Wow. Three months. How is it possible? How’d they pass so fast?

Many folks from 1984 to date born in the USA have not done a lot of physical labor. And my three-month internship at the coolest place on earth gave me a mere taste of what real work is like. For me, true work meant being awake before sunrise and working efficiently, eating healthy and hefty meals, and then going to bed sore and sleepy. Of course, we did more than just work and eat to work. We also included in our days together yoga, piano-guitar-trumpet jazz, and swimming hole trips.

Another thing about the hard work I did… it was nothing compared to Mark and Mike who don’t get to stop working at 7 or 7:30, they have to keep going until they finish everything that can’t wait another day. Maybe it is getting ready for market, or maybe it could mean getting a raised bed ready so that we can plant first thing before a rain hits.

So a couple things stick out as particularly intense on a physical level. Moving the shitake logs was a pretty big deal and transplanting tomatoes in a 108 degree greenhouse (bad idea!).

But, on a mental level, EVERYTHING could be intense. That’s just the nature of my mind. There’s often a lot of stuff churning in there, so my practice has become remembering that whatever the task at hand, it is worthy of my full humility and attention. And I think that is the sort of honor with which this year’s interns and volunteer treat the work; and, I suspect the subscribers of our CSA group can sense our enthusiasm in the food they eat.

Mike and Mark generate that from the love they have for what they do. Mike has his dream job, and he’s had it since 1984. That is pretty great, and his intense work ethic and ability to have fun as he sweats and weeds and plants, it is all contagious. Mark is the same way in this regard: hard working and fun loving, simultaneously.

There is a lot of irreverent joking and silliness that helps us pass the time. But. There remains that reverence that we give the work, even though we are plowing through it as quickly and efficiently as we can.

Well, except maybe me when I’m pooped on Fridays after a wonderful breakfast prepared by Jordan or a creative and tasty lunch prepared by Mike. (Ask him about his homemade-mayonnaise-plus-greens salad dressing!) The other young (no offense Mike and Mark!) workers were more mentally and physically tough and focused through the fatigue more than me. Billy, Jordan, Jordan and Carlos… a great crew.

It ain’t easy working all week and then getting up at 3:50AM on a Saturday and loading the truck and driving to town and selling flowers and vegetables, all while being happy and talking with market goers about yoga and the farm and all. But it is a joy. Especially with Mark and Mike and our 2011 Farm Fam.

So, for three brief months, surrounded by good people, doing good work and learning how hard one must work to create a little place on earth as it is in heaven my mind went all over the place (sorry, Mark!).

So many social justice and life issues arose during this wonderful period, among them, “what is my mission in life?” I sometimes imagine that we get to sit around a table with God drinking tea before being conceived and that we then come to Earth with a sort of mutually-established set of Sealed Orders. I think the summation of mine are, “Be a Uniter.” But what manifestations will these sealed orders take? Perhaps 30 hours a week of community lawyering in Arkansas? Perhaps an organic gardener, author, musician and activist? A politician? The co-founder of a cooperatively owned transnational collective of solar panel factories in Danville, Resistencia (Argentina) and Coimbatore (India)?

I certainly know not, but I do wish you the best on your search, Dear Reader. Take heart if you fear you might have difficult orders; everybody has their own, just as we have our own religion, sexuality, gender, preference for types of pizza, and a predisposition toward crunchy or creamy peanut butter. It is perfectly natural and even necessary that we live out our special way of giving and receiving love, and no matter how many people claim their way of believing is the best or that dogs are better than cats.

And I guess that was what I was doing on the farm. Well, working my tail off, but also widening the lens of my Possibility Camera. The sort of inner camera that captures Potential Ways of Living and sheds light on my future. For example, apart from all of the personality development and such, I know now that I want to have an outhouse. A two-seater. And that I will use the humanure to fertilize my fruit trees. Apples, plums, peaches… whatever requires the least amount of protection from pests and is easiest generally.

Ya’ll, we are in need of schools that teach organic farming. It is such an essential thing, knowing how to grow one’s own food. I think the work involved kept me physically healthy, and something about kneeling on the ground with spiders and worms was great for the development of my overall personality.

Also, speaking of personality development; Mark isn’t afraid to correct someone if there is a better way to do something, or if he detects distraction. Which, if you know me, you know it is easily detectable and often. Anyway, Mark’s Way proved wonderful for developing my ability to respond to and even instigate confrontation. And by respond, I mean change my behavior or recognize that everything was fine to begin with. Mark helped me grow a backbone. It might be important to instigate confrontation occasionally as an attorney. A Buddhist thinker is supposed to have said something along these lines, which if I can implement in my life will be largely due to Mike and Mark:

“Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering. Compassion allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal.”

So, with no exception (except stubbing my toe on the tractor, maybe), each aspect of the farm made me a stronger, wiser, better-looking person. Hah! Ok, that last part was sort of a joke, like a few parts of this entry, but let’s move on to the pictures.

Here’s a picture of Carlos, Jordan and me from our first couple of weeks on the farm. Thanks to Carlos for many of these pictures, including this one.

This photo is from our first full workday on the farm, April 4th, 2011. It looks like I’m sowing some seed; and chances are we planted it before my internship ended!

So in the previous entry you saw a picture of me drilling shiitakes; here’s a similar picture of me in a different shirt. This is evidence that we spent several days doing the same task: something common in farm life.

We planted them close together so that they wouldn’t get too tall. I wouldn’t have known this of course, but Mark said so, and one thing I learned is that you can always trust Mark. Unless he’s joking. And it is impossible to discern the difference.

This photo brings to mind a typically hilarious instance which I cannot entirely recount because what happens at DSG stays at DSG. But, I can say that among interns and Dripping Springs volunteers, past and present, it is kind of a running joke that Mark will tell you how to accomplish a task and then Mike will tell you another way to accomplish the same task, or vice versa. Among the first “talks” we had at the breakfast table with Mike and Mark and all of us together, we were told two things:
a) This isn’t summer camp.

b) When Mark tells you to do one thing, and Mike tells you to do another, you do whatever you are told. Until you are told to do otherwise. Also, the proximity of Mark or Mike is determinant. It may seem hard to believe, but I am told by reliable sources that there exists a fairly complex mathematical equation that gives a consistently correct answer as to whom should be listened to—Mark or Mike--but math isn’t my strong suit so I was simply admonished often.

This photo was taken by our beloved volunteer and friend, Celine. She is from France and has the most beautiful accent. I can’t help but laugh when she says, “Oh, how may I help you” because her fun, enthusiastic, and caring Tao is summed up in her voice and the specific words. This became, for us interns, her trademark phrase. We missed her when she went off to visit her Mom in France.

Here is a picture Celine took the morning she prepared us all some delicious French crepes.

So every Wednesday we hot foot it to harvest things before the heat zaps it all. We harvest it and get it in the CSA subscribers’ boxes and into the walk-in cooler as fast as we can. Above you can see some amazing peppers with the CSA boxes in the background.

We’d set up the tables and fold the boxes and commence filling them with organic goodness for our “freshatarians.” (This term was recently coined by Mark.)

The boxes gradually fill up and they look amazing throughout the process. This box is from a different Wednesday than the pic above and below, but you get the idea.

Another box filling up.

At the end of the day Wednesday, the cooler is a really beautiful place. Mark and Mike will have made the bouquets for our CSA subscribers that chose to get bouquets in addition to their veggies, for Greenhouse Grill who trades us food for flowers, for Ozark Natural Foods which sells our bouquets… and who knows where else Mike has to deliver BEFORE going to farmer’s market to have everything set up by 7am. He’s a tough guy, that Mike.

This is my beloved cousin Jordan and the cabbages that went to our CSAers. Like I said, we treat the food with great respect. And when that isn’t just the case, we treat it with lots and lots of excitement. Genuine silly excitement. I doubt I’ll ever forget the first shiitake I harvested and cooked, for example.

Speaking of shiitake mushrooms… to keep them producing we get them wet. Like a lot of responsibilities, the interns rotated this one. Each Monday we’ll clean the tub out and then for that week one of us will be responsible for rotating the logs—about 15 at a time—each morning and evening.

On the weekends I had a lot of fun. In fact, I only spent one Sunday on the farm. It was sacred and beautiful—I went on a river walk and saw more or less where the cranes live and all kinds of fish and a huge, huge Buffalo-River-style bluff and other great things that made me wish my honors geology prof were with me. But I digress. This pic was of an event celebrating the pending arrival of His Holiness; from left we are Jeremiah, Megan and Dr. Burris (all of whom I went to India with in 2008), and another great change agent, Dan Dean.

Lama Mepham, when I got back from India in 2008, gave me a huge hug and said, “Stephen! I am so happy to see you! There are so many ways to die!” Wiser words were never spoken. This guy is so humble and soooo, sooo funny. He passed a pair of three-year silent retreats in the Himalayan Mountains. Now he lives in New York City and has disrobed. He said once that in the mountains it was so cold that icicles formed on his mustache, but that the cold of Bhutan pales in comparison with the cold of New York City.

Mystical Arts in Park
The Mystical Arts of Tibet goes around the country simultaneously promoting and preserving Tibet’s ancient, unique and altruistic culture. Geshe la (4th from left) took me to India along with Dr. Burris and used to be a member of the group.

So this may seem totally unrelated to farming and social justice. But being around these two learned jedis—Mark and Mike—helped me grow so much, and while on the farm I watched a lot of this cartoon, the protagonist of which is pictured above. It was no accident that while at Dripping Springs Gardens I was able to touch and learn directly from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Sister Helen Prejean. And it wadn’t no accident eitha’ that I began to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. There is so much going on in this cartoon, but basically the Avatar is a young kid with whom I could identify in a lot of ways. Also, there’s a lot of Tibet references in the story: the mountain home of the main character—a nomad and monk—is called the Potala Mountain Range. His pet—who is almost eaten by a friend—is called Momo. His teacher’s name is Gyatsu. He refers to himself as “a simple monk.” He reincarnates; a guru teaches him about chakras; he’s a vegetarian. Hah! (The Dalai Lama’s palace in Lhasa is called Potala, a momo is a Tibetan steamed dumpling (often containing meat!), His Holiness’ name is Tenzin Gyatsu, and he often refers to himself as a simple monk, and he also reincarnates.)

Here we are with His Holiness.

Here we are with Sister Helen. She said that she decided to get up and come outside and write in her spiritual journal when she saw His Holiness up and bird watching very, very early in the morning.

Tabitha Lee took this picture of one of the huge screens at the moment His Holiness and Sister Helen met. More about this great meeting is on her blog and Dr. Burris’.

Back to the farm… Here you can see the blueberry bushes getting ready for us to harvest. A week or two later we had gallon buckets strapped to our sides and filled up 10 of them for our CSA members. And, of course, for ourselves. Another thing I learned from Mike: blueberries with honey and peanut butter are a GREAT snack any time.

Many an intern has walked up the hill to get a telephone signal, including me. This flower was growing alongside the road where I’d go to make phone calls, and we used its kind as filler in our bouquets. I believe it is Queen Anne’s Lace. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong. That’s the kind of friends I want.

While it was a great pleasure to not have ready access to the phone and internet, and I was thankful for it, I was also thankful when uplifting texts and emails would magically waft their way into the signal-less valley just when I needed a pick-me-up.

What can I say? Everybody’s personality is pretty much perfectly transmitted in this photo. I am so, so grateful to Mark and Mike for making the near-fatal mistake of letting me work on their farm for three months. At least I didn’t burn down the barn, guys! And the few kitchen fires were really all under control.

Thank you, Mark and Mike, Billy, Carlos and Jordan and Jordan. And to past interns who told me how to survive, particularly Ansel, Molly, and Ryan.

One last thing… Mike and Mark are not just master gardeners; they are master generositers. Not a word, I know, but their level of generosity merits a new word. They always make sure we have enough to eat, enough sheets to sleep, enough blocks for yoga moves: whatever. This is another thing I learned on the farm. Billy would occasionally mention how stingy a farmer in Hawai’i was with food, and Mark just couldn’t tolerate that someone would mistreat their intern that way. It was really sweet. I learned sooo much. Gosh.

Thank you Mike and Mark and Dripping Springs Gardens’ soil, river, trees, caves, lightning bugs, butterflies, fruits, veggies, flowers, snakes (I held them!), and thank you Callie (the only sociable cat), and puppy dogs Lillie, Summer and Oscar!

Lastly, the final video which for some reason I couldn’t upload last time.