuuW18R0TaXuLgObXzLXHCM9fuWPGu8PWIzywyrzhF6jailI6z9NbsbvCSnhi9ac/s1600/Dewey+Granby+Oak+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1440" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xf20Ig6OR_8HfnssluA7mWhGstHZnMRTLizeNVeqtuYlr4t7Q5UZzeEkDxBOp9pZkw4EGiu469LmuuW18R0TaXuLgObXzLXHCM9fuWPGu8PWIzywyrzhF6jailI6z9NbsbvCSnhi9ac/s320/Dewey+Granby+Oak+tree.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The biological behaviors of trees favor and minister to the
biological behaviors of humans, and there are reams of scientific data that
conclude that physical contact with trees improve emotional health and cognitive
abilities, alleviate depression, anxiety, and headaches, and improve
concentration and creativity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not going to start flinging references to all the data available
that supports the medicinal effects of contact with trees. Rather, what will totally
convince you is empirical experience. So, as soon as you’ve finished reading
this, give a tree – any tree - a long, loving hug. It doesn’t have to be the
glorious, ancient Dewey-Granby tree. Any tree of any size or variety will
restore you. Trust me. They’re magic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I hugged the tree closely, with wonder again at its
beauty and strength and all the things it’s seen through the centuries, I fell
in love once more with Mama Earth. All this glow and goodness is available to
me, to us, all the time, in spite of how we’ve ravaged precious Earth. But our
Mother keeps giving. She’s perfect ahimsa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-1290582485288294442019-05-31T12:34:00.001-04:002019-06-01T07:36:11.828-04:00Stirrings<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMT3fsrXfjFcVlW4wJp93HoamJ0vWc6XIQeBOdeLbF7E8QZAiAJUjq58042vSUf7I5L5l2MA80J_OrFHHviWN9eeOrOnyIe5tKk46ds16_NH1L3FwwY0m-G8o2yC9A-CfHMzSAxBGaFE/s1600/home-design.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMT3fsrXfjFcVlW4wJp93HoamJ0vWc6XIQeBOdeLbF7E8QZAiAJUjq58042vSUf7I5L5l2MA80J_OrFHHviWN9eeOrOnyIe5tKk46ds16_NH1L3FwwY0m-G8o2yC9A-CfHMzSAxBGaFE/s320/home-design.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">How about some good news for a change? Here you go: tomorrow
is June 1, the first day of the best month of the year, the start of summer, the
welcoming ocean, the time of food gardening, going barefoot, brewing sun tea, eating
fresh food, dressing lightly, dancing in the light, staying up late, day trips,
roses, dogs, and healing love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The food gardens are all in. We settled on three varieties
of heirloom tomatoes, long cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash, Japanese
watermelon, pole beans, corn, lettuces, arugula, kale, and Italian parsley.
There are tiny peaches on the peach trees and the raspberry bushes are full and
strong. We have pots of young basil, dill, more parsley, Tulsi, lemon verbena,
lemongrass, and a pot of cherry tomatoes near the kitchen door for morning
munching. We have window boxes of purple sage and German thyme. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I planted fat rows of Italian sunflowers and tall zinnias (‘a
For di Dalia’ and ‘Cactus Multicolor’, both Italian varieties). There are never
too many flowers for summer bouquets. I placed established plants of white
poppies in the front flower bed, where black-eyed Susans have naturalized and
are spread far and wide. The pink beach rose we bought at Martha’s Vineyard four
years ago has reached full maturity and is already covered in roses. In the
same flower bed is lavender, chives in bloom, purple clematis, budding pink and
white peonies, lemon balm, lavender, coreopsis, columbine, yellow lilies (a
gift from a neighbor’s garden), blue hydrangea, and purple monkshood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Potted at the side of the house is a giant Bird of
Paradise. At the front of the house in another large pot is a mature aloe and a
big bowl of white impatiens. A large macramé hanger at the front door cradles a
large pot of stonecrop. The Japanese pencil tree my husband gave me for my
birthday was planted near the front door, surrounded with hosta. The rain barrel
has been cleaned and prepped and set up at the side of the house, under a
gutter, where it will catch rainwater all summer. It’s already full.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now we settle back and water when needed and fertilize
sparingly. I picked up a large bottle of seaweed emulsion for the veggies. Mixed
with rainwater, it makes a powerful and chemical-free, all natural and organic
feed for hungry food plants. I plan to fertilize less often this year to encourage
more food production and less green growth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It happened as if overnight, this transition from winter to
summer. Everything is green and growing strong. Life has retuned full bore, an
event that never fails to amaze me. By July – only a month away – we’ll be
harvesting berries and vegetables and eating fresh garden greens and picking
flowers for bouquets for us and friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s always that first moment each season when
everything garden-wise is in place, the scent of loam is on the breeze, the sun
is warm and the air takes on its June color, when I stop for a moment and
virtually fall to my knees in gratitude for it all. That moment came this morning.
I went to straighten a tomato cage around one of our young plants when a
hummingbird zipped by my head on its way to our feeder, and I could hear baby
sparrows calling from the birdhouse nearby. I realized that everything around
me was reaching for the sun, just like me. Rebirth is happening everywhere.
There’s nothing but good vibes and new life and promise,and healing plant
medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And awakenings have been happening in my personal journey
too. There’s far too much to write here, but the recent months have been as
transformative as the changes of season. I’ve taken new ideas on board with me,
and offboarded others. I’m finding the greatest joy in accepting what is,
rather than striving for attainment and change. And just when I think I’ve
achieved the deepest level of love for and forgiveness toward others, I find
that there’s room for more forgiveness and compassion, and even greater joy to
come of that. I’m releasing more of this troublesome ego. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In thinking about end of life, I’ve been considering how my
death can be a lesson for myself and for others, and how I can approach the end
of this incarnation with the intention of ministering to those who will watch
me die, of easing their fears and bringing hope and even joy to their own experiences.
I’ve been planning how I’d like my body returned to Mama Earth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m changing how I consume social media. The Internet has
become the central pillar of our society, with corporations like Google and
Amazon as the gatekeepers of what we can see and hear. Human perception is being changed.
These forces specifically target the young – the adults of
tomorrow -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I see that smartphones
control us far more than we control them and that the line between organic and mechanized
consciousness is blurring. I'm wondering what role AI will play in the lives of babies
being born today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve been studying Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhism and
feeling drawn to the essence of these ancient practices. The Tibetan tradition
will always be my backbone, but there’s amazing beauty in the perceptions of
others, and I’ve been allowing myself to experience it all without concern. We
are all connected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We took the boat out to Block Island last weekend, the
first run of the season. When I mentioned to my husband that we’re approaching
our seventh wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks, he remarked that it feels
like we’re been together a lot longer than that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I only had to think about that
for a moment to realize he’s right. We found each other in the maelstrom after
lifetimes of painful connections. We both came from fragmented, troubled households and when we set out to find meaningful attachments, we invariably
chose the wrong partners – those as deeply damaged and unwilling to evolve as the
people who brought us into being. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When we found each other, we were both still feeling unsteady
from it all. The gift we’ve given each other in our marriage is the medicine of heart healing. We’ve released our pasts and the troubled people within them. The pain
has lifted. Through this learning journey, time has just fallen away, and it
feels that there’s never been any other life but the one we have now. Yes, I understood
exactly what he meant: time heals some wounds, but you may be sure that love heals them all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-28191500204441841732019-05-15T12:17:00.001-04:002019-05-15T12:17:06.665-04:00Transformation<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYfEZNUFBlz6FEvqu1wWTEBzNz_fqnQgKtaWM_BIsoMBair_YWbXHK8mnD6NGBgu90BBDTZ2c7KV1sQTdhrJ5MoJcgzH7HFTvq4Jl6IwdY-hziddNkD1lc2c-09b7cAKyHFZxth_fD7l4/s1600/Woo_and_Biz-238-1180x787.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="524" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYfEZNUFBlz6FEvqu1wWTEBzNz_fqnQgKtaWM_BIsoMBair_YWbXHK8mnD6NGBgu90BBDTZ2c7KV1sQTdhrJ5MoJcgzH7HFTvq4Jl6IwdY-hziddNkD1lc2c-09b7cAKyHFZxth_fD7l4/s320/Woo_and_Biz-238-1180x787.png" width="242" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">All the wonderful changes that happen on the homestead in
springtime are underway. We’ve planted the organic seedlings of heirloom tomatoes,
cucumbers, summer squash, and pole beans. This weekend, we’re planting
sunflower and zinnia seeds, and our own Asahi Miyako watermelon seedlings.
We’ll also be planting the greens beds. Greens are going in late this year, but
it’s been a cold and wet spring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The birdhouse has babies inside, and we hung the
hummingbird feeder, which the hummers found in about 30 minutes. They’ve been
buzzing back and forth non-stop. I use a glass feeder filled with a simple
sugar water I make by boiling distilled water and adding sugar – about a 1:1
ratio – and letting it cool. I keep extra in the fridge to refill when needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve stopped coconut milk kefir making and this weekend
will start making water kefir for the warmer months. I neglected last year’s
grains and they’re no longer viable, so I ordered a fresh set of organic grains
and as soon as they arrive, will begin with a batch of strawberry water kefir.
Kombucha making is also going into suspension until autumn. I have a half-gallon
jar of organic scobys if anyone’s interested in a freebie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are urns of herbs on the deck, and the potted Bird of
Paradise is outside at the front entrance. White impatiens are in a big blue
bowl next to it, alongside two urns of stonecrop. I bought and planted pink bee
balm and white poppies. We’ve placed three new rosebushes at the side of the
house. And for my birthday, my husband bought a Japanese Pencil Tree, which I
planted at the front of the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My husband is busy readying the boat. The plan is to have
it in the water in two weeks, in time for Memorial Day. Once it is, there will
be less time at home and more time on the ocean. So, the work right now is to
get everything in place so we’re free to do what we love – spend summer on the
water. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m so looking forward to munchies at Dead Eye Dick’s and
The Oar on Block Island, and sea turtle and dolphin spotting on the Sound. Our
slip is in Mystic, one of the lovliest oceanside towns in Connecticut. There’s
an art community in Mystic that I feel I’m going to get close to. Old Saybrook
and the Tibetan community that lives there is nearby. Gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But right now, there’s work to be done. Getting the food
gardens in place, donating cold-weather clothes (we’re always lightening our
load), clearing the house of winter vibes (sage burning mandatory), finding a
macramé tutor, and saving money for summer miracles. Priorities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-7037411707431387292019-05-09T12:21:00.001-04:002019-05-09T12:21:37.584-04:00Life is Returning to Us<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7m_T7HAzVGc7Of-vDXK3vXPrrRFPpgmQ2GTC07QzOhSwO7qAJ1XYRTvb4GBjI3vAwRfMBP7S9ueY8KyiS44TXL5tfdVKN4k2mU6mkYBm3vAi8N0NyQR-tph-XA8xW9hGSuGwttd2l1c/s1600/img.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="490" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7m_T7HAzVGc7Of-vDXK3vXPrrRFPpgmQ2GTC07QzOhSwO7qAJ1XYRTvb4GBjI3vAwRfMBP7S9ueY8KyiS44TXL5tfdVKN4k2mU6mkYBm3vAi8N0NyQR-tph-XA8xW9hGSuGwttd2l1c/s320/img.png" width="277" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The familiar light of longer days is here and trees and perennials are greening up. The air is soft, and the winds are like peace now. We're deep into spring, and quickly approaching summer. Life is returning to us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This weekend, we’re sowing the
veggie seeds, and this is the food we’ve decided to grow this year: lettuces,
kale, arugula, Italian parsley, three varieties of heirloom tomatoes, pole
beans, summer squash, cucumbers, and Japanese watermelon. This is a pared down version
of our usual schema, but my husband made a point and it’s a good one: we want
to grow what we need for summer and autumn food and give the rest of our time
and energy to the boat and the beautiful ocean. We’ll still have plenty to give
away and lots of ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Already potted are dill, rosemary, lavender, purple sage, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>German thyme, parsley (which we’re already
using in food) and even a tomato plant in a large pot – an experiment I’m doing
on getting mature tomatoes as early in the season as possible. Basil seedlings
are coming in strong. Soon they’ll be placed in the food gardens. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve already placed three new rose bushes in a sunny spot
at the front of our home. I added two large new Icelandic white poppy plants to
the front flower bed, tied up emerging clematis vines, pruned back beach roses,
and placed potted white impatiens at the front doorstep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our urns of stonecrop, now years old, are burgeoning with
healthy fat foliage. Stonecrop is an absolutely zero-maintenance cold-hardy succulent
that’s gorgeous and seriously strong. Pull the urns out into the sun in spring and
place them back in an outdoor nook for winter, protected from wind, and they
just come back bigger and better year after year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Orange, yellow, and purple pansies planted a month ago are
big and colorful now. They’ll be good until about June, when hot weather will
signal them to go to seed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The peach trees, which we pruned heavily last autumn, are
sending out leaves and there are tiny beginnings of flowers, which will become
peaches later in summer. The apple trees are getting alarmingly big and will
need a pruning in late autumn. Raspberry bushes are in their third year here
and getting immense. We had lots of raspberries last year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In flower and herb beds around the house, lilies,
columbine, lemon balm, mint, hydrangea, Hosta, Provence lavender, and peonies
are all up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Again this year, we’re planting a field of tall yellow,
orange, and red Italian sunflowers at the side of the house. This year,
however, we’re adding two varieties of colorful zinnia alongside them. You can’t
have too many cutting flowers in the house in summer. And friends love getting
surprise jars of fresh-cut garden blooms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m feeling the gardening vibe strong right now. It was a
long winter, and I missed the buzz of bees, the song of birds, the scent of
loam, the taste of garden food still warm from the sun, and the feel of Mama
Earth under my bare feet. I’m ready, body and soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This weekend will be the start of the food gardens. After
that, it’s all maintenance and luck and love. Let’s all be grateful for the
joy that’s coming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-39424082918412723412019-04-29T12:11:00.001-04:002019-04-29T12:11:04.153-04:00Buying Less, Living More<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcEauHD-QvQGYmedSi0LI7ZzMga3oWu-hGr4h1JXuavoIKglB5cBx5IHhhaow1oxm21iFHy-gJZxhHxQHSpbcppCbUq4VsJWnMomCs1PVOEWNt9pQDcRaI8Sr1zom7XlO6St-kaGdc8BA/s1600/shoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcEauHD-QvQGYmedSi0LI7ZzMga3oWu-hGr4h1JXuavoIKglB5cBx5IHhhaow1oxm21iFHy-gJZxhHxQHSpbcppCbUq4VsJWnMomCs1PVOEWNt9pQDcRaI8Sr1zom7XlO6St-kaGdc8BA/s320/shoes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I recently made a commitment to shop at local thrift shops for my spring and summer clothes and shoes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not a fan of retail shopping. I
always pick up unhappy vibes at stores, don't you? People are stressed. Prices are
silly high. I don’t want to support sweat shop enterprises and greedy entrepreneurship.
I don’t like the pressure of bending to fashion trends. I feel drained after spending time in a store or even a supermarket.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I also like keeping unwanted
clothing out of landfills and extending the life of perfectly usable clothes.
And I love freeing up money up for other things besides brand new clothes and shoes –
like travel or good food or time with my husband.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The best part of the thrift shops I choose is that they
benefit charities and non-profits instead of avaricious corporations. My
current favorite shop is a 10-minute walk from my house (love that I can get
there on foot), and all proceeds benefit our town food pantry, providing nourishment
and other provisions to those who can’t afford it. That’s a win for everyone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And
finally, trillions of gallons of water and billions of pounds of carbon dioxide
are saved each year though buying secondhand. Good for people and good for Mama
Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Banish any idea about secondhand clothing being unclean or
ugly. A lot of really well-heeled people in this part of Connecticut buy
beautiful and expensive clothing and footwear, wear it once or not at all, and then donate
it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And thrift shops are selective about
what they offer. You won’t find tattered or dirty clothes there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I wanted to share this past weekend’s thrift shop finds:
two Gaiam brand, like-new, crisscross back, super soft, flowy yoga tops – one
lavender and one gray –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for $1 a piece;
and a pair of brand-new, vegan, beautifully embroidered Chinese shoes made of
cloth and bamboo that fit me perfectly and cost $4.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the gardening front, we’ve been grappling with a cool,
rainy spring. My husband tilled the garden beds last week. They’ll rest and be
tilled again in about another week, and then we plant the greens beds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yesterday, I harvested the first chives from our chives
bed, added some to last night’s stir-fry, and made chive cream cheese for a
friend. We bought three new tea rose bushes that will go into the ground this weekend,
and I’ll start watermelon seeds, cucumber seeds, and squash seeds, all for
transplant in the garden after Mother’s Day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yesterday, I walked the gardens barefoot in the rain (take every opportunity to do some earthing) and cut
back dead wood from the garden perennials. Beach roses, hydrangea, lilies, Hosta,
columbine, and clematis are all putting out new, green growth. Red tulips, and
purple, pink, and white hyacinth are in bloom. There are tiny salmon-colored
blossoms on the peach trees. I have pots of lemon verbena, lemongrass, dill,
arugula, rosemary, Province lavender, and Italian parsley on the back deck.
Three pots of basil seedlings I started in the kitchen are spending the days
outdoors and nights in the house. In mid-May I’ll start Holy Basil and Thai
basil seedlings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the meantime, my husband is working regularly on the
boat, getting it ready for the 2019 season. Summer is getting closer and soon
we’ll be breathing in that good-ass summertime prana. Peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-77980239214241933002019-04-23T12:39:00.000-04:002019-04-26T06:41:10.701-04:00Puppies, Cruelty, and Karma<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I came home last night to find my husband yelling at the
television. He was watching the evening news and a story about a 55-year-old
woman in California who was caught on surveillance camera on a 95-degree day
tossing a plastic garbage bag containing a litter of 3-day-old puppies into a
dumpster. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My husband rewound the video, and I saw a woman pull up
behind a store in a white jeep, hop out with the bag, flip open the lid of a
dumpster, and fling the bag of puppies inside. She jumped back
in her jeep and drove away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was lucky for these puppies that a man saw this, was
curious about what the woman threw away, and found the sealed bag of puppies,
sill alive. With the intense heat and lack of air, they would have all quickly died.
The woman has since been identified and arrested.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My husband was shouting the usual questions: what kind of monster
would do this to innocent puppies? Where is the puppies’ mother, and what abuse
has she suffered besides having her babies, whom she loves, torn from her? How
can a person do this to animals? He was really upset. So was I.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As much as he was upset, he was also confused. The ‘why’ of
it all is what gets to him. It gets to everyone. This kind of cruelty is hard
to understand and hard to forgive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s hard for Buddhists too. The Buddha teaches us about Buddha nature – our true nature, the nature of our mind, the essential being.
Every sentient being, every being with mind and consciousness, has the
essential nature of Buddha. The qualities of Buddha are there. It’s the core
nature of all consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He also teaches that all sentient beings have the exact
same Buddha nature. There is no one being with more Buddha nature than another.
There is no difference of man or woman, races or colors, casts of
society, incasts or outcasts, in a flea, a dog, or a human. Buddha
nature is already present in everything. All of it is within us all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Buddha awakened his disciples to that most inner beauty,
perfect peace, infinite compassion, and omniscient wisdom. His disciples,
already imbued with Buddha nature, nonetheless had to be awakened to it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Their illusions of ego, of self – the baggage of mistakes
and projections and habitual thinking that were constructed artificially by
forces outside themselves, their ideas of time and space, beginnings and
endings, the abstract concepts of phenomena<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>– had to be identified and done away with before their Buddha nature was
realized. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They needed to be freed from those illusions before Buddha
nature could be activated. Until it’s realized, understood, and then made
present - until it’s initiated - we may have Buddha nature, but we are not
Buddhas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This gives us all the potential to become fully
enlightened, to put an end to suffering and the causes of suffering, to abide
in our Buddha nature, and even rejoice in the experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Buddha also teaches of great compassion. Compassion is the
ability to see clearly into the true nature of suffering, to recognize that we
are not separate from others’ suffering. Our true nature - our Buddha nature, the
eternal, changeless nature of mind, the timeless, changeless truth that is in
all of us - abides in compassion. And our deeds of compassion are indications
of our Buddha nature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The woman who threw the puppies away as garbage is blind to
her Buddha nature, to her potential for limitless love. She needs an entry
point, a place where she can connect with it. For whatever reason – whether she
is mentally ill, or has been abused, neglected, or thrown away herself like the
puppies she tossed in the dumpster – she abides in the delusion that the
puppies are separate from Buddha nature, and that she is separate from the
puppies, from the cruelty, and from the karma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is the work we are all called to do with no
exceptions. The Buddha left us with the task of teaching this truth to each
other, to activating the Buddhas in all of us. I was as horrified and angry as
my husband was at that news story. But it’s a call for us to reach out to each
other with the compassion of the Buddha and the truth of the Dharma. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We live in a very noxious world. I know it’s hard to feel
any compassion for the woman who left the puppies in the garbage
to die, to look into her and see the truth of her suffering. But moral outrage
is the enemy of compassion. Compassion has many faces and it’s essential. We
must aspire to compassion, and yet we can only know compassion at the level of
our consciousness. The conditions needed to activate compassion are conditions
that this woman has not realized, and it’s our task to bring this truth to her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Without compassion, the world will be paralyzed by fear and anger, and humanity
and all species will not survive. Compassion is the phenomenal strength that’s going
to save us all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-17497997155281614622019-04-17T12:08:00.003-04:002019-04-17T12:10:12.734-04:00Noble Silence<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVuA-58Njhz0Gt66BrfoL9JBEx82W8cAyJDLzYDBF-xjVEl74o3b3gnTg-QaEKbt7Fz5C1OSWIJHe_m3HavkIMJtpdpauZYENcD_kpfocHufuPf7ruwO4tGehFFQzD-YuZoVQ4vThUUW8/s1600/n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVuA-58Njhz0Gt66BrfoL9JBEx82W8cAyJDLzYDBF-xjVEl74o3b3gnTg-QaEKbt7Fz5C1OSWIJHe_m3HavkIMJtpdpauZYENcD_kpfocHufuPf7ruwO4tGehFFQzD-YuZoVQ4vThUUW8/s320/n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I took this photo at Chaung Yen Monastery last weekend, in Kuan
Yin Hall, where noble silence is practiced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The term ‘noble silence’ comes from the time of the Buddha, when
the Buddha would simply remain silent when asked questions that were irrelevant
or unanswerable. Buddhist monasteries have been practicing noble silence ever
since. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Silent retreats within any system of faith are common. In Zen
Buddhism, extended retreats of noble silence are<span style="background: white;">
known as<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> ‘</i><em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal;">Sesshin’. </span></em></span>Years
ago, as a practicing Catholic, I participated in a 3-day retreat in which
silence was strictly enforced.</span><em><span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Silence is healing, and Buddhists believe
essential for deep transformation. Silence will bring us back to our center. We
pay more attention to our breathing. We </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">conserve energy, rest the senses, <span style="background: white;">and realize that speech is often redundant and
tiresome.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Silence comes easily for me. As my beloved
husband has noted many times, I’m not a big talker. Being around people who
talk a lot, or who talk loudly, make me anxious and tired. Working in silence
is one of my favorite things to do. Possibly the only time I get excited about
talk is when there’s really positive dialogue happening, when the vibes are
good, the comradery is close, and stimulating ideas are being discussed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m planning a 24-hour day of noble silence here
at home soon.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Just an ordinary day free of the weight of speech. Does anyone
want to join me? We don’t have to be together to do it: we can do it with each
other, but remotely. Email me!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Barbie
xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-23225839012848882662019-04-16T14:43:00.000-04:002019-04-17T06:37:36.518-04:00Mindstuff<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Mc4u2N0eiQJwToRocNLcLXBVkozP4u4VaZphRUP7Xk2TFk0jGV0mt1oVpkJaxQNDCbDZYz6O2YxoTCpnrStlBw7oVldocNl5GcLJW4LRUK71qs0Up7ZoxLfTR1gSzzVXPWMan_yGuOM/s1600/MM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Mc4u2N0eiQJwToRocNLcLXBVkozP4u4VaZphRUP7Xk2TFk0jGV0mt1oVpkJaxQNDCbDZYz6O2YxoTCpnrStlBw7oVldocNl5GcLJW4LRUK71qs0Up7ZoxLfTR1gSzzVXPWMan_yGuOM/s1600/MM.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Someone had a question about yesterday’s blog post. I’ll do
my best to answer it. She wanted to know how someone can meditate,
eyes open, in a few minutes’ time, and actually have a legitimate meditative experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think the key to entering meditative states easily is to meditate a lot. Like any practice, frequency draws us closer to
perfection. I meditate in the morning for long periods of time, eyes closed, in
the still of a quiet house, with no interruptions. But I also meditate in the
middle of the day, by stealing away to a private space for a few minutes and
letting the mind be still. I meditate on airplanes, while waiting in line, as I
take a shower. Once, I saw a Buddhist monk meditating on a city bus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s nothing elite about any form of meditation. Even
the deepest tantric meditation is within everyone’s grasp. All we need is a
mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These minds of ours are so full of thinking. Most of our
thoughts seem really important. Things we have to work out, take care of, say to
someone, plan to do. Our minds are always engaged in looking for something,
solving equations, glancing back, and looking forward. Even in rest, the mind
is a whirlpool of thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We spend a lot of our mind energy trying to solve problems
that don’t actually exist. How easily we get caught up and totally absorbed in imagined
realities, illusory obstacles, stories we imagine about ourselves, and battles
we believe need fighting. Buddhists call this the ‘Monkey Mind’. The ceaseless
brain chattering. The incessant internal dialogue. Thoughts upon thoughts upon
thoughts that don’t stop until the release of our own deaths and the realization of non-duality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meditation is simply letting the mind become still. I say ‘letting’
and not ‘making’, because there is no way to force the mind to quiet. Virtually
all new meditators have tried it, and it doesn’t work. Meditation is just being
still and learning the skill of allowing the mind to pause, then noticing
what’s there when the mind is paused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With practice, this can happen in a 2-hour yoga sit or a two-minute
wait in line at the grocery store. When tension comes into the mind, stop and
pause. We can always just pause. Then, we touch something: a greater sense of
stillness, spaciousness, and clarity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Meditation is the end of the illusion of separation and the
recognition of the reality of oneness. When the whirling mindstuff ceases, the ego
contracts, the heart slows, and impressions of ‘you’ and ‘I’ drop away. It’s
a big release, like a long, exquisite exhale. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe the meditative state is our natural state of being. The rest is clutter. We can all, whoever we are, wherever we are, for hours or for moments, touch this
stillness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-41069612272798942802019-04-15T16:32:00.001-04:002019-04-15T19:34:09.342-04:00Well-Being<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHQ2Vt7UjZvdJyuxrfgVPQnZaZkp6NebOL16Jk3HJet-T8bCrOxDvKwHtgPgqGLt6WOshe1YlzFXkHusGLBaP-Y_0sFpR25pfn6bUZH5YAeqVsjxBghTivVU-T0MnSy8wMFucAt_2kbI/s1600/m3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHQ2Vt7UjZvdJyuxrfgVPQnZaZkp6NebOL16Jk3HJet-T8bCrOxDvKwHtgPgqGLt6WOshe1YlzFXkHusGLBaP-Y_0sFpR25pfn6bUZH5YAeqVsjxBghTivVU-T0MnSy8wMFucAt_2kbI/s320/m3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I just returned a couple of days ago from a day visit to a beautiful
Buddhist monastery. Chuang Yen Monastery is the eastern U.S. seat of Chinese (Han
Buddhism), under the auspices of the Buddhist Association of America, in rural Carmel,
N.Y.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I traveled there with a friend and didn’t have much time
alone, but I found time in Kuan Yin Hall to sit quietly and open-eye meditate
for a few minutes. I watched the monks come and go at the altars, changing
flowers and removing fruit offerings, making space for new. I noticed their
smooth, serene faces and gentle, determined eyes. They are silent with strong
presence. They are deep meditators who live simply but powerfully. Just walking
the monastery grounds with them was enriching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My brief meditation settled on the subject of happiness, or
well-being. My mind then traveled to love, which I realized in an instant is indistinguishable from well-being. I contemplated suffering and how many of us
suffer so needlessly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No one wakes up in the morning wishing to suffer all day.
Whatever we do, whatever we hope, whatever we dream, somehow, consciously or
not, in the short and long term, we have a deep and profound desire for
happiness. Happiness is not a secondary preoccupation of life. We seek
happiness all the time, wherever we go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But happiness and pleasure are not synonymous. Well-being
has nothing to do with what we own and little to do with what we experience. It’s
a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment, a state that underlies all emotional
states and all the joys and sorrows that come our way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But we compulsively look outside ourselves, to separate
conditions, to things we want, for well-being. This is a big mistake we make
again and again. If it’s a penthouse apartment we’re after, a place of luxury
and indulgence where we have absolutely everything we ever dreamed of having, rest
assured that eventually, the only thing we’ll be looking for is a window from
which to jump. We see a chocolate cake and have a first piece of it, and it’s
delicious. The second piece: not so delicious. With the third piece, we feel
disgust. The pleasure loses itself as we experience it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The happiest people I know are those who possess the least
outside of themselves. But their inner conditions are strong. In the most
difficult of circumstances, they manage to keep serenity, inner strength, inner
freedom, and sureness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So what state of mind is conducive to this kind of well-being?
I have no doubt that the path is simple meditation. I just learned that in
meditation labs at The University of California at Berkeley, meditators who
meditate on compassion or love under controlled conditions have brain activity
outside of the bell curve in the left frontal cortex, where thoughts of
kindness, selfless love, forgiveness, and compassion emanate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anger, arrogance, obsession, hatred, revenge, jealousy,
obsessive desire, and strong grasping are averse to well-being. The more that
these thoughts invade our minds, the more we feel miserable. But acts of
selfless generosity give us all a sense of deep connection with our inner
nature, a profound feeling of well-being. Have you ever done a random act of
kindness and felt euphoric afterward? That’s what I’m talking about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Is it possible to change our way of being to a state of
consistent well-being? Yes, when we understand the nature of mind, the mere
fact of being aware. Behind every single thought is pure awareness. The fabric
of this consciousness is lovingkindness. Let’s familiarize ourselves with the
pure awareness that lives behind every thought. We all have the potential for
happiness and deep love even in the most difficult of circumstances. It’s
low-hanging fruit, so let’s pick away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-15957382988810390272019-04-04T12:31:00.001-04:002019-04-05T18:43:11.478-04:00Taking Rest in a Restless Age<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6zmHUcrk3AwU3moym3jJvkWDVR8Hz5ZLDkcbJhe4-mKQcj-PGpjWZ1EKN1GKinNPMtiW_b3Pnzu4CP8NQNJ80yDQ6xMqd5EbkvPImOnGx-pTYPQzfzS9OJqZrTep_Ki5VmlwOJInN6uA/s1600/stonework-products-shaolin-buddha-on-elephant-details-monk-turquoise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6zmHUcrk3AwU3moym3jJvkWDVR8Hz5ZLDkcbJhe4-mKQcj-PGpjWZ1EKN1GKinNPMtiW_b3Pnzu4CP8NQNJ80yDQ6xMqd5EbkvPImOnGx-pTYPQzfzS9OJqZrTep_Ki5VmlwOJInN6uA/s320/stonework-products-shaolin-buddha-on-elephant-details-monk-turquoise.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Spring is here, brothers and sisters - at long last - and
we’re starting work at the homestead in preparation for the 2019 food gardens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Last weekend, my husband tilled the garden beds to bring up dormant weed seeds and let them germinate before tilling them under in a couple of weeks.
It’s a gentle, Earth-friendly way to keep weeds down. He raked away remnants of
autumn’s leaves and mowed the lawn, did some repairs to the deck, and cleaned out the shed. A nice surprise was that he also tidied up my
gardening area in the shed. All I have to do now is go in there and organize
for seed starting work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I got an early start on our favorite imported Italian flat-leaf parsley seeds, and last
weekend planted five flats of seeds, placing them all on a warm germination mat
in the kitchen. Parsley seeds need to be at a consistent minimum 72 degrees in order to
germinate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a pot of arugula on the deck, started from seed
about two weeks ago. I even bought a young rosemary plant last
week. It still has to come indoors at night. I’ve been poking through our
baskets of seeds, sorting out this year’s varieties. Next week, I’ll order Italian sunflower seeds. I hope to have banks of sunflowers again this year.
Everything is moving along as it should.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I had deep conversation with a friend last weekend, a
woman who spends much of her time worrying. She worries about how others
perceive her, about finding a husband and having a child before she believes it’s
too late, about people who don’t seem to like her, friends she’s lost, and even
the friends she has. She worries about her looks, health, finances; about meeting
work goals, job security, and getting old. She worries about being rejected,
unloved. She worries about the future a lot. She worries about things over
which she has no control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think she wanted advice, but I felt I didn’t have the
advice she wanted to hear. I decided to step off the ledge anyway and share
with her my thoughts on worry. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is possible to lift the burden of worry. </span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It takes deep inner work
and requires some letting go. Two things that many find hard to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not talking about being free from pain. There are
mountains of pain that nothing can move. Pain is going to come, of that we may
be sure. But worry is different: it’s like pain before the pain, or pain before
the pain that never actually happens. It's a fruitless burden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a lot to worry about on this mad planet. As if
there aren’t enough perceptible things close to us to worry about, we have the
daily news feed to give us even more: frightening events around the globe that
affect us psychically more than tangibly, things that gnaw at our minds and of
which we can do little to fix. Acts of terrorism, the murder of children, the
homeless, starvation and malnutrition, school shootings, emboldened racial bias,
animal cruelty, North Korea launching missiles like BB guns, climate change, and attacks
on basic humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Pile on top of all that the concerns of my good friend, who is restless and doesn’t sleep well at night because she’s getting older and her face is
changing and she wants a baby and she thinks no one loves her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All I could share with her were my experiences, which are
neither definitive nor implicit. These are the things I had to take on and let
go, so I could develop myself in such a way that it betters the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I told my friend two things: to stop eating animals, and to
meditate as much as possible every day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first was a no-brainer for me after I became completely
aware of not just the brutalization of animals so we can eat them, but also the
great and oppressive psychic burden that we carry when we eat the flesh and secretions
of animals that lived in pain and fear and died in terror. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When we consume the bodies of these animals, we take into
our bodies all the horror, anguish, and adrenaline of the animals who were
bred, orphaned, caged, tortured, and slaughtered so that they could land on our
plates. When we stop bringing this wretchedness into our bodies, a great
healing begins. Our minds begin to rest. Anxiety subsides. The subtle guilt about being part of the barbaric practice of killing and eating
other living creatures suddenly lifts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bottom line: ages ago, when early humans had restricted
access to food, who foraged for fruit and greens and nuts and even ate soil,
the ability to hunt and kill animals was needed if humans were to survive. But
we’re no longer living in early anthropological times - we have access to an array of foods that
are all plant-based and that meet all our nutritional needs. The necessity of
eating animals is long since over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a great relief involved in turning away from animals
as food. That freedom is waiting for us. Whether we fully realize it or not,
every time we eat the body of an animal, we cringe a little inside. All of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Daily meditation is the most powerful tool we have in
releasing ourselves from worry. Meditation is a tactile way of releasing the
concerns of self and ego and turning the attention to the macrocosm, to
the totality of everything, where worries of selfdom and identity disappear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Want to free yourself from worries about growing old, being
loved, or keeping your job? Meditate every day and you’ll discover, without a
doubt, that you are actually a part of an all-embracing macrocosm that is safe,
benevolent, beautiful, and vast. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Buddha described worry - kukkucca - as a form of attachment, as one of the five hindrances to enlightenment, and warned his disciples against it. He taught them ways to let go of the beliefs that keep worry going and prevent the heart from knowing deep rest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I told my friend that I believe that life is meant to be
lived joyously. There are things we have to do and things we have to let go of
to find the joy. These two practices – abstinence from using animals as food,
and daily meditation - are coextensive with inner peace. I have yet to meet
anyone who hasn’t been born again though them. It really is that profoundly
simple.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-14105426696653608072019-03-26T14:49:00.003-04:002019-03-26T21:07:35.995-04:00Truly There<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cjCyH0UOBVd4FtN1s15oKramu7IRI8KPcOckkX1A686Mf5AYMwJpqjoQ4I6nsCxTHNSLLeUedK4dn9qU5b8DB8XVhUB7MOnotR54I6qGbz2YWP1s6-5EOzDXOKYGKLNtQnHes7UmqnY/s1600/8119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="650" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6cjCyH0UOBVd4FtN1s15oKramu7IRI8KPcOckkX1A686Mf5AYMwJpqjoQ4I6nsCxTHNSLLeUedK4dn9qU5b8DB8XVhUB7MOnotR54I6qGbz2YWP1s6-5EOzDXOKYGKLNtQnHes7UmqnY/s320/8119.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At one of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Zen master Thích Nhát Hanh's </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dharma talks at Plum Village in Dordogne in southern
France, a little girl of about 7 years old asked this question:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I had a doggy and this doggy died. And I am very sad. So, I
don’t know how to be not so sad.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He answered this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“This is a very difficult question. Suppose you look into
the sky. You look up into the sky and see a beautiful cloud. And you like the
cloud so much. Then suddenly, the cloud is no longer there. And you think that
the cloud has passed away."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"Where is my beloved cloud now?," you ask.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"But if you have time to reflect,
to look, you see that the cloud has not died. It has not passed away. The cloud
has become rain. And when you look at the rain, you see your cloud. And when
you drink your tea, you can see the rain in your tea, and your cloud in your
tea. And you can say, “Hello, my cloud. I know you have not died. You are still
alive, in a new form."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"Doggy is the same. If you look very deeply, you will see
doggy, alive, in his new form.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-29294856189641405082019-03-25T14:39:00.002-04:002019-03-25T15:50:57.902-04:00Ahimsa Life<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcgkXDOMUwiScgy9bRp5Kynzh49zdP9vnxD9VbL9wELuxYlpdI_lzUBHWFZf4OeSWYRTYLF09pTfNApvaJG33BTszuR83BFyhePk05MTTdupvsWHAZd03FfKinnx5JAAAX5p9YkC0fkY/s1600/s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcgkXDOMUwiScgy9bRp5Kynzh49zdP9vnxD9VbL9wELuxYlpdI_lzUBHWFZf4OeSWYRTYLF09pTfNApvaJG33BTszuR83BFyhePk05MTTdupvsWHAZd03FfKinnx5JAAAX5p9YkC0fkY/s320/s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It won’t be long now before I stop or at least slow Foodstagramming
activities and start reporting on the progress of the food gardens, yay! Here’s
a couple of pics I posted on Instagram this week: we jarred up some amazing
homemade nam chim sate (Thai peanut sauce), and we’re making sprouts every week
to keep a steady supply of really fresh sprouts and microgreens on hand. This
is a jar of fresh broccoli sprouts that were sprinkled over the Thai peanut
noodles I made with the nam chim sate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today is March 25 and we are gearing up for spring at the
homestead. Yesterday, my husband cut a hole in the shrink wrap and climbed into
the boat to check things out. He was in there a long time and when I checked on
him he was sitting in the captain’s seat with his hands on the steering wheel,
dreaming of his first day of the season on the water. It was adorable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s still too chilly to go to the garden and do any clean
up, but this past weekend, I felt like the house needed an energy shift now
that it’s spring. I burned white sage, emptied and cleaned out the fridge, and
moved his nautical décor and my Balinese décor around. A change of scenery, and
of consciousness. I painted some walls that had been scuffed by the dogs.
Repotted some plants and moved a few to different locations. Threw open windows
and let the air in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In about two weeks, the garden beds will be tilled and the
greens seeds will be planted. We already have the seeds: Bionda Ortolani romaine
and Cavolo Nero kale will go in first. We’re going to move the compost bed
closer to the main house this year. After 6 years of traipsing to the wooded
area to compost we decided to be kinder to ourselves and relocate it right next
to the deck. Rather than moving all the compost we made this winter, we’re
going to spread it across the garden when we till. Family members are already
asking when the tomatoes go in. Not for a while yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve been reading Will Tuttle’s ‘The World Peace Diet’ and
loving it. Tuttle makes all the powerful ethical arguments in support of a
plant-based, non-violent, ahimsa life. The book is chock-full of factual
information and intelligent, informed arguments in defense of animals. These facts on animal consciousness are no longer arguable by science or philosophy:
if we’re willing to face reality, there’s no choice but to stop eating animals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tonight’s dinner is a homemade yellow dahl with our own
coconut milk yogurt. We’re eating lighter in the evenings now: it just feels
right after a long winter of overeating and eating too late in the day. This
summer is going to be an active one with lots of traveling. It’s good to get
used to a light stomach. It’s good to be free of the physical and metaphysical
burden of animal products in the belly. When folks ask me if I’m on a ‘vegan
diet’, I let them know that in my world, it’s called the ‘freedom diet’. Truth
is, I hate the word ‘diet’ altogether. Veganism is not a diet: it’s a way of
living. It’s so much more than what we eat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My next post will probably be about the first plantings in
the greens beds! You can’t possibly understand how happy I am about that. We
might get a rogue snowstorm still, but it’s looking a lot like spring wants to
settle in. I think the snow has gone away. This weekend, temperatures will be
in the 60s. We’re close.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Also, in case you didn’t know, I started a new blog. Check
it out at <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://strawberrypapaya.blogspot.com/">https:///strawberrypapaya.blogspot.com</a></span>.
Thoughts on purpose and meaning, our lineage to the Earth, sustainability, spiritual
practice, eating prana, social justice, joy, compassion, truth, and love. A mission
statement is in the description.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-4046166044603517692019-03-08T12:21:00.000-05:002019-03-08T12:21:01.024-05:00Multiplication<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIOQ9TI8LH6_4TUOBBGgFCnydaxxIaRtvnNyPJ2xJbvY0zVE7lDIbhtitV1Myl108nw2oYkRGfcKMW9qXtwFCe5yobb5DfiIIYl6cMeUKyLn-eWP3MU1CwiMw_0yIiMAMtHD9t8b5SMA/s1600/holy-heavens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="501" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIOQ9TI8LH6_4TUOBBGgFCnydaxxIaRtvnNyPJ2xJbvY0zVE7lDIbhtitV1Myl108nw2oYkRGfcKMW9qXtwFCe5yobb5DfiIIYl6cMeUKyLn-eWP3MU1CwiMw_0yIiMAMtHD9t8b5SMA/s320/holy-heavens.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This blog, Four Truths Homestead, is now 12 years old. It’s
a fact I can hardly believe. What started out as a master gardener’s online
diary focused on plant cultivation and earth stewardship seamlessly expanded
into a forum on Buddhism, nutrition, food cultivation, veganism, and
spirituality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I love keeping this blog alive. It feeds me, and hopefully,
ministers to others. Checking the blog’s stats this morning, I was amazed to
see that in its 12 years, more than 387,000 unspecified people (I have no way
of knowing who you are) have come to read these posts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now I’m widening my focus with the launch of a new blog,
Strawberry Papaya (strawberrypapaya.blogspot.com). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why ‘Strawberry Papaya’? I’ll answer that with a question.
Do you have at least one memory – a moment, an event, an impression, sight,
smell, taste, sound, word - that inscribed itself on your heart, a memory that
you can summon at any time and bring back all those good feels? I do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As a child, I liked summers best. I loved the ice cream
truck’s evening rounds, when our moms would give us money to buy something
sweet and cold. My favorite treat was a dreamy ice pop – a swirl of clear pink
and bright orange on a wooden stick. It was yummy and the colors captivated me.
There was something about that pink and orange swirl I adored, and that today,
brings back all the warm, cozy memories of summer with my young friends, my
family, and the whole community where I felt safe and free and loved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Traveling through the Caribbean right after high school, I
was introduced to new tropical fruits. One of them was the strawberry papaya. The
sweetest of all the papaya varieties, its flavor is an amalgam of fresh berries
and peaches, with a hint of butterscotch and vanilla. Heavenly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But it was its color that wooed me. When ripe, a strawberry
papaya has bright orange skin and pure pink flesh. The first time I ate one, on
the side of a roadway between Ocho Rios and Port Maria, every good, cheering reminiscence
of childhood returned. Strawberry papayas became my symbol of all things wonderful:
pink and orange, refreshing, soothing, nourishing, safe, sweet, and delicious. I
was young and strong, grateful and happy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Strawberry Papaya is going to reach for all those good things:
the moments of meaning, the journeys we’re on, being of service, the mysteries
before us, the things we stay alive for. Whole-hearted living. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Topics will include natural health, healing and forgiveness,
mystery and wonder, purpose and meaning, imagination, our lineage to the Earth,
transcending anger, shielding ourselves from toxicity, spiritual practice and
wellness, food choices, compassion, understanding, and love. I may share on subjects
like why you should let your hair grow, eat more fruit, grow from adversity, or
sleep on the floor instead of a bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have no interest in website traffic and ‘hits’; only that
what I share may be of service to others. I hope you’ll visit now and then and
add your thoughts. Tell me if I’m hitting the mark or missing it. Don’t be
afraid to disapprove. Don’t be afraid to love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie x<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-86142042197358258082019-02-22T12:22:00.001-05:002019-03-15T05:49:52.249-04:00Confessions of an Inner Peace Junkie<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8kNnD01XQVVf61sxqsYVqy6SmZJkLi3nEzAtpYacUVINuHV21V0n22Oc0EqlW8u312U_etMFsIM51tzs7SANtNS9MD1r1uxKpt3CF27lhlZpGQVcbtmsQYDyyen226TBDEFUPbNSJec/s1600/IP.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8kNnD01XQVVf61sxqsYVqy6SmZJkLi3nEzAtpYacUVINuHV21V0n22Oc0EqlW8u312U_etMFsIM51tzs7SANtNS9MD1r1uxKpt3CF27lhlZpGQVcbtmsQYDyyen226TBDEFUPbNSJec/s320/IP.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The last few weeks have been a little rough. I crashed my
new car, have a loved one who is very ill, and a mother who is suddenly
showing the signs of extreme old age. All at once these things happened, as
if a dark storm with my name on it moved in and floated in place too
long.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m no stranger to pain. With life comes loss, comes
hurt, comes worry, comes illness, comes death. I’ve grappled with it. My
family had little money early on, and we struggled. I grew up in a troubled household. My father was a
scary, angry, unpredictably violent man. Memories of my mother are of her just
running around terrified. Their strife resonated with us, their children, who
for years sought a semblance of equilibrium, a measure of sanity we could live
with. It was a tough start to life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yesterday, I read a news story about a puppy that was
tied to a tree, doused in gasoline, and set on fire. He died a few days later, anguishing
in pain. There is never a time when a story like this doesn’t torpedo me into
days or even weeks of sadness. For a spell, I lose hope in the human race. It feels like a
punch in the gut, an uppercut to the jaw, an amputation without the benefit of anesthesia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In 2007, I took refuge in the Buddha and started ngondro - the
preparatory practices or disciplines of Tibetan Buddhism. I knew my path as a Buddhist
was to be of service to others. I know what it’s like to feel absolutely
worthless. I have a hard time seeing others feeling the same way. Compassion buds
in the hearts of those who have known suffering. It seems like a strange comeback,
but it’s true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Suffering, as raw as it is, is transformative. The calamities,
as they happen, seem unfair. But the gifts of the universe often take the form
of something that looks really bad. And the collapse of our outward
circumstances, almost always and for almost everyone, also mean a collapse of
our inward identities, which is completely obliterating. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sickness, loss, failure, crashing cars,
watching our parents and loved ones age and finally die, burying our families – these things that are acutely measurable live in tandem with the immeasurable: love, consciousness, peace, courage, and compassion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But looking back on the hardships, I think that yes, I was
ready for all the losses. The emptiness is what I needed so something new could
come in, so that I could change my story through kindness. And with kindness comes
inner peace - it’s funny how that works - so that the next loss is a storm to be weathered with all the strength we have in us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is what I’ve learned on my journey: compassion in action and the willingness to bear the pain of
others is its own path to nirvana. The Buddha taught that the two most noble
qualities one can have are karuna (compassion) and prajna (discernment). Karuna
and prajna are compared to two wings working together to enable flight, or
two eyes working together to see deeply. We are called to act to alleviate suffering
wherever it appears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With that truth in hand, I
learned to cultivate inner peace. It wasn’t through meditation, yoga, Ayurveda, self-care, veneration of the
Buddha, or any kind of spiritual achievement. It was through service to others,
period. I don’t know how or why it works. All I know is that it’s embedded in
all of us. It’s the one and only true path to inner peace. It’s the formula
that works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-79698394448180125242019-02-08T13:40:00.005-05:002019-02-08T13:40:53.382-05:00Rambutan and Intuition<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYM9f9Lkh71e8KWckW2c_5rCmCC-xLxgbqSwzcA6jX5JXQz8pnMEl0fdIz1S4aVOWooAIcn1P1MzkXCqZUwSS5b4Wbg4ENHTcoi9a7ae2r1rHBLwlKIY_-K6kEWIlbzOqnpKOYojnVXmQ/s1600/Rambutan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="586" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYM9f9Lkh71e8KWckW2c_5rCmCC-xLxgbqSwzcA6jX5JXQz8pnMEl0fdIz1S4aVOWooAIcn1P1MzkXCqZUwSS5b4Wbg4ENHTcoi9a7ae2r1rHBLwlKIY_-K6kEWIlbzOqnpKOYojnVXmQ/s320/Rambutan.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I wouldn’t have believed that if I’d mentioned my love for
rambutan to my husband that he would remember it and even act on it, but he did
both this week. When I came home yesterday there was a bowl of green and red
rambutan in the kitchen. It was the best surprise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re having a winter of extremes, in fickle cycles of
bitterly cold to briefly spring like within days of each other. And lots of
rain. Rain and unpredictability has been keeping us indoors, and as is always
the case in February, I’m getting edgy. I need skin warm from the sun and pineapple
shave ice melting and dripping down my arm. I need to go earthing, and I’m
tired of the chore of dressing for cold weather each day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As time goes by, and Todd and I love and understand each
other more intuitively, talk is replaced by sensitivity and action. I don’t
complain to my husband about my winter woes. But he is smart and instinctual
enough to know when I could use some support. That bag of delicious rambutan, some
ripe and some not yet ripe, did the trick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I know he had to find the rambutan, which is not easy in
the middle of winter in New England. And it’s not inexpensive. Somehow, he
found it, bought it, and brought it home to a girl who really needed it. That’s
intuitive love. Pretty awesome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We bundled up and sat outside and peeled rambutan,
then ate the sour-sweet, soft white flesh of the fruit. Rambutan has pits that
look like almonds, and spiny skin that reminds me of something from outer space.
After we were done, I scattered the pits and skins over the compost pile.
There’s no growing rambutan in the northern hemisphere, but at least the waste
will nourish our food gardens come summer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Loving
intuitively involves understanding deeply others' flowing and growing and giving
them what they need to prosper. It means a bowl of surprise rambutan or dinner
or lovemaking or the benefit of the doubt or just space. I can still taste that
delicious fruit. It tasted like patience, intimacy, and gratitude. Best
rambutan I ever had.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-17388783662179085402019-02-05T12:18:00.001-05:002019-02-06T12:05:36.279-05:00Arugula Microgreens, Vegan Action, and Ordinary Mindfulness<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0iWTxlCswy7zTkTCxsoCaK5RZ6rkNsED0eFLm0z8zXrdWDvBJ67_gNxgYc8GzG5iBrQoKClCaRik7KCLJlYcc7jWPSX94TwS6eBQxWYl8u5tKiPg-HjzmaSk6yXy4oPqcpI0anhJObw4/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1569" data-original-width="1600" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0iWTxlCswy7zTkTCxsoCaK5RZ6rkNsED0eFLm0z8zXrdWDvBJ67_gNxgYc8GzG5iBrQoKClCaRik7KCLJlYcc7jWPSX94TwS6eBQxWYl8u5tKiPg-HjzmaSk6yXy4oPqcpI0anhJObw4/s320/2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We had a sweet little Superbowl party at the homestead last
Sunday. Football grub included barbeque jackfruit nachos with avocado, lettuce,
tomato, red onion, sprouts, and vegan ranch dressing, and curry tempeh sliders
topped with coleslaw. We made iced tea and juiced a bunch of oranges. There was
homemade hummus with chia chips, and brownies and mangos for dessert. It wasn’t
a thrilling game, the halftime show was a bore, the commercials were nothing special, but our team won, so yay for that!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was a beautiful day of blessings of family,
friends, food, and NFL football. My husband and I are so incredibly mindful of
the simple, good things in our lives. As time passes, I become more keenly
aware of the importance of the practice of giving thanks for the things that
many consider commonplace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s the same impulse that dawns on me some mornings when I’m
putting on shoes while preparing to leave the house. There are times when I’m just
feeling blessed to have the shoes. Glad to have a warm coat. A hot shower. A
running car. My husband. Our animals. Shelter. Ample food. Clean water.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mindfulness is a simple, incredibly powerful practice. More
than any other in my experience, the constant cultivation of mindfulness brings
happiness for things that too many of us presuppose we have coming to us. The
truth is, we have nothing coming to us. When we understand that completely, a
plate of jackfruit nachos on a Sunday afternoon becomes a celebration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The calendar shows just 44 days until spring. This winter
hasn’t been as brutal as some, but it’s far from over. Still, changes are
afoot. The days are noticeably longer. The sun is powering up. The other day,
we saw sparrows taking stock of the birdhouse. And in a fit of craving, I
filled a big terra cotta bowl with organic seed starting mix and scattered
arugula seeds over the top. I placed the bowl on a heating pad, covered with a
dish towel, and am misting it every morning. A bowl full of spicy arugula
microgreens pulsing with fresh, raw flavor sounds like a good thing now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We have a crowded kitchen counter too, holding jars of orange
peels soaking in white vinegar for a great, non-toxic house cleaner, our expanding
scoby hotel, green tea kombucha, raw purple cabbage fermenting into sauerkraut,
and alfalfa, daikon, green lentil, and broccoli sprouts. This weekend, I’m making
sourdough starter. I get the itch to homestead this time of year. Come summer,
all life moves outdoors and I make kombucha and sprouts on the run.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A couple of things are going on in the vegan community that
I want to touch on. The first is the backlash against last weekend’s Superbowl
ad – I won’t name the company – that made fun of vegans in its advertising. Pretty
much all vegans who watch football know what I’m talking abut. All I have to
say about this is that we should all chill. This is not the kind of thing that
we want to give our energy to. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let’s avoid that trend of being offended so
easily. It’s become rampant, it’s shutting down free speech, it’s turning us
all into thin-skinned snowflakes. When we go against the flow, as vegans do, we
had better expect to rub others the wrong way. It comes with the territory of
being different. It’s all part of the hang. Relax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The other, more worrisome thing that’s happening is the
numbers of longtime vegans who are leaving veganism, citing nutritional
deficiencies, anxiety, or digestive problems. It’s being seen in the online
vegan community more than anywhere else, among people who are considered
influencers, many of whom have brought thousands to the vegan lifestyle. And
now, they themselves are leaving it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A new, plant-based diet is going to challenge us for a
while and may lead to mild deficiencies until we’ve figured out two things:
one, animal products are not nearly as nutritious as was once thought, and so a
diet void of animal products is not going to plunge us into malnutrition; and
two, the right balance of plant-based foods will not cause GI problems, anxiety
disorders, or nutritional disasters. I’m your walking, talking proof of that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Like most vegans, it took a few years in the vegan lifestyle
before I figured out what my body needs and what it doesn’t want. That
awareness is always growing as my body and tastes change. Getting adequate
nutrition whether you eat animals or not takes research and effort. Since it’s
better for myriad reasons to not kill animals for food, I want to urge everyone
reading this to take on the challenge of adequate nutrition through a plant-based
diet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t think this trend of quitting the vegan life is
going to last. The pendulum will, as it always does, swing back and forth for a
while. But it’s my solemn belief that the whole of humanity is moving toward a
plant-based existence. I won’t see it in my lifetime, but it’s coming – by necessity
or by compassionate choice – there will be a day when we’ll no longer kill
others in order to eat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re gearing up prematurely for summer, but it can’t be
helped. My husband and I are both talking boat plans. We’re dreaming of sun and
salt water. We’ve collected information on doctors and vets on Block Island and
Martha’s Vineyard, just in case, and put the numbers of most oceanside eateries
in our phones. He’s studying maritime charts and water routes to Southampton. I’m
thinking about what to carry in the boat and what to leave behind. I know it’s
early for all this. This girl lives for summer though, so I’ll ask your
patience while I dream and plan. Call it mindfulness of future events.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-82423096751886130522019-02-01T13:53:00.000-05:002019-02-01T13:53:02.070-05:00Raw, Wild, Fermented Sauerkraut<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCZHvk0kpGAyBm6PxKV-sJEqAxaggES1ZKA6FGr1Hu0ki_UdLSmZuSIRRU1MURFcImnPnWM9UfYkhqEm022RfKiS_gDjDzmBpGN4rZ_YH2ZRm-vrbCe5xWIGZ0vXOpjMMeJSylzTtx7jk/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1584" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCZHvk0kpGAyBm6PxKV-sJEqAxaggES1ZKA6FGr1Hu0ki_UdLSmZuSIRRU1MURFcImnPnWM9UfYkhqEm022RfKiS_gDjDzmBpGN4rZ_YH2ZRm-vrbCe5xWIGZ0vXOpjMMeJSylzTtx7jk/s320/2.png" width="316" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Just a quick post about our latest fermentation project. We’re
making raw, wild fermented sauerkraut using purple cabbage mixed with small
amounts of coconut sugar, Himalayan pink salt, and Bragg’s apple cider vinegar.
No pre-packaged probiotics or vegetable starter. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The salt, sugar, and vinegar
should create a lactic-acid-rich, anaerobic environment that will produce
tangy, crunchy, enzyme-loaded kraut in about a month. I’ll let you know how it
goes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We’re also making our own household cleaner. We got a big
box of oranges a week ago and have been putting the peels in a giant glass jar
filled with white vinegar. After a couple of weeks, the orange oils will have
all merged with the vinegar, making a totally natural, orange fragrant cleaner
for windows and the kitchen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This jar packed with orange peels looks so insanely
beautiful on the kitchen counter next to our scoby hotel that I’ll almost hate
to strain it and bottle the vinegar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re also sprouting broccoli seeds as a change from the usual
daikon and alfalfa sprouts. I’m told you either love or hate broccoli sprouts.
I’ll have an opinion on that in about a week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">48 days until spring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-46658648103129970742019-01-22T12:11:00.005-05:002019-01-28T06:44:35.551-05:00Earth Medicine, Tonics, and Temple Bells<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv34OK4upgA7Zg49ZXRy7LpDR5x_gM78pI3GUxQR-6okComD-uVz1LlutUapAfbtNy9W7ekdh1LHUC4JVsUIfWucwBeInDmdnFT6WoyIWQsi9EwkpYalx4HV9yfW2hRX610CSAp2F9jOw/s1600/Bells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv34OK4upgA7Zg49ZXRy7LpDR5x_gM78pI3GUxQR-6okComD-uVz1LlutUapAfbtNy9W7ekdh1LHUC4JVsUIfWucwBeInDmdnFT6WoyIWQsi9EwkpYalx4HV9yfW2hRX610CSAp2F9jOw/s320/Bells.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mama Earth here in the Northern Hemisphere is reminding us
of what it’s like to feel vulnerable. The past weekend ushered in a bitterly
cold blast of below-zero temperatures, ice, and snow. She lets us know from
time to time who is in charge. Strong and beautiful Mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I did the math, and we’re just 58 days until spring. The
first day of spring in New England is usually cold, and often snowing, but it
IS the first day of spring. We’re headed in the right direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve been getting by on a lot of self-care and daydreams.
Leaning hard on tea medicine and cacao medicine, I put together a great cacao elixir
a couple of weeks ago that I’ve been drinking every morning. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Blend raw cacao with molasses, turmeric, dates, and a dash
of sea salt, then whisk all into hot oat milk for a morning tonic that warms
and nourishes. I’m drinking lots of hot tea throughout the day. Other than
water, which I’m drinking more of lately, cold drinks are virtually off the
menu. The only two exceptions are our homemade kombucha, and the hibiscus tea I
make about once a week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Between the furnace pumping out heat day and night, and the
fireplace going whenever we’re home, the air in our home has become very dry: a typical winter problem. I keep a large bowl of water on top of the pellet
stove. I have to refill it almost every day. We throw back the curtains on
sunny days to let the generous sun warm the rooms on the south side of our home.
A couple of weeks ago I started misting the indoor gardens with spring water
daily, sometimes twice a day. I bought a small essential oil diffuser and placed it next to
the bed. It acts as a gentle humidifier while we sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In recent weeks, I’ve changed my skincare ritual in an
effort to fight the dryness that aggravates my skin in winter. I’m spraying my
face with rosewater each day. I stopped using conventional soap and have switched to bathing
with coconut milk, a mild adaptogenic ginseng/maca/oatmeal soap, and just
plain water. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve traded in my standby Indian clay facials for a simple,
enzyme-rich skin ritual that’s keeping my skin soft and clear. It’s so easy,
and incredibly good. Mix a spoonful of New Zealand manuka honey with a minimum UMF
number of 20 with a dash of organic ground cinnamon and spread it on a clean
face. The longer I leave it on, the softer and clearer my skin gets. For
maximum benefit, leave it on at least an hour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve increased the amount of plain, pure, distilled water I
drink (first thing every morning, I drink 16 ounces of distilled water). We’re
eating more citrus, and I even made the mistake of picking up, on a whim, a
watermelon and pineapple from the local supermarket. The melon was rotted
inside when I cut into it the next day, and the pineapple slowly decayed before
it ripened. I got our money back from the store, then scolded myself for
getting so desperate that I actually bought the pitiful ersatz ‘fruit’ that’s
sold at chain supermarkets. Yuck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But what I really need is ocean medicine. Sun medicine.
Earth medicine. We’re definitely at that time of year when the yearning is
underway. I long for that indescribable briny scent of salt water through humidity
on a July morning. I’m craving sun on my skin, and the cool, rough aina under
my bare feet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m obsessing about our own homegrown fruits, veggies, and
herbs. I want to make sun tea, a big jar of fresh water, tea leaves, and herbs,
covered with a small cloth and weighted with an amethyst, surrounded by sun-charged
crystals, just soaking up all that solar energy all day. I want to shower
outdoors, plant papaya seeds, and tend to young plants. I want to bury big
knobs of turmeric root in the garden. I want to hear summer wildlife declare
itself in the woods and grasses around our home. I wouldn’t mind a pineapple
snow cone, and a chance meeting with a sea turtle or dolphin pod off the side
of our boat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just before the big snowstorm Saturday, I went outside to
our little peach orchard and hung seven Tibetan brass temple bells from a branch
on the strongest tree. A little dream of peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Desire is at the root of all unhappiness, the Buddha
taught. Thanks for being patient and letting me whine for a few paragraphs
here, but it’s time to turn my grateful attention back to winter and its unique
blessings. We have potent cacao tonics and lots of tea medicine. We have fire keeping
us warm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re babysitting my stepson’s beautiful lab Rosie, so we are
surrounded by animals at home. We have kombucha fermenting in the kitchen.
There’s an indoor garden in the little corner of our living room that’s
flourishing. There’s daikon and green lentil sprouts stirring in jars. I have
crystals charging in the sun in the kitchen window, and avocado pits rooting in
water. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We have plans to build a labyrinth in the grass this summer, a place where we, our friends and visitors can wander and be free of concerns. We have ritual and simplicity and connection. Now, we just need a little patience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-82169471639409421062019-01-09T12:19:00.001-05:002019-01-11T06:51:52.871-05:00Ugali, Sea Life, Garden Plans, and Perpetual Amazement<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsYU0Db7wHS8SRXbgGgZ7OELNmR7qzNTfaXYYFlJzat8bX6-IQqhG2sp-32S2K32JqDBvBYMK04vtI3Xg-QgX4O5BQbQF2BBuLl4z6GnaGEJ6B66NBmBq74v3eLWZ1l_W586iuNOxihBY/s1600/FB_IMG_1546735056572.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsYU0Db7wHS8SRXbgGgZ7OELNmR7qzNTfaXYYFlJzat8bX6-IQqhG2sp-32S2K32JqDBvBYMK04vtI3Xg-QgX4O5BQbQF2BBuLl4z6GnaGEJ6B66NBmBq74v3eLWZ1l_W586iuNOxihBY/s1600/FB_IMG_1546735056572.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mindfulness, in part, is accepting what is without wishing
it were different. That’s a tall, tall order for most. We are by our nature and through conditioning forever seeking change. The paradox of Buddhist practice
is that the most effective way of transformation and the most direct road to
peace is to just relax into an open, accepting awareness of what is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For many years, long before my marriage, I worked to tend the biggest food gardens I could possibly imagine. And every summer, the gardens grew bigger, progressively
diverse, and more labor intensive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then, last summer, the effects of climate change clobbered Connecticut, and the gardens were hammered with rain and relentless humidity.
Mosquitoes multiplied exponentially. Our bare feet sank </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">up to the ankles </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">into soggy soil. Food plants rotted from the tops down and the roots up. And if that wasn't enough, a family of hungry black bears, displaced from their native habitat by human encroachment, wiped out
our corn crop overnight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By September, I’d decided that the game was on and I would
spend winter figuring out how to design the summer 2019 food gardens so we
wouldn’t have to go through that again. I was fired up and angry about the losses we took.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But an interesting shift has happened since then. It’s such
a profound change for me that it feels scary. It feels scary, but I’m running
with it. The Buddha taught that the most powerful way of transformation is to
let everything be just what it is. We must awaken from the illusion of control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I spend months each winter planning the content and design
of our food gardens, and a decision has been made about 2019: we are going to
downsize, grow less, reduce diversity, and grow only what we regularly eat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My husband and I had to sit and write down the summer crops
that we reliably go to, day after day, every summer - the ones that we don’t
want to go without. These crops and only these crops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The list was surprisingly short. We (especially I) eat a
lot of garden greens – especially lettuces, kale, and arugula. We eat and cook with garden
tomatoes all the time and add cucumbers to everything. Green beans are the raw summer
snack food that I love. Italian basil and Thai basil are in constant use. And
my husband likes yellow summer squash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s it. The blesséd, carefree perennials – chives,
Italian parsley, sage, lavender, lemon balm, thyme – come back each summer of
their accord. The apple and peach trees do their thing without our
interference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For years, I’ve been growing potatoes, eggplant, melons,
three varieties of beans, chard, and peppers and giving most of it away to
friends, neighbors, and our local food bank. But it was the daily go-to’s like
greens and tomatoes that largely fed us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, with that, we’ve decided on the summer gardens. A big,
big part of the decision was the purchase of our new boat, a 28-foot vessel
with kitchen, bathroom, shower, and sleeping quarters that we plan to spend
lots of time on this summer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Together, my husband and I have grown to love the ocean and
the amazing, beautiful places a comfortable boat can take us. We found a slip
in gorgeous Mystic, Connecticut, a true beach community with all the wonderful history
and seaside culture of boating, sailing, art, music, festivals, renewal, and
reflection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve become enamored with sea life, always thrilled to
spot a pod of dolphins or a giant sea turtle off the side of the boat. We love
the spirit of the quirky, slightly eccentric people who live by and on the
water. Seaside food joints and restaurants are the best, and the absence of
chain retail stores and strip malls is an unqualified relief.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As a plant geek, I revel in the mounds of beach roses, toad
lilies, hibiscus, hydrangea, red sand verbena, saw palmetto, maiden grasses, beach
grasses, sea rocket, and August wild sweet peas. I love walking by beach
gardens overflowing with Mexican heather, allium, Scottish broom, seashore
mallow, purple heart, poppies, ice plants, and wallflowers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To put it mildly, we’ve both fallen completely in love with
the waterfront and the beautiful rituals of boating. And for that reason, I’ve
decided to shift my intense focus from our inland food gardens to the shoreline,
the ocean, and our lives on the boat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yesterday, I placed the annual seed order. This year’s food
seeds order came to $32, a far cry from the more than $100 investment we make
each year. As we always do, we’ll buy tomatoes and cucumbers as seedlings. This
is the 2019 seed order:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Bobis
a Grano’ Nero green beans<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hybrid
Gold Rush squash<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Bionda
Ortolani’ lettuce<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Bionda
Ricciolina’ lettuce<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Cavolo
Nero (Lacinato)’ kale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Rucul’
arugula<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thai ‘Siam’
basil<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Basil ‘Italiano’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that’s it. Will I end up planting a few scant
watermelon seeds? Probably. Watermelon is the soul of summer. But other than that
departure, our food gardens will be smaller, simply structured, easier to
maintain, and used more heavily by our family than in years before. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But it’s January now, life is being lived indoors, and on the home front, I’ve become
keen on Kenyan cooking and have been making vegan Kenyan dishes like ugali, githeri,
and sukuma wiki – all are bean, corn, and tomato-based. My husband loves irio,
a Kenyan dish of mashed corn, potatoes, and peas. I eat rice constantly, and
pulao – an aromatic rice pilaf – is my second favorite after ugali. This
weekend, I’m making boga boga – spicy greens - for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today is January 9, and winter has hardly arrived. There
has been little snow, and today the temperatures are in the 40s. Climate change is
real. And while I love this kind of winter weather, I don’t love the reasons
behind it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Still, we’re closing in on spring. A couple of more months,
and the worm will start to gently turn. Underground rhizomes will stir. Hibernating
insects will awaken. Songbirds will find their mates and build their nurseries.
Trees will stretch and bud. Peepers will begin peeping. We’ll hear icicles
dropping from gutters and roofs and crashing on the ground below. The heady smell of
loam, rain, grass, and ozone will make us all drunk with gratitude. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s nothing in literature or music, art or science as ravishing and praiseworthy as the advent of spring. And then on toward a summer on the water. For
all this, I’m grateful. I’m eternally grateful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1288230331860308818.post-40486771346349930682018-12-28T14:59:00.000-05:002018-12-30T08:46:57.384-05:002019: New Year, New Grace<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Christmas at the homestead was happy smiles and high vibes.
We even got to the movies Christmas Eve to see Clint Eastwood’s ‘The Mule’. It
was a quiet, close-to-home holiday, peaceful and gentle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Santa stuffed our stockings with cool gifts like (for me) oatmeal
soap, maca powder, cherry incense, Fieldburgers, zebrawood earrings, African
black soap, a Vegan Veins t-shirt, Bangkok peanut sauce, vegan chocolate, a
Bioscarf (yes!), Sienna Byron Bay vegan nail polish, soy candles, a
subscription to Peppermint Magazine, and sea turtle necklaces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My husband got his first vegan belt, recycled wool socks, recycled
cotton socks, Halla Halla shorts, a SunTurtle solar lamp, a Swedish FireKnife, a
recycled cotton beach blanket, two faux sherpa-lined winter shirts, and a gift
card to his favorite boating supply. His generous son gave us restaurant gift
cards. Food is always a great gift.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We had dinner Christmas eve, opened presents, then chilled
for the night. On Christmas day, we relaxed more and counted our blessings,
then headed out to do some community service in our town.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And so, 2018 winds down. It was a good run - much personal
growth, insights, spiritual discoveries, great books, yummy home cooking, conversation,
the love of animals, and time on the boat. The effects of climate change
wreaked havoc with the gardens, but from it we learned new ways of gardening
and producing our own food.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I liked the rhythm of 2018. Lots of
opportunities to rest, pace ourselves, be grateful, change
perspectives, release the past, be kind, help family and friends, and distance ourselves further from
people and places that don’t serve our highest and best interests. We’ve been
refining, growing, and exploring. Being of service. Learning new ways to speak
and be. It was a year of evolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, we dig in our heels and walk through cold winter. Here
in northern Connecticut, you can smell spring sometime in late April. That’s
four months off. My husband is dreaming of putting the boat back in the ocean,
and I’m already thinking about growing garden food. I’m thinking of the boat
too. The ocean has become our second home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">New year, new grace. Let’s see what possibilities life sends
our way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barbie xo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbie Duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18246955376992671556noreply@blogger.com