The Fibonacci Sequence and the Built Environment When my husband architect Donald designed our home, he used a proportioning system which he has always used, that of a series of dimensions derived from the Fibonacci sequence. This sequence is formed by starting with 1+1 and then determining each successive number from the sum of two numbers… Read more »
Healing, the Archetypes, and Patterns of Wholeness
Healing, the Archetypes, and Patterns of Wholeness Carl Jung said healing happens when one is put in right relationship to the archetypes—or patterns of wholeness. All true healing systems incorporate the process of putting the patient back in touch with these patterns. My spiritual teacher, Norma T., whose teachings I discuss much more fully in… Read more »
Tourism and the Environment
I am copying in my letter to the editor of the Napa Valley Register from yesterday, September 20, 2015. It is accompanied today by several letters arguing that tourism is essential to the economy of our state. When profit and money become the guiding star, we lose track of wholeness. I am not against tourism, and,… Read more »
Peaches and Memories
Peaches and Memories I didn’t expect for us both to end up in tears. I only meant for him to sign his broadsides that I had just bought for my brother, sisters, and me, a gift to commemorate the sale of our four generation family farm. The broadside, entitled We Farm Memories, hit a particularly poignant note. David Mas Masumoto… Read more »
The Maturing of a Vineyard
The Maturing of a Vineyard The maturing of a vineyard is not unlike the maturing of a human being. We are of a culture that idealizes youthful image and behavior. Perhaps that is why so many people enter analysis in their early 40’s: youthful pursuits no longer make sense or work. Dreams reflect unexplored, ignored… Read more »
The Definition of Agriculture in Napa County
Monday, August 24, 2015, was the last meeting of APAC, the Agricultural Protection Adversary Committee, a committee composed of 17 citizens from various environmental, government, wine industry, and citizen groups, appointed by the Napa County Board of Supervisors. The object was to make recommendations on proposed changes to the Winery Definition Ordinance (WDO) about visitation and events centers and the inclusion… Read more »
Review: A Shepherd’s Life
Books come when you need them. For me, The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape, by James Rebanks, is such a book. Rebanks is the descendent of an ancient generational lineage of shepherds in the Lake District of Northern England. He writes about his childhood growing up as the inheritor of the tradition of… Read more »
August: The Fifth Season
August: The Fifth Season In California, August is a kind of fallow month. The following excerpt from Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation tells why: Ash and the Fifth Season In the Mediterranean-like climate of the Napa Valley, there is a period of summer dormancy that has is often called the fifth season. The grasses are… Read more »
Eating Locally
Eating Locally You would have thought I had just brewed a poison tea. Half of my writing group scoffed at the Douglas fir tea that I had just made. I had picked the tender fir tips from several young trees on our walk earlier, committed to having at least one item from the retreat land where our… Read more »
Forest Buddha
The Forest Buddha sits just outside the gate on the western most reach of the vineyard and lavender field (Lot Sophia). Each day I walk the goats, we pass the Buddha. He amplifies a quiet place in my soul, reminding me of why I am on earth. The goats remind me, too, in their much more… Read more »
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