So was Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech". Dreams are important, but don't worry, Common Garden Ground is gonna be all about no BS,  how to actually make the change you wish to see in the natural world. So let's talk about the current situation. 

     There is a lot of be upset about in the world, forests getting cut down for your toilet paper, oil spills in the ocean, water shortages, people dying of hunger despite richer countries wasting food...

There is a place to acknowledge and fight for these things, but it's not the emphasis of common garden ground. When I focused on everything that was wrong with the world, I felt like, as Dr. Yvette describes it, "a sprinkler in the desert"...I was feeling more and more helpless and guilty about the state of things and it ultimately slowed me down...all to contribute towards problems I may never solve.  I found myself also feeling guilty about everything and, to feel better, comparing myself to others that are more ecologically wasteful than me...and then found myself creating and feeding an anger against the world and others for all that's gone wrong. 

Well, I also could get run over by a truck next week. Do I want to, in my last moments, look back and say that I was so busy trying to save the world I never actually enjoyed my time in it? That I was so busy fighting/blaming/trying to evangelize others that I never enjoyed or loved up the people in my life? 

For me, this doesn't work...I don't do it well. It doesn't mean that there aren't times to take a stand, thank you Greta Thunberg. I just know it's not my role. 

So you see here: I want to do good for the earth, but I also want to love and empower others in my life regardless of their level of engagement and I want to feel good doing it. That way, my efforts to do good in the world are "run-over-by-a-truck" proof: My life can end at any time knowing I enjoyed, and brought love, to the people and creatures living here, myself included. 

Oh, I have a very dark sense of humor by the way.  It's so dark...it's basically black gold. LOL (that was a joke about compost)  

So although in this space we will embrace the harsh realities of the world today, it's not going to be the emphasis. The emphasis and focus of Common Garden Ground is to inspire a global, gorgeous, ultimately unachievable vision of the world that everyone can contribute to: to create a thriving garden space and thriving relationships in the process, but also be a BS-free zone where you will see me, hands in the ground, trying to get this stubborn beet to grow and taking notes to save you the struggles. 

So if you want to change the world, you've got to start with yourself. 

So that's what I'm doing. I grew up with the typical American lifestyle, and I'm continually  learning to be compassionate and patient with myself so that I get lots of practice in towards being loving to you, no matter where you are starting from on your road  flower-filled-garden path back to nature. 

So in starting with myself, creating inner change for outer impact (completely stolen from Yvette, I'll be quoting her a lot,  thank you Yvette!), you'll be seeing me trying to grow food, flowers, fragrance and the successful relationships and systems that will keep the flowers blooming past my lifetime. You'll see me succeeding blissfully (like my micgrogreen set up) failing miserably (like the mung beans sprouts that I'm too skittish to actually eat  so they end up going back into the compost pile) and offering education based off these lessons. 

As soon as (literally) humanly possible, I will try to shift the focus off of me and onto the people, the plants, the ecosystems, the strategies and all the good in the world that deserves to be seen and cherished so that it can thrive and spread. 

So in the process of seeing my story, I hope to offer questions and steps to help you reveal what really matters to you and how nature can you help you, your people and the world get there.