Observation as Virtue
Yesterday I harvested the last of the peppers from the plants we grew in our neighbor’s greenhouse. The use of our neighbor’s greenhouse was a wonderful gift. She had to go South for work over the summer, and her greenhouse was going to go unused; she offered it to us. However, the gift really was not just about the peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers we grew, it was also a fabulous opportunity to observe how her greenhouse was constructed, what worked well and what did not, and to begin planning the greenhouse we want to build next year. The Last Peppers of the Year Observation is one of the key elements to both permaculture and to any true spiritual life. Permaculture teaches us that each of us have impact on our environment, and that we should therefore take time to be very intentional about our practice of observing our environment as a whole system, planning a desired future outcome, and then