Getting fired up about goals for the garden and life!

I wrote out my big, overarching holistic goals for my life this morning and I'm on fire! 

I am currently walking my students through the process of Goal Articulation in my Green Thumb Course. 

Articulating your goals on paper helps you to create more deliberately. It helps inspire you, motivate you through the hard work, and gives you purpose in your garden. It gives you direction for the decisions you need to make. 

I like to revisit my goals often, to keep me focused, and also to re-evaluate. Is this still important to me? What is true for me right now? 

So yesterday I sat down in front of the wood stove with a pad of paper and a pen and got to work. I even got the boys' input on what is important to them (friends and experiments, as it turns out.) 

As I worked it, I got more and more excited. Can I really provide for 75% of my needs?? What does that mean? What are my needs? It sounds thrilling and challenging. 

When I finished and read over what I wrote, I got a little tingle up my spine. My whole body said, YES! This is what I want! 

Here's my big, overarching holistic goal: 

Our home is a beautiful gathering space filled with love, light, and laughter. It is surrounded by gardens which provide abundant food, medicine and beauty which we share with others. We grow, forage, and barter for 75% of our needs. 

We tend the land we are on as if it were our own, and for future generations who may live here. Within the fenced garden we have fruit trees, berry bushes, mushrooms, and mulch plants as well as many beds for annual production and seeds. Our chickens eat mostly from the land and provide eggs as well as entertainment, pest control, and garden tilling services. We have other animals for meat and/or milk. 

The garden is an oasis. It feels protected and sheltered from the wind and other outside forces. Here we are truly safe to be ourselves, connect with nature, and heal. As we nurture nature, we are nurtured by her. It is filled with delight. There are places to sit and places to hide. 

We prioritize relationships and are always learning, working, and having fun as a family as well as with our friends. We value clean air, water, and food and healthy bodies and minds. We love to experiment and create music and art. We value community and participate in it through celebrations, support, and service. 

I inspire thousands of people to grow food in partnership with nature. I teach and mentor gardening students, guide people to teach gardening in their own communities, and help people start their own regenerative businesses. I am an author and a speaker. 

One of the parts that got me most exited was inspiring thousands of people to grow more of their own food, which is why I'm writing to you today! 

I've decided to pick up this blog and dust it off and bring you some quality content and inspiration.

As always, if you want more instructional help in your garden, you can join my Green Thumb Course. It's a year-round online course where I will work directly with you to create the garden of your dreams.

I've been teaching my course online for 2.5 years and I have to say it's working better than I ever thought possible. My students are learning way more and I am still able to give them personalized instruction in the small group classes. 

I look forward to helping you grow more food and get more out of your garden with less effort!

Thank you for being a part of my community!