Love is Perfect

This week I discovered that love is perfect. Living life is not.

A week ago, I was thrilled to see the garlic I’d planted last fall starting to take off nicely. The stalks were all greening up and it looked like a good crop was in the works. Then on the weekend, when I was working in the yard, I spied my chickens pecking in my garlic bed.

no!

No!

NO!

Where were my green stalks? EVERY SINGLE stalk was gone!

I could feel the anger rise from my stomach and move throughout my upper body, right up to my neck. Choking me. I had carefully planted the garlic last fall, after sourcing out some organic bulbs. I had almost a whole bed planted and then my sister, J, gave me a bag from their 2018 harvest. I was so happy and able to complete the bed using some of their garlic. I was really looking forward to seeing the results, comparing the two kinds of garlic, later this year.

As I moved towards the raised bed, my chickens seeing me, came running towards me, their wings straight back, their bodies rocking in that silly side to side gait, that usually makes me laugh. They seemed to have big smiles on their faces as they approached. They stopped at my feet and pecked at my shoes.

“Bwok, Bwok,” they said.

Immediately, the heavy feeling I’d felt only moments before dropped and a warm, fuzzy feeling spread through my body. I had to smile and squat down to pet them. Their feathers were so soft and silky. “You are bad, BAD chickens for eating my garlic. But— — but, I still love you,” I told them.

They followed me, like faithful dogs, over to investigate my garlic bed. I noticed it was nicely turned over. So nicely turned over, that a few dried out bulbs were laying on top of the dirt. Moving my hands through the earth, I saw even my garlic bulbs were eaten. They jumped up into the bed, as I investigated their dirty work and seemed to say, “look mom, didn’t we do good?” as they continued to peck and scratch industriously through the bed.

Inhaling and then exhaling a large sigh, I thought about how only a few moments before I had been livid enough to have garlic, infused chicken for dinner. Then something happened.

An awareness washed over me.

My chickens were only doing what chickens do. Scratch, peck, and eat. They are living their life. My reaction to their destruction is just in response to me living my life. I too, want to eat. It’s funny that the smallest creatures often teach the biggest lessons.

Those of you who want to know how to garden with chickens, as in, letting them free range, let me tell you, the two don’t go together well. Our chickens will be three years old in a few days and here is what I have discovered; they will dig up ANYTHING, and love to spread it EVERYWHERE. I like to let them free range, but once I plant seeds, the only time they are able to cruise around freely, is when I’m in the backyard, watching them, ha, like a hawk.

This incident got me thinking about another thing that made me angry this week and I wanted to share it with you.

Yes, and if you thought I was this peaceful, omming all the time, relaxed, laid back person, I hate to burst your bubble. HOPE, aka, me, is far from perfect.

F A R………from P E R F E C T!

But I also like to say, “I’m in the process.”

,This week, our neighbouring Province of Alberta, elected Jason Kenney, who is the head of the United Conservative Party in Alberta. One of his main campaign pledges, was to immediately shut off the taps of Alberta’s oil to British Columbia; the Province where I live. He said those words in retaliation for the Trans Mountain expansion project being shut down last year, and it obviously won the majority vote.

When I heard Kenney’s words, it made me angry. I was mumbling some unkind words about “red necks,” and their “big trucks” but then, that choking feeling rose higher and higher into my throat and I thought about my anger.

Anger doesn’t feel good.

I get where the voting majority of Albertan’s are coming from. (And I know this isn’t everyone…hey I have a son in Edmonton right now) Many are feeling land locked and being held hostage, unable to get their oil to market, which is creating a severe down turn in their economy. And up to fairly recently, they have been riding a wave of prosperity. Of course, they don’t want that to end. What is also unfortunate, is that they are sitting on one of the richest oil reserves in the world.

What are they to do?

What appears to be lacking, at least from my perspective, is their inability to recognize that some of us in B.C. view “our” natural resources, as strongly as they do theirs. Being stewards of our environment, we are hesitant to risk the serious consequences that would occur if there were a spill of bitumen, somewhere in our province or in the ocean. Also, when are the leaders in their Province going to admit that the oil industry is a dead dinosaur, ha. No pun intended. But seriously, there still may be a mass amount of oil in the ground but our earth is telling us loudly, that it can no longer sustain a carbon based society.

And if our planet dies, no amount of money from selling oil is going to help anyone. The health of the planet needs to be a priority. We just need to be creative and find other ways to be productive, without harming the earth, wherever we live. And being angry with one another is not going to take us anywhere.

Last summer, I had to keep our young children inside our home almost all of August, due to the intense smoke created by all the forest fires burning in our Province, which scientist say is a result of Global Warming. Also, our two older sons, who were working an landscapers to save money for their University expenses, would come home nightly, exhausted from the poor air quality, coughing and sputtering. Scientists say it’s only going to continue to get worse.

And where, you may be asking does LOVE, fit into all of this. Well, when I heard Kenney’s words toward British Columbia, I felt the same anger I had felt towards my chickens earlier in the week. Certainly it was stronger since well, a crop of garlic doesn’t compare to the seriousness of the health of our environment, but the feeling of anger was the same. Anger is anger. Also, the awareness that the only way to shift that anger out of my chest, or at least lessen it, was to infuse it with some compassion, which is the first step towards love.

Holding that anger inside would be living imperfectly, but if I shift that feeling slightly to at least compassion for what the Albertan’s are going through economically, I can start feeling the anger lift. If we are always trying to move towards feeling love, then life will be more perfect.

Then it occurred to me that Jason Kenney, with his promise to Albertans, to shut off the flow of oil to our Province, may have shot himself in the foot. I mean if your oil isn’t available, we are going to either find other oil sources, or we are going to move quickly to alternate, greener, energies. Which I believe, is something that many in our urban centres, like Vancouver and Victoria, are quickly adopting anyway. If that is the case, there will be no looking back on fossil fuels again and with his anger towards us, he will have just harmed the very industry he says he wants to help. See, no good comes from being angry….not to ourselves, and not to our neighbours.

Tomorrow is Good Friday. While I no longer walk a “religious path,” as I’ve been disillusioned by so called Christians, who do not hold love for all in their hearts which I believe is the base for having a God centered life, I still feel extremely spiritual. The teachings from my childhood, Sunday school class float up and ground me, guiding me through my imperfect life. One lesson comes to the fore front as we approach Easter and that is; to love our neighbour.

Whether it’s the chickens in my back forty, or our Canadian neighbours, in the Province east of us, I know love is perfect and is something I’m always moving towards. ….I’m in the process, in the process, in the process….!

And since this is a blog about being sustainable, living a carbon based life may not be sustainable any longer, but always, ALWAYS, being loving is.

Before I wave goodbye, I wanted to leave you with a video from Marvin Gaye’s singing, “Crazy, Crazy, Me. ” April 22nd is Earth Day and we are working hard to eliminate our garbage. It’s a daily challenge! But like shifting anger, we, as a family, are moving towards shifting away from thinking what we put in our garbage can, disappears once the garbage company picks it up. So stay tuned as I hope to share our process with you soon.

Until we meet again,

May you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Lee