Nasturtium Seeds

It's time to gather nasturtium seeds. This year i planted a variety i particularly like: Buttercream, a pale yellow. So i'm gathering their seeds now. If i delay collecting seeds until September, i can't find them. So NOW is the time.

The wrinkled, roundish, green seeds grow 2 or 3 to a stem, but several have already dropped onto the ground. If you live where winters are mild (such as the Pacific Northwest), nasturtiums will reseed themselves.

Nasturtiums are high in vitamin C, so if i feel a sniffle, i go directly to the nasturtiums and munch the peppery leaves as well as the flowers.

The seeds of mindfulness that we plant every day also have the power to protect us from the ills of life, beginning with protection from ill-will. Your mother told you to count to 10; mindfulness encourages us to simply notice how irritation, frustration, and anger feels in the body.

Yes, the symptom of ill feeling still arises, but instead of exploding or imploding, we take the middle way. Dare to "feel" how irritation feels in the body: Unpleasant, yes. And what else? Where is the tightness, the tension located? Mindfulness encourages us to look with interest instead of reactivity.

If nothing else, simply note your experience: "Irritation. Irritation. Irritation." Or "Frustration. Frustration." And even: "Anger. Anger."

Notice that the ill feeling arises. (Well, that's the easy part.) Notice that it ceases. Then it's gone. Maybe it's only gone for a moment or maybe it's gone for good.

Mindfulness is our vitamin to protect us from dis-ease.