Springing Forward........

I have more nice pictures this Spring than nice words it seems. My words this Spring would probably fall unwelcome on some ears. Narrow, ungenerous behavior exacts a price on psyches and relationships, and those who wound with words and actions cannot, or do not care to see the long term damaging effects on once-loving relationships until they are lost.

In our lives, we come across many circumstances in which we have wronged someone or someone has wronged us. As we grow, there comes a time in our lives when the opportunity arises, giving us the chance to forgive them. We have all heard the saying to 'Forgive and Forget'. Well, human nature does not allow for the mind to forget easily, so really it is 'Forgive and Accept'.

When we decide to forgive someone, this is a selfless act of kindness to that person and to ourselves. We are forgiving the person and not necessarily the act that was committed. This is self healing. When we are releasing negative energy and breathing in positive energy, we are looking away from the past and toward the future. In forgiving, we accept what happened and move forward; and really, moving forward is what it is all about. The same energy comes when someone forgives us. Even if we have to approach that person and ask for forgiveness, it is OK because we are moving forward. If they forgive us, we also must forgive ourselves and recognize that we have grown and moved forward on our path.

There is so much emotion tied to this. We may feel that something is unforgivable.....and that is OK, too. That is our choice, and once again, if it is truly unforgivable we can accept it and move on. We must not let the negative hold onto us, but release it and move forward into the positive power that is out there. Many things happen throughout our lives. Some are done accidentally and some on purpose, and those we will sort out and do what is needed in order to move forward. This is all part of loving ourselves enough to move forward and release the negative and receive the positive. Forgiveness of yourself and others is a cleansing of sorts, like detoxifying your soul. Again, love yourself enough to move forward. Forgiveness is not a weakness. It is one of the most courageous things a person can do for themselves.......

Life has been full and satisfying. We are joyful and filled with gratitude that Mother Earth has greened up once again and her abundance springs forth! Green and growing grass prompted Art to adapt his oldest piece of equipment to run on his newest tractor. "Arthur The Inventor" is forever seeking to reinvent. He is supremely adaptable, and from his fertile mind optimism springs eternal. We have owned a #1 John Deere sickle bar mower since we bought our farm nearly 40 years ago. This was the first tractor-mounted model of mower that John Deere ever produced! Other mowers have come and gone here, but the sickle bar mower has a prominent, specialized place in our arsenal of grass-tamers. We use it to cut grass that is unable to be harvested along the very edges of our fields, to neaten up the road berms and ditch banks after haymaking and, more recently, to cut the high grass that grows along the shoreline of our lake. Without this mower, with its cantilevered cutter bar that juts out from the right side of the tractor (forcing one to always make clockwise revolutions), we would have to perform this exhausting task using a gas-powered Stihl string trimmer, or risk upsetting a valuable tractor into the lake! Art re-engineered the #1 using 2 nuts, 1 piece of custom-bent black iron pipe and an extension PTO bar, enabling the mower to snap onto the quick-hitch and run on the modern JD4720.....super slick!!

The business end of the JD4720
with the JD#1 mower...... on the move!

Innovation......The American Way!!

600' of ditch bank mowed along the main road
saves PennDot the trouble!
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Another year, another garden. Hope springs eternal and this year we've planted many veggies that we hope will all make it to the table! I'm sure I'm missing something here, but I believe we have planted Vidalia, white, yellow & red onions, red and white garlic, curly parsley, basil, dill, arugula, romaine, mesclun lettuce mix, spinach, a dozen plants of 4 types of disease-resistant tomatoes, red bell peppers, Ichiban and white eggplant, red beets, carrots, 8-Ball zucchini, yellow straight-neck squash, cucumbers, tomatillos, sweet potatoes, Russian blue, red and Yukon Gold potatoes. Yes, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but here are some photos of the early vegetable garden and also some spring flowers.

The early spring garden from the west side.

Tomato plants in wire cages, with potatoes behind them.

Garlics, with potatoes behind them.

Basil plants.

Chives among the Hostas.

Spring Daisies!

A lot of chirping going on in this Sparrow nest!

Clematis reaching up to the Sparrows.

Mo and Art heading down to the lake to trim the banks.

A&M Cook, Jolico Farm, Somerset PA
100% Solar Powered since 1978!!
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.....And finally, I could not publish this post without attempting to express my personal, gut-wrenching anguish and fist-clenching anger over the worst and most horrible environmental catastrophe to befall our country, and possibly the most widespread and worst toxic despoilment ever to occur upon our planet. Like everyone else, I feel utterly helpless in the face of this disaster. I pray a lot and watch the news for signs of hope that there will be a turning point, that the storm of oil gushing forth from the belly of Mother Earth will begin to slow. I Tweet about all the news, the good and the bad, trying to spread awareness of what man has wrought in his insatiable quest for OIL. It saddens me that most people who are not living in the reality of the holocaust occurring in and on the Gulf Coast, are going about their everyday lives with barely any notice taken or expressed of this tragedy that is affecting so many millions of creatures..... man among them.

I ask myself, how does one go about forgiving an accident, an incident, acts of omission or commission, a corporation, a drilling rig, a fire, a mechanical failure, a "situation"? Should I go through the same process of forgiveness as I would towards a living person? Who or what deserves a punch in the nose here? After weeks of listening to my higher self I come full circle and repeat the last step in the forgiveness recipe above:

There is so much emotion tied to this. We may feel that someTHING is UNforgivable.....and that is OK, too. That is our choice, and once again, if it is truly unforgivable we CAN accept it and move on. We must NOT let the negative hold onto us, but RELEASE it and MOVE forward into the POSITIVE power that is out there. Many things happen throughout our lives. Some are done accidentally and some on purpose, and those we will sort out and do what is needed in order to move forward. This is all part of loving ourselves enough to move forward and release the negative and receive the positive. Forgiveness of yourself and others is a cleansing of sorts, like detoxifying your soul. Again, love yourself enough to move forward. Forgiveness is not a weakness. It is one of the most courageous things a person can do for themselves....... Does this also go for oil companies? I hope so.