umbelliferaea

This was up on the screen when I got here from an article called "Anarchy is Here," from http://www.newswithviews.com/Daubenmire/dave135.htm : Ben Franklin said “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Also, support a leftist radical group in Berkeley, buy a slingshot:
http://www.microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/2604/

I'll be in northwest Florida from December 17 to the 31st. I joyfully return for my once a year or two visit. It seems like I was just there, since we visited my family a lot over the winter until February this year, during the time of the tangerine grove in Citra. I suspect it will be warm and pleasant. I guess it's pretty nice having family in Florida- you get to visit without having to stay! It's enough like a vacation to balance out any minor form of obligation.

Springfield is transforming me, as it usually does. This time, however, I've had a much better grip on how to be here without losing my spirit completely. Breathing, sleeping, cooking, eating as well as possible, spending time with friends and family who are to some extent aware of my life away from here. Only taking baths, and soaking in herbs and clay has really helped, I think. It's allowed me to spend time with my body that I don't always get otherwise, at least not in the same way that I might if I were still gardening. I like gardening more than cooking simply because the garden is so much like my own body, interacting with everything around it, growing, sunning, breathing, stretching, being.
Cooking, however, allows the mind to focus more on transformation. I feel that I've really retained a (mostly)local diet of fruits and vegetables (apples and squash, mmm), whole grains, local cheese (some from raw milk!) and eggs. Also, lots of dumpstered bakery bread! At its best, cooking is an extension of the garden. It allows us to harvest (my favorite thing, after long nurturing!) and bring the fruits of our labor into the kitchen to be blended and transformed into delicious experiences that pass the life of the garden into ourselves, our friends and family. That is how I've most deeply experienced and enjoyed life.

In any case, I'm finally transcribing a notebook full of notes on lots of herbs, spiritual entries, recipes, sketches of useful garden trellises, a Susun Weed talk from Gainesville, contact info, urban orcharding, good shrubs, trees, and vines for western NC, etc, etc. My hope is actually to get them together with some other fantastic things from the loads of books I've been reading and put together a zine. I feel like the likelihood of that happening is high, as a project to stay busy for the next 3 weeks. When I return from FL, there will be 2 weeks before our flight from Chicago to Guatemala, which is a 2 month trip. I look forward to time slowing down a bit around April. It's a little strange to have plans up to then.
OK, so about Springfield- it is a little numbing, a little dulling, especially in the wintertime, but it's also humbling in a funny way. There is a much more concensus idea about reality here, so there is a slight need to conform in mostly social ways. It's sort of nice to go between worlds of complete freedom of expression, and places like the midwest, where thoughts flow in more of a stream. It's easy enough to provoke thought here, if not to sustain it. I guess it's easier to not talk about something different, as if mentioning anything different is a one time thing, as if talking about what could change is thought-provoking, but ultimately forgettable in the flow of house, TV, car, job. I say it's helpful in getting a more rounded understanding of people, and let me tell you, that seems to be my area of interest.

More about that and leaving the country in the next installment.

with l o v e