Dear Yogis,

We are all familiar with multi tasking.  I have been a single mum with 16 to 20 yoga classes a week to teach (and strong ones too), a house to keep, and children to look after, and very expensive school fees to pay, and a yoga school to run.  Yes, I had a housekeeper to do the washing and ironing, and marginal cleaning, BUT I did the rest.  This morning I was thinking about this, not just about me, but about you too.   I never heard Iyengar talk about  sweeping the leaves or doing the dishes, the same goes for any of the up-there yoga teachers and philosophers.  They all had wives and staff or disciples to run along after them.  I was even thinking of great writers and mathematicians, and the same applied.  Isaac Newton discovered calculus whilst he was self-isolating during the great plague, but I guess he didn’t have to worry about the washing or dinner (or how to entertain the children)?  But we do.

Right now in these “interesting times” we have to deal with reduced classes, the same bills coming in, the children being home schooled probably for a while longer, wondering what is in the cupboards for dinner, and not as much money in the family.  That is why I started focussing on  WILDandWEEDY, because I am a multi-tasker with all the limitations you have.  Even if we get through the troubles this time,  there is no guarantee that it won’t happen again sooner rather than later, so it would be prudent to get some repeatable routines in place. “Here is the bread”.

The only way that I could survive when I had children at home (and now), was by being self-sufficient.  It was easier when children were at home because I had help, but now I have to do most things myself except for the heavy lifting.  I like being self sufficient, I like growing things, I like foraging.. because I know they are making this time easier, and have been documenting what I am doing on the blog… www.wildnweedy.blogspot.com.  I have never eaten better than I do now, and lots  of what I do eat comes from field and garden – not Coles.  It is not hard, it just needs a certain amount of planning, and trust. There is always something provided.  Like manna in the desert sometimes I don’t know what to do with it, but it is always there, and I learn.  “Here is the bread”.  

If you plan to make cheese you just have to plan –  the cheese actually will make itself,  if you just do the basics which take about 5 minutes in between doing other things, same with yoghurt.  Some of my students are even making their own butter.  If you forage for greens or grow a few yourself, and you have butter and cheese.. well things are a whole much cheaper.  “Here is the bread”.

It is the “I can’ts” that take the time.  Just do it.  The children will love to help if you let them, and it gives them another skill. They get a great deal of satisfaction from seeing what they have grown or made appear on the dinner table or lunch. You could even make it part of their home-schooling.  Whilst cooking they could be learning weights and measures, cooking times, vitamins, how much things cost and so on.  It is especially good to have them help you to plan for the next few days.  I used to do this with my children on a Thursday after dinner.  It worked.  I was not a super-mum.  It was just something I worked out to make the days pleasant, and get rid of the word STRUGGLE.

Please look at the blog, and when the book comes out with all the recipes, hints and tips for everything from dinner to furniture polish,  “WILD and WEEDY, the cookbook”, download it, or order the hard copy with a nice cover. I will let you know when I have finished it.  “Here is the bread”.

I have to finish with this thought.  If we allow our WANTS to determine our buying patterns, the result will be chaos, and considerable debt.  This is a time for us all to come to grips with what we are spending, and how, and get rid of ‘thingification”.  This is not trouble, it is training,  Meditation and yoga is essential.   We can’t leave that behind when we get to grips with the reality of practical survival.  When you are close to Spirit then wherever you find yourself is right, and you have provision enough.  “Here is the bread”.  It is not in tomorrow.  Don’t waste today’s Grace trying to fight tomorrow’s battles.  “He who gathered much did not have too much, he who gathered little did not have too little”.

When Albert Schweitzer was travelling in America a reporter asked him why he travelled in the third class section of the train.  He answered “Because there is no fourth class!”

 

HAVE A LOVELY DAY.  STAY WELL AND SAFE…

NAMASTE, Jahne