There are a lot of things in my life that I regard as important. From spouse to friends and family, to writing, to videography, to making things, to reading, to movies, to laughter, to healthy food, to holistic healing, to walking, and more. I pay attention to personal hygiene, too, but if you ask my wife she may be of a different opinion.

If I ignore making a living (which does take up a considerable amount of time) the two central activities in my life are organic gardening and meditation. The reason is pretty simple. This is where I find peace, the first through physical activity and the second through stillness.

Organic gardening is in the realm of earth-spirit, and meditation is in the realm of soul-spirit. This isn’t a syrupy unrealistic description here but rather my best shot at using words to describe something which is more subtle than language. I am a practical man who recognizes that the best practical is often the opposite of the conventional practical.

Organic gardens thrive on the most practical ingredients there are: composted vegetable matter and decomposing manure–horse, cow, goat, sheep, chicken. As long as there’s poop the soil will be rich and sustainable.

Meditation is often thought of as relaxation and a natural way to lower the blood pressure. This is true but there is a lot more to it than relaxation. After all, it takes you to an infinite inner landscape where there is an infinity of possibilities. All you have to do is let go and let the All-That-Is do its thing.

Meditation is not-thinking, although you might observe thoughts drifting by. The person witnessing the thoughts is YOU, in the infinite I’m-part-of-the-Universe sense. Engaging a thought is an action of the every-day-how-am-I-gonna-pay-the-rent you. The first is larger, the second smaller.

Eventually you will recognize that you had it backwards for a long time, thinking that the larger YOU was the smaller you and the smaller you the larger.

I meditate for around an hour just about every morning. Sometimes I experience bliss and sometimes not. When the bliss comes I welcome it. When bliss doesn’t show up I don’t mind. Absolute silence seems to be either a precursor to, or companion of, the bliss. They might be one and the same.

Here’s what Jalaluddin Rumi says about the silence:

“This silence is worth

More than a thousand lives,

This freedom worth

More than all the empires on earth.

To glimpse that truth within yourself,

For even just a moment, is worth

More than all heavens, all worlds,

All this, and all that.”

Rumi nailed that one all right.

Organic gardening, meditation, everything I mentioned at the top, and more, along with video clips of the garden, are what I expect to cover in these pages. This will be an interesting journey and I hope you’ll come along.

Eno Yaw
Two-bit Guru