Gardening

So it is spring again! And now that the rain has stopped, and it is finally nice and warm outside, I have been spending a lot of time in the garden again.

This year I have a unique situation because I will be in the US learning how to be a farm school teacher during the most intense part of the growing season. So I decided to really limit my plantings. I am growing a few things that take a long time to ripen (potatoes, beets, winter squash and pumpkins) and the rest of the beds I am planting cover crops in. I discovered this perfect solution when I was researching different ways to compost and fertilize. There are certain kinds of plants that actually improve the quality of the soil as they are growing, then after they are finished blooming you just till in the entire crop and leave it to compost naturally. The density of the plants also keeps weeds down, so it is just a perfect solution for leaving the garden to fend for itself for a month or so.




This morning I was also doing some interesting research about small self-sufficient farms and homesteading. I found some great information about applying for grants and the financial end of start-up. Good food for dreaming about the future! Lots to look forward to.

Awesome

On my birthday, I had a small party with some close friends at a cute little "American" diner here in Zurich. It was a nice low-key evening and I felt all warm and happy with all the love of my people here close to me.
One of my friends gave me a book that night. It is the Book of Awesome. I have to say, this has been a wonderful reading experience so far. It is all those little things that make life really grand that you just do not think about often enough.

Well, yesterday another friend forwarded me the TED talk that the author of this book gave. After watching it, I love this book even more. Take the time to watch this. It will make your day....
Awesome.

Click here to watch "The 3 A's of Awesome"

Thoughts at 35

In the grand scheme of things, a birthday does not  mean much. It is another day where we work, eat, breathe, sleep and generally live. We do the same thing the next day. But birthdays give us pause as well. We tend to slow down, reflect and take stock of where we are and how the time is flowing.

I did some reflecting yesterday. When I was in my 20s and becoming an independent adult, I made some general long-term goals for myself. I knew that by 30 I wanted to be done with school and working in my career as a teacher. When 30 rolled around I was able to say that I had achieved those goals. I felt pretty good about myself. I had a loving partner, a home, a good job and some security for the future in the form of my career and education.

I realized yesterday as I was reflecting that I have been kind of floating since then. I wanted to have a family in my 30s, but that has been forced onto the back burner many times by circumstance. I have moved to a foreign country and had such a rich experience living here. I have gained more experience in my field, and have benefited greatly from that. But I have been restless and searching. Where I am right now at 35, living and teaching in Zurich Switzerland, launching a new life on my own at the end of 10 years of marriage is nowhere I could have imagined myself.

In life I have always made an effort to make choices that have the feeling of truth for me. To be alive is such an insecure position that we are tempted to tie it down with bonds that shore up our lives. To create the illusion of security. Sometimes when we are faced with choices, there are ones that feel true but have such risk attached to them that we cannot accept untying those bonds in the face of the inherent instability of our position as living beings. At times I have made choices to walk that "other" path. I have done so out of a love for the vibrancy of a life fully lived, out of a fierce devotion to truth, and for the change and growth that comes from new experiences. It has kept my spirit and my soul alive. But here I find myself looking back. The temptation is to try to get a peek at what was down the other paths, the ones I did not take. But I know that regret and "what ifs" are a useless poison for the future.

So I take stock, and I think it is time for a new vision. A vision for 40. Life is a twisted path, and as we travel it we often can't see what is coming around the corner, but at some point we have to pick a direction. To move with purpose. I will begin by embracing myself and my life as it comes to me, without judgement, regret or fear. I will love my self and my life and be grateful for all those walking at my side on this path. Then I have to look and feel for those "truths" when they come. Let's see what happens.....

Thank you all for your love and birthday wishes. I have felt truly blessed today.

The Luddite Gives In....and other springtime tales

So, I have spent the majority of my life eschewing most modern technology. I really love to live a simple life, connected to the natural world, and using mostly my own power and ingenuity to get what I need. Some exceptions have been, my adoption of a laptop and cell phone during my Montessori training in Minnesota, and my acceptance of Facebook and Skype when I moved here to Switzerland. Most recently, of course, the creation of this blog.

Well, I took one further step into the realm of new communication technology. I have a "smart phone." Initially I thought that this would be a colossal waste for me. I am really not interested in telling everyone online where I am at all times, I do not want to sit at the lake on a beautiful sunny day and look only at the screen on my phone (as I see so many people do), and I am no longer on Facebook, so uploading photos and such is not a real draw for me. I came around when I realized that I could (as I did yesterday) sit in a tram on my way home and receive a Skype call from my mom. I could sit and chat with her just as if she was in the same city as me.

What an awesome benefit and comfort for someone so far from home and loved ones :)

Here are a few photos taken over the last few days with my new phone:



This last week, the city started to warm up, literally and figuratively. It is a funny thing to notice. The people who live in Zurich are pretty comparable to any "big city" types. They go through the day stressed, heads down, pushing through crowds and not having much consideration or sympathy for the people around them.

After having lived here for almost 3 years I can understand why people here are like this to a certain extent. It is like any other animal in a hostile environment, they have developed acute defense mechanisms to adapt to their environment. Well, that all changes on the first sunny warm days in the spring. It is so funny to watch. They lift their faces up from the cold grey cobblestones and find those first rays of light shining down, then they look around and smile. They laugh with friends in the street, they talk to strangers, they lie on the grass at the lake, they play music in the parks, and they fall in love again. The transformation is so remarkable that the city is truly unrecognizable from itself just 4 weeks earlier.

I was sitting at the lake this week with a friend who shares my occasional disdain for the city life here in Zurich. A month ago we were grumbling about life here, how unfriendly the people are, how awful the weather is, and how generally bleak and hopeless life is in this place. Last week we sat there on the grass by the lake, drinking a glass of wine, watching the swans curl their necks in their courtship rituals, squinting into the dazzling diamonds reflected from the surface of the water where the sailboats were tied up, bobbing like excited children waiting to be let out to play on this beautiful day. Both of us sighed and said just how much we love living here.

Then laughed hilariously at ourselves.

The Big and the Small

So, I have picked up a book that I started reading last year. It is a book on cosmology and quantum theory. I know, my geek is showing, but hang with me, this stuff is really incredible. What I love about it is how beautiful these theories are, how elegant and poetic.
I was at the Tonhalle with some friends last week, listening to beautiful music, created by living beings in a building that has contained music and living beings for hundreds of years. As we basked in the reverberations of those thoughts, one of my friends brought up a program she had watched on black holes and cosmology. We commented on the huge impact that these thoughts have on our understanding of ourselves as living conscious beings. A day later I came upon a passage in this book, entitled Parallel Worlds.

"Ever since the Greeks, philosophers have speculated that the ultimate building blocks of matter might be made of tiny particles called atoms. Today with our powerful atom smashers and particle accelerators, we can break apart the atom itself into electrons and nuclei, which in turn can be broken into even smaller subatomic particles. But instead of finding an elegant and simple framework, it was distressing to find that there were hundreds of subatomic particles streaming from our accelerators, with strange names like neutrinos, quarks, mesons, leptons, hadrons, gluons, W-bosons, and so forth. it is hard to believe that nature, at its most fundamental level, could create a confusing jungle of bizarre subatomic particles.

String theory and M-theory are based on the simple and elegant idea that the bewildering variety of subatomic particles making up the universe are similar to the notes that one can play on a violin string, or on a membrane such as a drum head. (These are no ordinary strings and membranes; they exist in ten- and elevendimensional hyperspace.)
Traditionally, physicists viewed electrons as being point particles, which were infinitesimally small. This meant that physicists had to introduce a different point particle for each of the hundreds of subatomic particles they found, which was very confusing. But according to string theory, if we had a supermicroscope that could peer into the heart of an electron, we would see that it was not a point particle at all but a tiny vibrating string. It only appeared to be a point particle because our instruments were too crude.
This tiny string, in turn, vibrates at different frequencies and resonances. If we were to pluck this vibrating string, it would change mode and become another subatomic particle, such as a quark. Pluck it again, and it turns into a neutrino. In this way, we can explain the blizzard of subatomic particles as nothing but different musical notes of the string. We can now replace the hundreds of subatomic particles seen in the laboratory with a single object, the string.In this new vocabulary, the laws of physics, carefully constructed after thousands of years of experimentation, are nothing but the laws of harmony one can write down for strings and membranes. The laws of chemistry are the melodies that one can play on these strings. The universe is a symphony of strings. And the "Mind of God," which Einstein wrote eloquently about, is cosmic music resonating throughout hyperspace."

Such beauty! I am struck by how the glimmers of understanding that I get from this science enhance my appreciation of music, art, nature. It inspires me to write, to create and to value the precious gift that this life and this time is to us.
Today I watched an interview that Stephen Colbert did with Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist. I love what this guy has to say about science and politics and history. Near the end he talks about how to inspire children to learn more about their world, and I think he is right on target. It is a long interview, but well worth the time.

Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Early Stirrings

So I woke up this morning, made my probiotic grapefruit-lemon-ginger juice, started the dishwasher and put a sweater on to let the little furry man out for his morning pee.
I got to the bottom of the stairs, braced myself for the hated cold stone tiles, and opened the door for him. Standing in the doorway, balanced on one foot for warmth I looked out on the still-frozen world.
On the bare branches of a bush, right in front of me, a tiny bright European robin appeared; like a foreign ambassador sent to deliver a message. He cocked his head to the side and looked right at me, hopped to another branch and did the same. His actions were almost clownish, but there was a deep seriousness in that eye he turned upon me.
The European robin is not as big as our American variety, and not quite as brightly colored. He was dressed in a more subtle old-world style. He is about the size of a sparrow, with a rusty colored breast, a touch of blue just under the wings, and a bright and piercing eye.
Even though Sumo was snuffing all around, the little bird didn't show any fear. He just continued to look quite pointedly at me as I stood shivering in the doorway. A slow smile crept upon me as I stood there watching him.
Sumo finished his business and noisily bustled inside, clattering up the steps. I stood there a moment longer with that smile on my face. I thanked him, turned to close the door and he flitted off.

I love my work

Yeah, I know....totally cheesy, but it is true. Especially in the last few months, when my personal life has been in such a state of turmoil, it has been a tiny island of light and positive energy for me. Each morning I enter my classroom and see all these beautiful little beings, so busy with their formation, growing and learning and changing right before my eyes. I am grateful and honored every day to be a part of that.

In my classroom just now we are working on a project that I really just stumbled into, but has turned out to be one of the best and most wide-ranging projects I have ever done with children. It all started with a desire to bring more discussion about families and culture and the differences between the ways that people live together.

I was reading a book and we started a discussion with the question, "What are people?" Giggles all around from the kids at first, but really a fascinating discussion, ranging from biological characteristics to social behavior and beliefs. From there I decided to focus on culture, and go from continent to continent. We started with North America. Some of the children wanted to do some more reading, and I offered them the suggestion of doing projects, group work. They came up with the most awesome topics, for instance, Jazz and Blues, New York City, Native American Art, Aztec culture, Caribbean music, and Mountains of North America. I was so impressed with the great topics they came up with. We decided to have a party after the projects were finished, and present our research, eat North American food, and listen to North American music. Fun :)

Another change I have made this year that has been as nurturing for me as it has been for the children, is the focus on more art lessons. I have been learning and experiencing right alongside them, and I really see a huge enrichment from the expansion of this aspect of the curriculum. We have done work with watercolor, and fiber art, and now we are making woven beaded jewelry (Native American inspired).

My first few years here were so difficult professionally, but I am recognizing now that they pushed me to be a better, more flexible teacher. I am reaping the benefits of having seen those years out, and now I can really use the new confidence and skills I learned.

I can't wait for spring, and growing things with the kids!