Lets step back and look at the main intention that guides us and our fellow citizens here in the US. I think it is safe to say, that money (cha-ching) and greed rule the day. And the results are, to quote Annie Leonard, that we are trashing the planet, trashing each other, and not even having any fun doing it. By flailing around in the hamster wheel system of money and stuff, at the end of the day, we have very little time, very little energy, very little community, very little beauty. In short, many of us are deeply impoverished. I think it is safe to say, that for the average citizen, our lives and our landscapes often do not bring us the deep joy and satisfaction that we crave in life. In focusing purely on the finite, superficial ‘material’ rewards or outcomes, we often neglect to listen and follow the infinite possibilities of our deeper passions, our yearnings and our dreams

To go back the discussion on vision and intention that I mentioned in Part I James Stark spoke about the importance of focus and clarity. To paraphrase what he said: “The Universe does not work with ambiguity. If you have ambiguity in your vision the Universe cannot give you what you want”. Now I don’t buy completely into some of these “mind over matter” ideologies, but they do bring our attention to the importance of focused vision. There are some very practical and very powerful truths that we bring forth when we define our intentions.

1) Clarity of vision will fire up that massively creative and powerful brain of yours and turn it towards finding the possible ways to achieve that vision. Choice can be psychologically overwhelming and even downright depressing (as is demonstrated in this episode of Radiolab). So by really getting down to the core of your vision and defining what it is you are seeking to achieve (in your garden design, life, whatever!) you are allowing your mind to discard oodles of irrelevant information and process new and old information in the defined context of your vision. Our brain is quite adept when it comes to analyzing, sifting and contextualizing data, so give it something to chew on and put it to work!

2) By giving our dreams more shape and definition, the steps we need to take become much clearer and leave less space for aimless wandering. Again, ambiguity may leave us with too many choices. If I go beyond “gardening with native plants” in my garden design and instead decide to try and revive plants that were native to the San Jose area AND highly valued by the Muwekma tribe for food, medicine or materials (of course these will overlap considerably, if not completely), my path becomes a lot clearer. I will need to get in contact with ecologists specializing in this region, I will need to talk with people within the Muwekma tribe to see if they are willing to share their lore and management practices, and I can explore books like Kat Anderson’s “Tending the Wild” (which I HIGHLY recommend). If there are gaps in the aesthetic or conceptual design of the garden, I can then readjust my vision and pull in choices that are not in that narrow focus, but are still compatible with the overarching vision of the garden.

3) When we focus and strengthen our vision, we will naturally gravitate towards the resources and communities that we need and they will naturally gravitate towards us. Others will share a a common vision or intersecting interests and will bring wonderful and surprising contributions. There is no real magic in this, it is simply the benefit that clarity brings. When your dreams are more clearly pronounced, it allows others to be inspired and find their own ways of helping you succeed. Often these beautiful intersections will be of mutual benefit to you and those who have come along side you.

4) We shape the world according to what we believe. Ghandi saw the possibility of a just world, Hitler saw the opportunity for supreme domination. Both of them believed so strongly in their vision that they brought mind-boggling changes to their world. It is important to acknowledge that the power of intention, cuts both ways. But it is also important to realize that within each of us lies the power to be the Ghandi of our generation (or another Hitler), but are we brave enough to use that power? Even in the context of landscape and garden design…..can we be bold enough to let our yards and our lives be everything we want them to be?

My hope is that we find the gumption to just do it, and that we take the time to deeply contemplate our motives and focus our intentions on bringing in rejuvenation, joy and abundance to ourselves, our communities and our earth.

But that’s enough philosophy….next post (I promise) will be about bringing these lofty ideas down to earth and I’ll talk about some ways of letting the creative juices flow and internalizing our intentions so that we start to achieve our dreams even in our sleep…(yes, really!) Stay tuned.

<- Part I – – – – – – – – Part III ->

Finally, I can sit down at home, take a breath and look around me. It has been a really intense couple of weeks. I feel it in the tightness and weight of my body which is slowly unwinding as I rest and tend to my neglected household. Over the past two weeks so much has happened: my grandmother passed away after a long battle with Parkinsons, I began full time work at my old job, shot up to Grass Valley for Grandma’s funeral, spent a sad yet wonderful July 4th weekend with family and friends, and then that Sunday my wife and I had to get up at 5:00am and hit the road so I could make it to the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) in time to start a four day intensive course on Advanced Permaculture Design with Robyn Francis. So yes, things have been tumultuous and amazing all at once. Fairly symptomatic of this whole year when I think about it: full of a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability not only in my own life, but in the entire world as we face huge shifts and changes all over the planet.

Since I’m just returning from four days of intense immersion in Permaculture study, I’ve got patterns on the brain. One of the beautiful things about Permaculture design is that so much of the broader discipline is a discussion of general patterns in the world around us. Through thoughtful observation and wise application of these patterns, we can start to bring harmony and abundance into our lives whether it be in our relationships, in our career or….(dun, dun, dun!)…. in our garden.

On the last day of my design course, James Stark (co-founder of RDI) and Robyn Francis held a wonderful discussion on the realization of dreams and the power of intention. There were many threads in the discussion that connected with insights that I have been discovering in my own life as I make preparations to start my landscaping business. I have found these ideas very helpful and inspiring, so I would like to use this post to continue teasing out these ideas in the context of garden design.

The best place to start is by acknowledging the importance of imagination and creativity. Let’s sidestep the obvious, cliche discussions about tinkering with aesthetics, or artistry, or layouts, or structures, or whatever because I think I lot of people tie ‘creativity’ to intelligence, cleverness, artistic talent and who knows what else. Instead how about we go straight to the core. At the heart of things creativity is both fearless and dangerous because it has very little respect for what currently exists in the world. What the creative mind does then, is imagine and bring into consciousness concepts that have never existed in the material world before. Now that might sound a little crazy and far out, but the beautiful thing is, everyone single one of us is creative. If you have the slightest doubt, just ask the most unimaginative person you know to tell you what they dreamed last night. Our brains are WILDLY creative, so much so that our dreams can range from absolute absurd abstraction, to terrifying or sublime realism. Unfortunately, upon waking our culture, habits, relationships and our own internal monologue start to box that wildness in, contain it, strap it down with a list of do’s, don’ts, can’ts, shouldn’ts and so on. The most creative people I know are those who simply allow their imagination to roam free and have the courage to follow some of the outlandish ideas that result. The courage to follow an unusual or novel idea is the hardest part, yet it is a skill that can be learned. For some of us, it might just start with something very small like a flower arrangement, and from there we can work ourselves up towards the more ambitious creative thought and large scale creative action whether it be in garden design or in our career choices, it doesn’t matter. It just requires the resolve to start allowing our imagination to play a greater role in our lives.

Our imagination is powerful and incredibly versatile, and our brain can be very creative with pretty much anything that we hand it. As dreamweavers, we have amazing potential to bring wonderful designs into the world. Yet within our creative brains also exists the potential for utter chaos and lack of direction if we don’t focus on something. That is where intention and clarity of purpose start to play a crucial role in the design process. Without clarity, our imagination and our actions tend to meander and may not yield what we really want to accomplish. In our designs, whether they are for ourselves or others, it is crucial that we clarify the intentions surrounding the design so we can harness and guide the powerful forces of our imagination.

In the next blog post I will take these ideas a little further, touch on some practical ways to focus and tap into our imagination, and on top of it I’ll throw in a little neurology and theory to spice it up!

…continue on to Part II ->