Manifestation, Jackfruit, Jamu, Prickly Pear, Sedum, Love, and So Much More

A little catch-up post. It's been a while since I've done any blogging. Life springs into fast-forward in summer. Our gardens are burgeoning. We've been hogging romaine lettuce, arugula, kale, spinach, parsley, dill, basil, chives, mints, and chicory for weeks now, and it's only June 18. We give away bags of greens to neighbors, friends, and colleagues - anyone who wants some. Our peach trees are loaded with young fruit. At I write this, I'm eating a big salad of our own garden greens.

Tomato plants already have blossoms: cucumbers, squash, beans, melons, peppers, hot peppers, and more are reaching for the sky. Planted turmeric and ginger root are germinating. We even planted taro this year. Yay to homemade poi! This is setting up to be a great food gardening season. Much gratitude.

I'm hooked on and benefiting greatly from homemade jamu. I've recently added fresh-extracted pineapple juice to our batches of jamu. Perfect. Sweetens and softens a very potent drink while boosting antioxidants. I drink either an approximate 6-ounce glass in the morning, or take tiny shots throughout the day. I can't say enough about fresh, homemade jamu. Stuff is amazing.

I was delighted to find fresh jackfruit at a health food store in Granby, then dismayed to learn that it cost $4.99 a pound. That's out of my reach. This only reinforces my plan to live directly on the Earth's equator, where jackfruit grows wild in scrub lots along with pineapple, avocado, citrus, papaya, lilikoi, taro, and mangoes. One fine day.

I've recently tapped again into the practice of manifestation. A fairly serious head injury not too long ago put me in a vulnerable position: I agreed to go to a hospital and submit to a color-contrast CAT scan, among other frightening neurological tests; I was prescribed a pharmaceutical that I didn't want to take; and I was afraid and in pain.

As soon as I left the hospital, I began manifesting my own healing without pharmaceuticals. I picked up the prescription, but never took it. Instead, I made a fresh batch of jamu and meditated. I rested. As I did, I saw myself working the gardens again, and asked Mother Earth, Mother Gaia, to show me the natural way to healing. But I won't lie right now: I grappled with anxiety. 

I'm no stranger to head injuries. It seems every time I take a fall, it's my head that takes the brunt of it. I can testify that a head injury is frightening on a primal level. You really feel the vulnerability of this vessel called 'body'. 

The anxiety was worst the first few days. But with a slower schedule, gentle self-care, loving friends, and good, clean eating, I can report that this week, I feel much, much better. No more headaches or vertigo. The injury site is clean and almost healed. My sleep is good again. All without chemical intervention. Pills are not needed.

I'm swooning over sedum these days. I've always loved sedum, but now I'm obsessed. I've been propagating sedum from cuttings and have multiplied our sedum garden exponentially. It's insanely easy to propagate sedum. Buy one plant, and you can make more plants indefinitely.

I'm also loving the form of prickly pear cactus. Our one large prickly pear is readying to bloom. Prickly pear is a hardy cactus. We keep it outdoors, and passing neighbors regularly inquire about it, it's that good looking. Later in the season, I'll propagate from this plant.

Part of my recovery from this head injury was lots of reading. Sogyal Rinpoche's 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying' has been my constant companion. Rinpoche's words on impermanence carried me through the early days of anxiety. 

A modern interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Rinpoche's bestselling book is a guide through the practical realness of being sick or injured, and of death. Through the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, we can conceivably attain ecological balance for this troubled world, and even world peace. After the accident, I needed something to re-awaken consciousness, and this book is doing it. Highly recommended.

Lastly, my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary earlier this month. All I can say is this: marriage has taught me more about love - about giving of my energy to another and not vice-versa - than any other lesson of my life. It's taught me about my own shortcomings and failures, my strengths and weaknesses, my relationship to the eternal, my responsibility to the world, forgiveness, abundance, knowledge, illusion, delusion, attachment, aversion, the mind, distraction, silence, stillness, ambition, humility, pride, possibility, joy, and compassion. 

Through this gift of marriage, I continue to learn, every day. Every day, I assimilate more about what I've been doing wrong, and what I need to change to make it right. I've learned that I alone am the architect of reality. I make it all happen. It's been a mind blower. It's been amazing.

Barbie xo