For one day and one day only, I would like to work on an organic farm. I imagine it’s A LOT of hard physical work.

In the 80s before organic was a known thing I joined an organic co-op. Even the other co-op members hardly knew what it was about. I loved going out there with my kids, picking vegetables and ‘volunteering’ in the early summer evenings. They played Mozart to the flourishing plants, so we would be surrounded in green beautiful bliss. It was an experimental thing and the farmers were all very passionate about making it work. Which it seemed to, but no one else seemed to be too interested. We were always the only people besides the tired, dirt caked farmers we ever saw at the farm.

Soociety has come a long way. Farmers markets are busy places now, and organic produce is everywhere. I know I only have an small inking about how hard it is for these small farms to grow plants without chemicals, but I thoroughly appreciate them. Vegetables taste better, it all feels so much healthier for allof us. I know there are controversial aspects now that money and regulation are involved, but I still salute the efforts of passionate small farm farmers and feel grateful for their efforts.

I have a question. Why does it matter? I noticed that someone took the opportunity to plug a popular shoe brand over and over. And over. What clever tech trick someone at that company used is more of a curiosity for me than reading about soap or toothpaste.

I get that ‘branding’ is important. I hear this often. I think it’s the clever branders who are going from no followers to making six figures while they sleep. Meanwhile I can’t seem to figure out how to brand myself, or how to recognize myself as a brand. Am I one? I couldn’t tell you.

There are so many more interesting questions I’d love to hear the answers to about brands and branding. This question feels like market research. Coke or Pepsi? Some personal preferences don’t matter to me, should they?

I like to get my creative advice from late artists. Not all of them are what one might call admirable in every part of life, but when I want to learn more about doing art I look no further than some of my favorites. I don’t ask with words because the advice I’m seeking is not worded. I’m looking to solve a puzzle about how to do something. I can’t often articulate my questions.. One time I was reading about dyslexia. The author who was dyslexic, explained that some people thought in pictures. Learning that not everyone thought in pictures, was a weird revelation for me. Afterwards I was obsessed and quizzed everyone I knew about how it was to think in words. I was a grownup with kids before I knew this.

I don’t know that I’ve ever been good at receiving advice. Rarely do I ask for it and I’ve never been a fan of it unsolicited. I like the brain process of reverse engineering. This has always been my best way to learn. I need to know the end product to stay focused. From letters of the alphabet to math facts, my need to understand why each step is important and where they lead has not always been helpful.

I just work with it though. Sure I was the last in my class to learn any of the building blocks of math or reading, but I got there. Now I read a lot. I don’t even think of my dyslexia as a problem so much as a different way to perceive

One time sceptical me went with my good friend to hear a guy named Michael Neil speak, I remember having low expectations, but then what he had to say got my attention. It had a strong element of simplicity and truth. Today I listened to him explain how thinking is a tool that our brains use. He told us he wasn’t going to tell us how to think, but instead point out that we use thinking in a variety of ways and that thinking is a gift.

Thinking is a tool gifted to us at birth. When used for the purpose it is intended,, we can create beautiful things. I like that. We all think differently. If our minds were a guitar or a paint brush, even if we were all musicians and artists, we would use these instruments differently. Used as intended art or music happens. Even a beginner will produce something art or music related. I don’t know. Something about that feels hopeful and good.

Didn’t Henry Ford say something about whether we believe it or we don’t, we are right? I read a book about the new discoveries in cellular research. This one concept stayed with me. Cells, tiny little cells, have intelligence and deciding power.

The power of choice. The power of making a decision. Even at the cellular level. Cells get to decide what kind of cell they will be. Heart cells, lung cells, spleen cells.

Watching the news, listening to the weather, it doesn’t always feel like I have any choice. Life just churns this way and that and often I feel like I’m at the mercy of being inside some colossal cosmic washing machine.

Stuff happens, Things I would never predict or expect to control come up and then what? I understand that the feeling of making a clear choice is powerful. I love the concept, I love the freedom and power of agency, but wow.

In the tiny world of me, I make plenty of decisions that don’t seem to go anywhere, yet they call me a little forward. Butterflies, wild horses, feathers and even the color blue, all symbolize freedom. If I make one choice that makes me feel a little free, does it count? I hope so, because my focus is proving to be my one powerful choice lately. I’m talking about going to yoga, painting, breathing…

My family. Art…

I love quotes. I have many by writers like Emersion and Shakespeare that are poetic and profound that always inspire me. Song lyrics. I have a huge reapect for song writers who say just what I need to hear.

Today, all I can think of is something that Brad Pitt said in an interview many years ago. He was on a talk show watching clips of himself badly acting in soap operas and commercials. On the huge screen behind them, was a super young and suoer terrible Brad Pitt. To the laughing audience he said: “Well, it just proves that…

“…You can get better at anything.”

At that point he was mid career. He still wasn’t the actor he is today, but he had definitely improved noticeably.

I like the simplicity of that. It’s true. He didn’t say we could excel or be amazing. He didn’t promise that if we tried extra hard or set goals or committed ourself, miracles would occur. Just that improvement can happen, and with anything.

I’m often faced with tasks that I am not naturally inclined to do well. Many things I never wanted to master, somethings I’m not even interested in, but guess what? I’m getting better. I can see it.

It might have been his ability to laugh at himself, and own with a shrug his clear inability to do what he was aspiring to do. A lightness and a sense of humor as I learn new or hard things, does help.

Painting, yoga, things I love doing, and even things I might need to do like making reels on instagram or writing. If I do things more than a few times, I get better at doing them. It’s true.

Words to live by. Way to be encouraging. Thanks BP