Christmas Ferns

Here in the North Country, we have two types of evergreen ferns. The Christmas fern has straight-edge leaves and are lovely to behold in a dusting of snow, such as we have now.

The winter snows beat them down, so that by spring they are lying flat on the ground. Then the new fronds spring up.

Sometimes, life beats us down. It can especially feel that way in the winter. Whether we realize it or not, we do still have an internal springiness, but we may have to wait for it to show up in our lives.

In the mean time, during these chill, dark, winter days, you can retreat to mindfulness. That's what i'm doing these first two weeks of January--making a commitment to sit for 2 hours every day.

The Christmas ferns are green under the snow.

Replanting Good Intentions

Photo by Lynne Weinstein

I'm doing a second planting of beets and chard. If i could figure out where to put it, i'd do a second planting of bush beans because the bean plants exhaust themselves in early August, and it would be nice to have a fresh supply of green beans about then.

I have a commit-to-sit going with 2 friends i met recently on a retreat. Our commitment is 2 hours a day. This is proving to be fairly easy for one woman, and nearly non-existent for the one who just took an all-consuming summer teaching job. I myself wax and wane wildly, depending on whether i sit for an hour before the birds starting singing at dawn.

It's time for me to replant my intention. This might mean going to bed earlier. Someone recently told me that the hours you sleep before midnight count double. I'll plant myself in bed before 10:00 tonight.