Mom's Farm
I spent an amazing weekend in DC with my mom on her farm. I love my mom’s farm. Everytime we leave each other I know my mom has tears. But don’t worry mom, I’ll be back before you know it. She dropped me off at Union Station in DC and I couldn't help but really look back at my time with her with joy and total peace.
So it’s really interesting how being among green things has magical properties. All the stress I feel on a regular basis seems to just disappear. I am in love with everyone and everything, and I feel at home among all the bugs and birds that make their way around me. Even the giant garden spider in the greenhouse. I also realized something else really cool about being at my mom's farm. There’s also something really, really cool about having a simpler existence.
Since I was a farm hand for the weekend, I was really excited to get my hands dirty and walk around without shoes for the weekend, much to the chagrin of my step dad. One of my tasks was to weed my mom’s garden that’s right in front of the house. The hostice plants were being smothered to death by very tough, tenacious weeds. In fact, it was hard even to see that there was an actual planned garden there till I started.
It's not something I realized at the time, but on the bus ride home and after a few conversations with my farm family, I saw the freedom that there for me in simply doing that one activity of weeding the garden. That’s all I had to think about. There was no space for my house chores, or my business errands. There was nothing that interfered with my one track, "i must weed this garden!" What an amazing freedom and clarity that comes with such focus. My mind was fully engaged at the activity at hand, “Don’t touch that,that gets to stay. That doesn’t belong, pull! Pull harder!" It was so deliciously satisfying to have one real objective and see it through to the end. That’s really all that I had to think about. And, I had a conversation with my step-dad about it later and it affected him too. It’s like being out on the farm, we’re so singularly focused about what we’re up to. We give it our 100%, and that’s it. That’s all there is to do.
I thought about that on my way home deeply. Is this what's missing from my life? Can I add this into my business, into my relationships, into my life always? Duh, that's what yoga cultivates! And I still think I can do more by doing more. The truth is I can't. We get more done when we do less and focus more.
What would life look like if we were singularly focused all the time? What would be possible for you if instead of complicating everything, we made life really simple by just doing one thing at a time fully and completely?
Right now, this is what I’m doing. Right now, THIS is what I’m doing. And I think there’s something there for all of us, that if you were to look at how you spend your day, and if you were to really give you attention to that one thing at that time, how much difference would that make, for you? How much difference would that make in what you’re creating in your life? And, who you get to affect if you give it your all where you are, when you’re there.
I’m going to take this on. I am going to practice being completely present, where I am, when I’m there. I guess the phone is the enemy here. Time to put it away and smell the dog pooh on my New York sidewalks. I’m going to encourage you to do the same. Not necessarily smell the dog pooh but to spend a few moments of your life without the phone in your hand and just be 100% present to this moment you are in. Life only gets more and more complicated, not less. So give yourself permission to keep each moment simply by keeping yourself focused on one thing at a time.
Make your life simple now by having a clear focus. Let your effort only go to what you focus on. make that where your effort goes. This is how you build a life you want. And you are so welcome to make it complicated but why when you can simply enjoy this moment now. I love how fulfilling life is when it’s simple. Thus, why I love being on my mom’s farm.
