I hung out with Andrei and Sandra recently and wanted to photograph them in their element, showcasing a day in the life of creating a thriving organic garden.
Between delicious home-made falafel rolls and spooky talks about superhuman aliens visiting from the future was the underlying importance of working towards greater food security, self-sufficiency, and an all-round greener lifestyle. The gardening process seemed to enable a meditative state of flow, which is a means of being completely immersed and engaged in an activity within the present moment.
After watching this Eckhart Tolle video they recommended, I found myself recalling some of the rare, ecstatic moments where I've felt most alive and connected to the here and now –– dancing at a music festival, intense conversations about life, the universe and everything, hugs and affection from my favourite people.. anxiously wondering if maybe, I was only capable of feeling "whole and complete" during a peak experience. For the longest time, my idea of "true happiness" seemed heavily dependent on plans going my way –– overdosing on a powerful dopamine rush, or a sweet tingling of anticipation.
Mindfulness, in contrast, isn't about seeking the most pleasurable, exciting thrills to escape mundane reality, but deepening our attunement to "the source" of all being. It involves recognising that over-identification with our thoughts and mental constructs of reality, rather than direct experience and non-judgmental awareness, is one of the most potent means by which we become addicted to the very suffering we're constantly seeking to avoid.
"one reason that people have artist’s block is that they do not respect the law of dormancy in nature. trees don’t produce fruit all year long, constantly. they have a point where they go dormant. and when you are in a dormant period creatively, if you can arrange your life to do the technical tasks that don’t take creativity, you are essentially preparing for the spring when it will all blossom again."
—Marshall Vandruff
The mind's capacity to bullshit us into a self-limiting downward spiral can seem infinite unless we intentionally practice choosing where we place our attention, and which kind of thoughts are worth paying attention to. Through the process of mindfulness meditation, conscious focus can eventually be channelled into almost any activity we find engrossing, as growing attunement to one's surroundings merges with a deeper unity of rootedness within our bodies like a blossoming plant is rooted in the soil.
Using Sandra's paintings to make my blog prettier. WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SO DAMN TALENTED? The only good art I make is living by the Nietzsche quote, "No artist tolerates reality."
These DIY orange candles are super cute and really simple to make: just fill the orange peels with oil beneath the inner wick, and the flame is ready to be lit. :3
This is too cute not to share: My sister planted a miniature fairy garden for her kids with little road signs and plastic dinosaurs; the moral of the story being that without environmental protections, the planet's very extinction is being systemically orchestrated as we speak. if trees gave off free wifi signals, we'd probably all be planting some. Too bad they only produce the oxygen we breathe.
