Last night we were excited about the opportunity that opened up quite suddenly to meet our sister visiting on a professional work related assignment. We met, exchanged smiles, stories off the top of our heart and were growing in curiosity about more stories to be shared over the long conversation. Weather was very nice, not too hot, not too cold, just pleasant. We walked to a close by restaurant, instantly felt invited by everything -- the smiles of waiters, smells of spices, simple & elegant layout of dining place, clean & neat floors, in short everything we witnessed seemed just aligned right to offer us a beautiful experience. And it did offer that and offered more. Sister was sharing away stories after stories that covered her love for this kind of authentic south indian food and how her toddler baby is such a foodie that he happily gobbles up dosas (pancake) after idlis (rice cake) or idlis after idlis with absolutely no-fuss anytime. Clear that this kid has mother's love-for-food genes in abundance. On top of tagging us the dinner she made another special dish to-go. As we shared more smiles over good-byes with waiters and other guests, we began to walk back to the place she was staying that night. Many more stories and hearty laughter later, we exchanged many more gifts including the gifts-of-nature from our community garden fresh produces, mural art "heart-of-the-bay" card & some more special sharing. We hugged, had more laughter moments walking to the car. Finally, as we were about to leave the place, this time for real, I felt like using the restroom real quick, so I walk inside the lobby, look for the restrooms, open the door, walk in and suddenly see this pile of litter in otherwise quite clean room. Don't know why, but for sometime now, I have been drawn to express my thankfulness to janitors through some small conscious random act of clean-ups. In no time, cleaned up the litter, washed my hands, used the restroom, washed the hands again :-) and disappeared from there silently smiling about this beautiful moment to thank the janitors and cleaning crew all over the world deeply appreciating the value they all bring through their tireless work, the works that are so essential yet I feel under appreciated often. As a walk back to the car, it was clear my beaming big smile from this experience was already creating ripples in my heart and our sister and others around. Every moment of my life, may I live in constant awareness of the value that all bees like the janitors bring to our life. For all such bees, here's a big kudos & gratitude -- Thank you all :-). Reflecting on this experience, made me think of Jayesh-bhai's father Ishwar kaka through his work in the area of public sanitation projects in India. Thank you kaka.

How can we ever pay back Nature? Is it possible? Nature works hard and if we allow it to do it's part without interfering then it does exactly the right thing for us... We just need to leave it alone and not mess with it anymore.

We were blessed this year with the gift of this land at the local community garden, not only was the land cleared of weeds it was ready for us to sow seeds.  One early afternoon in March a bunch of us got together and made some seedlings using the coconut shells, to our surprise we had more than 70 seedlings when we were finally ready to start putting them into the ground in early May this year.

We have been fortunate to be working with soil, nurturing ourselves everyday with beautiful conversations and nourishing ourselves with freshly grown vegetables and fruits! The only thing added to soil is home made compost with vegetable and fruits peels.  More can be seen in the pictures below... We are very grateful to all our friends who have helped us learn and grow these vegetables and our inner journey by connecting to nature in a very profound  way!

You see Bruschetta made with all garden grown yellow squash, tomato and onion with a little salt and pepper!! The whole process was awesome!!          

Sometime last year had a good fortune to engage in deep conversation with this speaker and he was deeply moved and was so kind to join our community to witness our grassroots activities in our community around promoting positive Health & Wellness, Urban farming, Sustainable Living and such. He shared some of these insightful gems about what's true health and healthcare. Watch and be informed and share with those you care.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EISHtxDxb8&feature=relmfu
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ply43OndtyY&feature=relmfu

Our immune system is our internal doctor (internal healer).

In Health & Wellness,
Prakash

A farmer and Gandhian from south Gujurat, Bhaskar Save, shares some of his wisdom of ~60 decades of natural farming on 14 acres of land. When Masanobu Fukuoka visited him, he called him: The Gandhi of Natural Farming.

Bhaskar's experience with farming dramatically shifted when we applied to his practice what he called: Gandhiji's 5 Principles:
1. Harmonious coexistence for mutual benefit: Do not use artificial means to kill microbes.
2. Nothing borne out of the Mother Earth is waste.
3. Farming is not human's business. It is his/her moral duty.
4. All is Nature's will. We are mere labourers. Our rights are limited. Extract only as per your needs.
5. Do not hurry. Nature herself does not. Land is a living being. Converse with the farm.  
  There is enough for everyone's needs but not enough for anyone's greed. :-)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6z6-GD2POY&feature=related