Yes!  Excellent.  I love growing things.  Rather, I love figuring out how the growing-force works and setting things in motion so that the growing can happen without me.  OBVIOUSLY, I’m an organic gardener.  And I love Montessori principles.  And I believe in systems theory.  I’m currently raising roughly 400 square feet of vegetable and herb gardens, 8 or 10 fruit trees, a patch of blueberries, a stand of raspberries, and an unholy mess of blackberry brambles.  Add to that two small boys and a number of potted plants, and you’ve got yourself a right mess.

But I also mean the larger, metaphysical kinds of growth here…the capacity to sit with what’s difficult or painful, to learn something new, to take on a challenge that seems useful or right.  That kind of growth often flies in the face of comfort, which is after all what most of us seek — and to help with that, I tend to read Pema Chodron. Or sing and dance. Or watch Netflix. You know, the kinds of checking out that hopefully help us check in again later. Because the checking in is where the growing is, for those of us who aren’t plants.

For gardening stuff, check out the following resources (and more to come).

• Great introduction to organic vegetable gardening with helpful levels of detail and thoroughness: the folks at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association bring you this helpful guide.