THE SPARK AND CYCLE OF LIFE
The garden is a special place for “An Edible Inner Journey.” It’s where the cycle of life begins, the creative process of growth and maturation occurs, and the final results are manifested. From sowing seeds, to harvesting, and all stages between, the garden is the embodiment of the Institute’s offerings…the edible inner journey.
We, as humans, begin with our own spark of life. Through trial and error we select elements to help us grow. Sometimes the results are less than desirable, and sometimes more fulfilling than we could have possibly imagined. Along the way, the elements that are less than helpful can be composted, returned to the earth, and used as fodder for the next round.
THRIVING THOUGH EXPERIMENTATION
The key to thriving, versus simply growing, lies in being willing to experiment with different elements until we find just the right combination, and willing to discard what doesn’t work. When it’s time to harvest, the raw bounty of our inner garden provides us all we need to begin the subtler process of refinement and creative integration. This is where the next phase begins….in the kitchen.
Some of the activities that you may experience at the Institute’s garden include many aspects of gardening, such as planting, weeding, nurturing, and harvesting. We will certainly learn about gardening in a general sense, but the activities will all be performed against the backdrop of the Institute’s primary goal. That means that they will be infused with sensory, psychological, ancestral and ritual ingredients that require specific types of interactions. The garden is the setting and the place for some of our most transformational work.
