April

Gotta make hay when the sun is shining and that's what I've been making. I had a record month and managed to pay off a nice chunk of our biz startup debt as well as secure many new customers. I'm up over 80 now, some weekly, many monthly, many more seasonally. Cory Straker stayed with us for a few weeks and helped me bang out 2-3 treatments a day, which I know doesn't sound like much, but they are usually 6-7 hour jobs for one person so you do the math. Cory also lectured, I mean educated, us on nutrition introducing us to such wonders as Cocunut Oil instead of Margarine, Walnut Oil instead of salad dressing, Yams instead of Chips among other things. It was great actually. Besides, we introduced him to stuff too ok.

May is beginning a bit slower than April mostly due to the fact that Cory helped me do six weeks of work in 3 - so today I am going to go back cold calling like I did in the beginning, to ensure business continues to move ahead strong. Actually I have an exciting meeting this morning as I'm sitting down with an ecologist to discuss eco lawn/landscape plans for the grounds of the local university. I'll let you know how it goes. Anyways, in case you're interested, most of our treatments involve power-raking, aerating, liming, seeding, compost top dressing and then 2 other treatments unique to our company that are garnering great results. Mycorrhizae Fungi and Effective Micro-organisms. These are the new innovations in lawn care and will be standard one day, especially in 2012 when Canada bans pesticides. Amazing stuff you should try in your lawn and garden.

Angie has been more supportive, helpful than is possible by continuing to make our company look good online and in magazines as well as keeping me fed and loved each night as I roll in exhausted at 8pm. In her spare time she works for Nurse's Next Door, is an excellent mother to 3 high energy kids and has transformed the clay pit outside our house to a lovely landscape. She also has been doting over her other kids, veggie plants. I can't get enough of this woman and I shudder to think what life would be like without her.

You may have heard about our Disneyworld plan. Next January we are flying down (thank you Visa Avion points) to South Carolina to visit my parents. They are only 7 hours from Disneyworld - which I know sounds like a lot- but not to 3 motivated kids. We made a deal with the kids that if they wanted to go they would have to work for it just like us. They called our bluff and said, fine, we'll start our own business. And that's exactly what they've done. Ethan and Lex are the neighborhood Pooper Scoopers and have gotten quite busy. In fact, Ethan said the other day as we were driving somewhere "I only have Sunday and Wednesday off next week." haha. Currently they are bringing in over $100 a month heading towards their goal of $1500 for the year. Maddie has been baking delicious cookies and selling them along with home-made lemonade and after a strong first Saturday ($50 profit), she's been busy the past few weekends but excited to get back at it. We never wanted kids who saw places like Disneyworld as a right instead of a privelage, so we're hoping that working for it will help.

As usual, I gotta get back to it, so tales of church, wine tasting at Averill Creek and movies will have to wait until next month. Speaking of next month, our good friends Darcy and Hope/Family are coming to stay with us for a ENTIRE night. Can't wait....to convince them to stay longer.

John

Ressurection: Factual Truth?

I hesitate even further to open this 4 gallon pail of worms because casting doubt on the factual ressurection of Jesus Christ is analagous to denying the existence of God. In fact, that would be the expected reaction to anyone doing such as thing. So, I'm not about to be one of those people. You can relax. Dad. :)

Instead, I will share 3 lines from "For the harvests of the spirit" - a song we sung just this morning at our church's easter service. These words perfectly sum up where I'm at on the issue.

For the wonders that astound us
For the truths that still confound us
Most of all that love has found us, thanks be to God.

Happy Easter family and friends.

John

Jesus' Death: Divine Necessity?

I hesitate to open such a large can of worms but I will for two reasons. The first is connected to my current distance from such matters. There was a time when all I thought about was questions such as these but now that I'm a small business owner of an organic lawn care business, I'm up to my knees in dirt and any spare time I do have is spent catching up on invoices and sending out quotes. I miss these questions and the discussians they create. The second reason is my apparent "love of controversy" as my wife jests - to which I respond - go make me supper woman.

As you may recall, I opened a smaller can of worms last Christmas when I intimated that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin but was written that way as an alternative to Caesar (also suposedly born of a virgin). A spirited discussion resulted - one that will hopefully continue here.

When it comes down to it, Crossan and Borg are quite right. Jesus' death was either the result of divine necessity (God needed him to die) or human inevitability (Jesus message destined him to die). I guess the third alternative is unbelief (there is no God and Jesus may or may not have existed either) but let's assume they both exist, because I believe they do (not that that is evidence).

Most of us were raised to believe, and still believe, that the death of Jesus was out of divine necessity. God's creation was steeped in sin and previous attempts to break them out of it had fallen short (flood, visions, animal sacrifice etc). God needed a permanent solution. It was decided (at some point or was known all along) that the only suitable long term solution would be the death of God's perfect and only son. Only a perfect human could free imperfect humanity from their sin. With the plan in place Jesus would appear just at that right time to accomplish God's plan. With centuries of prophecy behind him, Jesus appeared on the scene miraculously and after thirty years of stone masonry/ carpentry Jesus brought about the discussed plan.

Approximately three years later, Jesus freely gave up his life, was crucified on a Roman cross, and in his death, brought about the salvation of mankind. Three days later Jesus walked out of the tomb, spent a month preparing his disciples to take over and then returned to the God he had left 33 years ago. This of course is a brief summary of the plan of divine necessity.

The second option of human inevitability claims crucifiction was simply the logical end for any man living in the first century who taught the kind of things Jesus taught. Like Martin Luther King after him, Jesus was killed because the ruling powers/culture of the day was not able to absorb the implications of his words. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not, which means he's no longer all powerful and without an all powerful leader the (ironic) Pax Romana can be threatened. Rome responded swiftly to this threat and although the bible portrays Pilate as an "aw shucks, do we really hafta kill him" kind of guy, it was Rome through Pilate in the end who tortured Jesus, nailed him to a cross, and carried out his death. Sure it was the Jews idea, but the Romans made it happen.

It's important to note here that Rome didn't crucify people willy nilly. It was a brutal capital punishment reserved only for those unfortunate souls who subverted Roman law thereby disturbing Pax Romana. In other words, the Romans would not have crucified Jesus because some orny Jews pressured them "crucify him crucify him crucify him" and like tired parents they finally caved. We must remember this was an empire built on doing what it wanted, when it wanted to whoever it wanted and so in the end, they chose to crucify Jesus along with two other revolutionary, freedom fighters, as the greek word for "thieves" implies- thus killing off 3 potential threats to their rule and ideology. Rome had the Jews to thank for alerting them to this potential threat so in an odd friendship, these two enemies killed Jesus Christ.

As I reflect on the options before me, I find the second option of human inevitability to be more likely and thus inspiring to my journey of faith. Jesus passionately preached his beautiful message knowing full well it would one day lead to his death. His predictions in the gospels "the Son of Man will be.."were not indicative of his rememberance of the heavenly deal he made with his father 33 years prior but rather his intuitive sense that the world in which he lived was not yet ready to hear a "pray for your enemies, turn the other cheek, religion is not important, woman are not inferior and Caesar is not Lord" kind of message." Jesus continued preaching anyways, knowing full well it would cost him his life. And when it did, Jesus died with love in his heart for the humans he served, even the ones who brought about his death. It was a Good Friday.

A few days later an awakening occured. But that's another story.

John

March Update

It has actually stopped raining 9 days a week so I can finally get some work done.. I remember a good friend telling me "you'll love the Island but get used to the wet winters." Didn't sound too bad then but after 3 months I get it sky. Time for something new.

It's amazing how much our business has changed since its inception. I think about what we knew last fall and what we know today and there's simply no comparison. I think besides the financial struggle, having this winter "off" was the best thing as it allowed Angie and I to really think things through, plan, plot and learn. I took an extremely helpful Organic Turf Management course, had a coffee with the world's foremost organic turf guru, devoured every Seth Godin word, solidified my product line, made great connections, and Angie created our phenomenol website. You know you take pride in something when a visitor to your site elicits a bottle of wine and dance around your house (not that we did any of that)

With a spring of Lush growth ahead of us (hey, Lush, that's the name of your..) we are feeling confident, secure, assured for the first time in some time. In the last month we've gotten over 30 new customers and its grows every day. We are the only chemical free lawn company in the valley and the word is getting around. We hadn't plan to hire this year but we may have to re-examine things. In the meantime, I'm working from dawn to dark trying to get the treatments (seeding) in so the grass plants have time to establish themselves before the heat of summer hits. Yes, I am a farmer now. Never checked the weather so much in my life.

Next month I'm teaching 4 workshops on how to care for your lawn naturally. This is important as I've really missed the teaching part of my past life and this is a way to keep that alive.

Anyways, the sun's up so I'm off. Miss you, wherever you are.

John

Humus

Not the eating kind, although just as healthy, humus is literally the place where new life springs up. Humus is what's left when micro-organisms (bacteria) consume organic matter (vegetable waste, leaves, grass clippings etc). We call this finished product compost. Our composters or compost piles are host to this process. This black gold when used at the time of planting or to topdress tired lawns will inject health and vitality into otherwise barren places.

The interesting thing about humus, besides its ability to grow things well, is that it comes from the same etymological root as the world humility. I don't know about you but due to my "hold nothing back, live out loud, risk it all" personality, I have experienced my fair share of mud on my face. In fact, sometimes my whole self has been so mired in mud I've required the help of others just to get moving again. The unfortunate thing about these muddy times, is all I'm thinking about is getting out so I don't take the stuck time to think or notice. It's only when I'm out that I'm able to realize my growth.

The humus analogy is apt (and not my own). New life grows out of mud. So next time you're in it, don't waste your time trying to get unstuck. Let it grow you up.

John

I'm an Athiest?

Having always been a person of deep faith I was struck across the face this morning as my author of choice suggested otherwise. He claimed that many people of faith actually function as athiests believing that they alone are in control. The result of this unbelief is it leads a person to impose their will on others (control) the only real option if its all up to them. This of course puts enormous stress on all their relationships (who likes to be controlled?) and if left unchecked, will cause breakage. The end result is burnout, depression and despair as the person learns that they can't control others and the world will not bend to their will. As depressing as this all sounds, its much worse living like this. And explains a lot. If you're this person.

In other news, I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" yesterday's gold medal game. Most of the time involved me biting my nails and ignoring my stomach pain. Perhaps the stress came from the fact that I knew I couldn't control the outcome? Hmmm. That being said, I did predict at the onset of the game that Crosby would score the winner so maybe I did control things....

John

Let your life speak

It's rare when we read in a book descriptions that so closely resemble ourselves. When it occurs it can be un-nerving, off putting, or, if we're open, convicting. Let Your Life Speak has been one of those books for me. It was wisely recommended by a perceptive friend, years back when I was lost in the thick woods of life, career, vocation. The book's subtitle is "Listening for the Voice of Vocation" and its genius is how it resists the temptation to give 7 steps to Vocational Bliss, or How to Discover your True Self in 15 days - but instead asks the tough probing questions that lie at the heart of who we are. In my experience, it is difficult if not impossible to be at peace until we know why we are. This book has helped me know, time and time again.

John