Reflection 2: Natural vs. Cultural You know reading this book makes you take a longer look at the general ideas one might have of gardening. It’s not just the context of creating a garden in your back yard that makes you a gardener. It is more about your interaction with the plants. Ideally if I were to not think about the natural way of cultivation (in which I would mean foraging in the forest) I would probably be saying that it has a separation from a cultural stand point of gardening in your back yard, but really they are two of the same things. Now I guess the question would be; Is which one were you raised with? I can identify: Most of the plants discussed in the reading. I am beginning to look at my garden as a community, and I am hoping to discover how these plant grow in relationship to each other. I am also looking as plants not only as a community but as plants in the relationship to there environment. I an asking questions like what is the soild like? Is it damp, wet? What is my area showing me about its environment, why are the plants living in there location? Why are some of them not doing so well? Reflection 3: Everything is Everything World You dirty thing you! How can I live miserably in this world when this You createsuch a beautifully woven tapestry. I want to ingnore the depth of my soul sometimes. I want to ingnore the whispers that I have heard since I was a child. It would be easier than knowing that I can affect the world around me. But every thing is pointing to the place of my heart. Telling me that there is more to life. That there is so much more that it is undaunting. Telling me that everything is everything and I must except my role. I must except that the earth has a heart and she beats strong. She teaches with compassion and a vengeful heart. That I am not working in a world of man but also in a world of nature. Nature carries a different set of rules. Reflection 4: Winter takes me deeper. I understand why people are so sensitive in the winter time. You become imbedded in your own skin. For some people this may not be a good place to be for it is a place unfamiliar. I was this person when I first came here. Now I have adjusted, knowing that shadows lie within me but soon with the help of the sun, I can regenerate once more. I love my journal, so much so that I am ignoring the things around me. Not the natural things but the people and my other responsibilities. I want more. More learning so that I may have another experience to right down. So that I might have more lessons to keep me strong in the making of me. Nature is my teacher and my journal are my lessons filtered through the mothers mouth written down so that I may reflect, and learn some more.
Reflection for week 4:
I would like to talk about this subject of Identity.Going through the forum of listening to the subject Of Identity I began to think about my Eastern Philosophy class… a comparision was made about how Western culture tends to create this identity “ In Western psychological traditions, healthy development has meant becoming well individuated, not overly dependent on others, knowledgeable of one’s own needs, and appropriately respectful of one’s own boundaries, with clear and stable sense of identity and sense of self marked by cohesion and esteem. Western concept of the person and the self is its emphasis on separateness. By contrast with non-Western cultures’ conceptions of person that emphasize embeddedness in clan, in society, and in nature.p38-39 (Germer)” When I first read this Book I really latched on to this particular discussion because it made me think about where our world went wrong. I thought about our society and the focus that we create on stimulating our own well being. For me there was not much talk about what are you doing for the world but what are you going to do to make yourself happy. Does this make sense? Family and friends are usually included in our hopes for happiness for ourselves but it is still focusing on a narrow area. I guess for me I am trying to step out of my idea of self iand into the relm of what I have outside me. In relation to our reading We can see through out the reading there is focus on community. When I think of plants I tend to concentrate on one. In our north west We can see topics for plants as a community this is not a concept I usually think about. I have not focused on the idea that plants also grow into relations of one another. I Like this!
Week 7
Together with out the talking but the action there are a lot of things that we can do. I think the problem that I have with myself and other’s is that I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff and less time in action. The one thing that really hit me this quarter is the idea of community, and how much hands working together can accomplish. I can be incredibly independent, but I am trying to branch out like a plant in the forest standing alone but surrounded by many friends who can help me grow.
Week 8 Okay, Keeping it living, the Conclusion just wrapped up the same Idea that has been discussed through out the whole book. The chapter I picked for the 3 page paper was the best portion of the whole book for me and I just can’t seem to get past that. Maybe it is because this information has not been completely new to me and that’s why I was not as excited about most of this book and the conclusion, but for some one whom this information is very new they might find this more eye opening.I am excited about my presentation. Artistically there was an actual video that I wanted to make with people coming out of the trees and such but there was absolutely no way I had enough time to put together all the video stuff and learn how to work the editing and do the other work I needed, but its what I would have desired. What I did decide was that I wanted to include the pictures that I took over the last Saturday trip. I really found myself when I went around and captured what I saw. So I want that in there, also since being in this class I have come to feel a lot more comfortable with myself and sharing myself with my family. My identity has come to embracing all that is around me no matter how different they are from me. 9 Sweet BreathingI liked this book, although not every story was as exciting to read or what I found to be interesting. It was nice having this as assigned text because it was more of the emotional side of people’s connection with their outside world. What I really enjoyed when we first began reading this book that allowed me to get really excited was the fact that Isabel Allende was in this book. But then I slowly began drifting away from some of the other readings. I liked the Ode to mold one because the writer was very passionate about fungi it was interesting reading a passionate story about something I didn’t really look at. Um…I enjoyed the science section as well even though it was a bit boring, I really liked the way the writer wrote the My Life with Weed. Even though I felt most of the writers in this book were describing the importance of their and our relationship with plants I felt that My Life with Weed resonated with me well; from My Life with Weed “That I believe , is what Earth asks of us: for each of her creatures to express her unique nature joyfully and exuberantly” I also like Killing Our Elders there is a part in the short stories where a woman talks about how thay used to use trees as a burial place, this is where I want my body to be buried inside a tree. The Greatest thing about reading this book was seeing other people have the same passion and desire for their outer world as me. It just kid of reconfirmed that I am not alone in the observations of my beautiful world around me.