Activities

When there is nothing to do, plant a Garden!

March 18, 2022

“When there is nothing to do – do nothing” Or When there is nothing to do, plant a Garden!

Mindfulness is not about making difficulties disappear or avoiding challenges. Mindfulness is about building new wise relations with them, by staying firm in the here and now.

This spring came for me with a burst of colors, nice weather, birds singing, daffodils happily peering, Covid-19 restrictions diminished. Just a time for cheerful enjoyment. And then, suddenly – the war in Ukraine started. I was feeling shocked, wobbled and helpless.  For a couple of days I was staring in the empty space, crying and looking for a solution…It took me some time and all my knowledge in mindfulness to settle down, to realize that this war is beyond my powers. I can’t change or do something significant to stop it. Then what to do? 

I’ve reached for one of my favorite books “Opening the Door of Your Heart And Other Buddhist Tales” by Ajahn Brahm and started carefully to look for advice. As usual, I was not disappointed – the ancient wisdom was there for me: “When there is nothing to do – do nothing, just stop and wait for the right moment to take actions” (Ajahn Brahm).

There was a sense of relief when I acknowledged that world events are beyond my responsibility. And the only thing that I can do is to take a rest, take deep breaths and slowly come back to my ordinary life. So, coming again in the here and now, I’ve noticed again the spring and a simple truth came to my mind – IT’S TIME FOR GARDENING 🙂

We moved houses last summer, and now we have a small paved urban patio, instead of the large green backyard. And my mission is to transform it as much as possible to what I like about gardens – wildlife and my own veggies and fruits.

I’ll start now with our new kitchen garden:

  • Step 1 – find the right place for it (light exposure, easy maintenance)
  • Step 2 – decide how to organize raised beds – I took advantage of something I found at the last RHS flower festival – the Green Smart plastic pots  https://greensmartpots.eu/. I’ll start my projects with two of them. I liked the fact that they are recyclable and self-watering systems.
  • Step 3 – visit the local gardening center. We made a plan with my daughter about what vegetables we want and we sourced the seeds and the soil.
  • Step 4 – get your hands dirty and plant the seeds/ take your time and make creative labels 🙂