A Feast of Colors

It's the glorious autumn harvest season, so I thought it would be most appropriate to let your eyes feast upon the many colors from the bounty of rainbow chard and other organics grown at Dirty Face Creek Farm in Iowa. May you be inspired to add a wide spectrum to your food palette and rejoice the diversity and beauty of nature's art - imagine what a festival of color can do for your body inside!

IN-JOY!

 

 

 

"For I share with you in the feast, of this here grand harvest! Of this here grand harvest, I share with you in this feast!" 

- from The Song of My Days

A Little Intro to My Iowa Summer

A little moment I shared with a rabbit among the raspberries

We all need and deserve to give ourselves a "ReTreat", which means a period of time you treat yourself by getting back in touch with the greatest source of creativity; Mother Nature. So, what better place to be then at an organic farm, where the Source's presence is at work all around. I'm spending 5 weeks back home in Iowa at an organic farm. I'm here not only helping during one of it's busiest months, but to learn what I can and soak in the natural environment. Although I've mostly been pulling weeds, being surrounded by the abundant growth and good people, and the fact that I'm making a difference, feels good on many levels. The concept of "weeding" - a process that pulls out distracting or invasive plants so the maximum amount of energy goes into the main crop -  provides many insights and lessons to pick up on.

Some mustard gone to flower after the harvest of the leaves

As an artist invested in the art of life, this particular summer is all about connecting energetically with the Earth and tapping symbolically and spiritually into my roots. Being back home for an extended period of time is feeling absolutely sublime and invigorating. I'm seeing familiar places with a fresh and somewhat more mature perspective than ever before. Some of the changes to the surrounding areas of Iowa City and Johnson County are quite wonderful. It has a very inspired mix of art, worldly philosophy, literature, and rural charm. I'm appreciating just how fortunate my life has been and still is by being here. I'm deeply in love with this place and the people who make it what I foremost call home.

I'm also discovering that my return here is providing me much more to consider then I even imagined. Just as with nature, there is a lot more beneath the surface at work in creation. Crops may be the tangible/visible result of the labor, but the process involved in creating the produce is something far more complex and interwoven. For starters, life works best when community is at the heart of it all. When society works together with the common good at heart, not just individual selfishness. Much like a bee hive thrives from the cooperation and hard work of many individuals contributing to benefit and health of all. Life is indeed interconnected, and I'm learning just how important it is to be here and now, putting things into perspective, learning about life's many mysteries.

It is absolutely urgent we all open our senses to Mother Nature, tread consciously and carefully. Find a moment to plan your own ReTreat  - and consider doing something that gives back to the health of the others at the same time.

Below is an assortment of just a few of the crops the beautiful Dirty Face Creek Farm is involved with:

Sunsugar cherry tomatoes in transition

Abundant leafy Kale

Striking red veins of Chard

Garlic scapes that are curling up from the garlic bulbs below

Aromatic and flavorful basil

And of course lush red raspberries!

Blissings!

INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL APPS.

So before hitting the road for my October cross country trip,  I felt I ought to utilize my phone to its greatest extent by loading up a bunch of applications deemed good to have. However, I found myself less than impressed with the actual use of them. I grew impatient with waiting for the network to keep up to speed and by the time I received the information I needed, it was too late or I was unimpressed with the results. Besides, spending so much time looking down at devices and trying to figure out external applications, meant less time looking around and paying attention to the view outside. Maybe I’m too impatient. Maybe I’m just not that tech savvy. Maybe I’m old-fashioned. Or perhaps I find it much more interesting, adventurous, and reliable to use some of my internal apps: intuition, imagination, inspiration, and ingenuity.

Tech companies can herald the arrival of the next great thing and sell us on all getting all those external application we ought to have to make our life easier, but I still find the greatest joys in life either come free from Mother Nature or can be found within. We can easily hone and be happy with the internal apps we already have access to.

But no, I’m not against the use of new technology– it's how we use it that defines our culture and times. Some contemporary art utilizes the latest advances in technology to some really remarkable results, but we have to find a healthy balance that works for each of us. For me, I like being open to utilizing my internal apps, even if it means I’ll miss a few shortcuts or conveniences the external ones provide. And while I’ll use an external device like a camera to snap some pictures that I can share with others, there is simply nothing better than the internal pictures of my mind’s eye. The images I absorbed in while on the road will embed themselves into my psyche in some mysterious manner and just how they’ll manifest in the future remains to be seen, but one to look forward to.

So use what devices you will, but don't stop downloading some downtime with your internal apps!