I have been so involved with my garden and writing two columns a month ("The Italian Gardener" and a column on Italian heritage) for L'Italo-Amercano that I've nelected this Garden Meditation for May and June. Some dear friends from Canada have wondered why I've been lax. However, this meditation site has been in my mind and soul for a long time as I garden.
Three writers who have influenced me deeply are Krishnamurti, Rudolph Steiner, and Robert Sardello. All three of these very perceptive and wise people have voiced deep concern about the care of the Earth. And what I mean here is not some kind of mechanical, chemical, technique ridden approach to Earth. Or, something to chat about at cocktail parties with "experts". I don't mean some trendy approach that is held by those who rhapsodize about "saving the earth" and have never looked around and inside their houses and seen, really seen, how much every particular materialistic item has been taken, extracted from the earth, and air, and the sweat of human beings. Where in their entitled hazy thought do they think it all comes from--Walmart?
I mean care for the Earth in the sense of Love and Compassion.
I praise Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) as one of the best examples of the compassionate human being--the Little Brother Flower. Not the Francis of cement statues with the little bird nestled in his arms, although that is one good way to start knowing him, and I have such statues that I myself have carved of wood. Robert Sardello, founder of the School of Spiritual Psychology, asks us to consider in his wonderful book "The Twelve Virtues" ". . . Saint Francis as a true knight of compassion." Sardello has written the most meaningful explanations of compassion that one can find. His writing about compassion is so very clear and truly helpful, practicable, not the usual self-help hype that we see so much of nowadays. Also, one has to read Francis' "The Canticle of the Creatures". I first came upon this canticle over fifty years ago when beginning my lifelong study of Italian literature. It just so happens that Francis' beautiful canticle is perhaps the first literary work in the Italian vernacular. Before his time, most Italian writers wrote in Latin. So, the "Canticle" is a linguistic-literary document of the Italian language, but far more than that--a spiritual achievement in words.
The "Canticle of the Creatures" praises all creation as infused, imbued with the spiritual energy of God. Steiner would call it etheric energy, and Krishnamurti calls it the "Presence" that he often mentions in his "Notebooks". For me, I suppose it is a kind of panthesitic imbuement, what I've felt from boyhood, much to the disappointment and chagrin of my academic and churchly superiors:
" Lord, most high, almighty, good, yours are the praises, the glory, and the honor, and every blessing. To you alone (Ad te solo), most high, do they fittingly belong." Prose translation by George Kay from "The Penguin Book of Italian Verse", 1958.
Please notice that Francis uses the familiar Italian usage of "te" like "tu", not the formal "lei", "you", when addressing God. He does not talk to God in the third person as when addressing a judge or the court. There is no distance.
"Lord" doesn't go over too well with me. I think of some Royal Baronet or such. But I do know what Francis intended to mean. In the Italian of the thirteen-hundreds, the Italian the words of his poem are "bon Signore" which have a gentle, respectful, graceful tone of diction and connotation.
Writing his "Cantico delle creature'' in the vernacular Italian (the vulgate) has great significance because the common people, the outcasts, the ill, the suffering, the birds and wolves, were the substrate of Francis' approach and teachings of compassion. He embraced all of human kind, and every particle of the Cosmos, and all social classes, and as you well know, even lepers whom he was not afraid to kiss.
I think of Francis as a precursor to the great English poet William Wordswoth. Wordsworth thought or professed to be writing in the language of the common folk. Not true at all. The folk never sounded as Wordswoth wrote. William frequently walked the backroads of England with his beloved sister Dorothy, his muse-like artistic medium; read Dorothy's letters and see what a great poetic spirit and writer she was, and she got very little recognition in her life, except from her beloved William. They both met met up with the disinfranchised, the sick, the poor, the weird, the emotionally disturbed, the wounded from the wars. He was not afraid to talk them, to be open to them, and to let them tell him their stories. He looked into their faces and sought to know who they were. William and Dorothy talked about these people during their long, evening conversations.
A good example of "meetin' up" is his "Resolution and Independence" (1807), a poem about an old war vetreran, a leech gatherer who has nothing to his name except his bare legs and feet with which he wades into the ice cold pools to attract leeches. The sucking leeches adhere to his legs; he picks them off and sells them to physicians and healers. He is Independent and resonates with Nature. Wordsworth found gold when he perceived the soul of that old leech gatherer and incorporated it as the archetype, the universal symbol of the man who gives of himself, gets what little he needs to live, and more importantly, serves. Also,Wordsworth saved himself for poetry and himself for life in that fateful meeting on the moor. Wordsworth had what is called a "privileged moment", a "spot of time", as he termed it, that told him what life is really about. He got up off his knees, as Nietzsche recommends. And, of course, the leech gatherer is Independent and free, thus far! Although his life is very hard and tenuous, he has faith and character and resourfulness, and no medical insurance to boot!. He is a lily of the field. I think you will really like this very powerful poem. It has grown on me over the years and I dwell on it often. When I reread it as I have just now, I feel better about my life.
Well, my tomatoes have grown very well and some even have "fruits" that will be ready in a few weeks. Commercial, chemical fertilizers such as Miracle-Gro tomato fertilizer once a week in solution makes 'em grow. However, I now have come to use organics, those natural fertilizers that are gentle, long lasting and very effective. Organic fertilizers are made of natural constituents that do a lot for the soil, so in using them you are replenishing the Earth. They enhance the earth that the tomatoes grow in because they contain mycorrhizae, a fungus that forms a symbiotic relationship with the plant's roots, thus delivering nourishment and water very effectively. Chemical fertilizers, although they have a place, (probably left on the store shelf) don't enhance the earth and feed the plants. Think of mycorrhizae as little, whitish baby roots entwined among the big plant roots. The the little roots or fungal strands embrace the big roots, uptake water, and feed them. What could be more Natural?
I have noticed that chemical fertilizers hit plants hard. They give a big boost at first like a double shot of espresso on an empty stomach. But then they wear off. The earth or soil takes on a dead look and feel. I can feel it with my fingers when I handle this chemicalized earth, and it does't smell good. And then, guess what? The plant must get another shot of coffee to maintain how it looks. Familiar? Also, with chemical fertilizers, leaf-tip burn and spindle-growth occur more readily during hot weather. "Dr. E. B. Stone" and "Dr. Earth" are two good organic fertilizers. I use them in small increments once a week, and in about two weeks I see plants that have rich leaf textures, good even growth, and productivity--- tasty tomatoes coming soon!
Here are some "Champion" tomatoes, and in the 2nd photo, butterfly weed, Japanese Negi bunching Onions, and tomatoes.
