The Power of Love

We have ongoing dissent at our house around dinner time. I like to be peaceful around food and others prefer the news. My personal opinion on the news is that it is owned by Big Business, and used as a tool to manipulate, and this makes it hard for me to watch it with any kind of equanimity, whereas others feel they want to be informed.

But really the reason I don't want to watch the news is because in the wake of recent world events, I find the manipulation both abhorrent and heartbreaking; abhorrent in it's determination to monger fear into our hearts and heartbreaking in every other way.

I don't think that fear mongering will change anything in the world. It creates fight or flight stress, it throws people into mass panic, and it very often under-educates and misleads.

Love on the other hand, love opens our hearts. Love clears the space for empathy and compassion. Love makes us look beyond our own bodily reaction in the light of tragic events and reach for whatever we can do - comfort a friend, travel to a place or a land in duress and offer services or bow our heads in prayer.

Love makes us search for ways to change things, to do something, to do anything to change what is hurting us, and by extension, those we feel compassion and empathy for. And the repercussions of love are so much more far-reaching than those of fear. While fear would have us cowering and hiding away from what 'could' happen, love takes us out to make waves in the energy of the world,creating a ripple effect to change the very constitution of it.

My new mantra is, "I believe in Love," and right now, with all the horrifying news funneled to us everyday (and hanging out on social media is no protection from the far-reaching effects of fear-mongering mainstream media), I am chanting it often.

In fact, everytime something happens it is my only mantra - I believe in love, I believe in love, I believe in love. Because love triumphs every single time. For every person steeped in hate, there are thousands who believe in love; for every act of violence against our fellow mankind, animals or the earth itself, there are thousands of people doing acts of kindness, courage and compassion to help people and our planet.

Why am I writing this? Well, the news really is horrifying and there really is no escaping the negativity and fear it creates, but the rest is a choice. Despite whatever happens, we have the choice in how to respond and this is, in its own little way, a call for us all to remember that love always triumphs. Always. In all ways. Love is the most powerful ripple effect we can create and each one of us is empowered to create that effect.

Yes, there is a confusing collision of human beings with the intent of hurting and killing people and the rest of us staring wide-eyed in pain at these collisions, AND there is love.

Here are some things to do which lie in the realm of love:
1) Go out and help someone
2) Donate to causes that help while channeling compassion and empathy
3) Meditate on love
4) Tell the people you love that you love them, frequently, and then again
5) Do random acts of kindness
6) Help someone in need without them knowing it is you
7) Keep meditating on love
8) Keep  your heart open and full of light, regardless of the news
9) Plant a garden, be out in nature and remember wholeness
10)  Be with others who recognize the infinite power of love and celebrate it

And there are even much more concrete actions that can be taken. So take them. And take them with love. Do what you can and do it with love, compassion and empathy.

The more ways we encourage love in our lives, the more we create a ripple effect around us, and the more people who focus on this intent, the more ripple effects will be crossing, intersecting and exponentially growing around us in the world. There's no hope for the cowardice, the fear and the killers of this world against the power of love. 

The Passion Behind PUG

After being in a media communications course all morning, I read this quote tonight...

"You must tell your story. Why are you passionate about this thing you so badly want to do as a business idea? Tell it, sing it. Be loud and proud." Vicki Pozzebon

I often post great things that other folks are doing and I can't wait to share all the good things PUG is doing.So I'm telling my story. I am telling the story of Project Urban Greenhouse, affectionately known as PUG.

Once upon a time, I was out of work and I didn't know what to do. I was talking to someone who does Family Constellations and she said, you don't have to know, but here's a good exercise: if you had one million dollars what would you do? Whatever the answer to that question is - DO THAT!

I sat long and hard, meditating on the answer to that question and I drilled down to what I am passionate about - 1) serving people, 2) feeding people, and 3) business. And THIS is how PUG was born.

Of course, since that time, PUG has morphed and morphed again, it has gone through intense business planning and the original vision (as large as the universe) was parsed down, with a definitive part to start with and other parts to work towards. The for profit and the non profit have been fully defined and then defined again because Project Urban Greenhouse is an opportunity to combine business and non-profit work in order to improve accessibility to healthy food for all people. 

"Making healthy food available to every household."

Right now, I have a beautiful piece of property picked out on the south side of Santa Fe, large enough for both the for profit and the non-profit and ideally located amidst housing, schools, and crossroads.

First and foremost on the for-profit side is to set up the urban greenhouse farm, using hydroponic and aeroponic technology which famously uses only 10% of the water that traditional growing takes - absolutely ideal for our arid, water-stricken land. We'll start with greens because there is a good market with greens, then add in tomatoes and gourmet mushrooms, and each year add in more veggies. It's a great model because hydroponic farming has a faster turnaround on growing time, and can be done all year, since it is done inside greenhouses.

First and foremost on the non-profit side is to set up the Marketplace Pavilion. This building will be quite large and will have indoor and covered outdoor sections. I am in conversation with the SF Farmer's Market and would like to speak to southside  farmers to see if they would be interested in our site as a permanent location for their southside market. We will offer the pavilion for local, community and family events.

We also plan to have a commercial kitchen inside the pavilion with the idea of inviting local residents with old family recipes to come and try it out. We'd like to form a connection with larger NM organizations which market foods and help people establish food-based livelihoods by selling their wares. We're also in contact with other organizations who would be grateful to use the kitchen for healthy cooking classes.

That's just the start.

Project Urban Greenhouse is all about creating FOOD EQUITY and FOOD SECURITY for local communities. We want to work with schools and local residents, dig deep to find what is hindering this and find ways to bring about food equity for all neighborhoods regardless of location, ethnicity, or income level. WHY should food equity be a matter of money? Our country is rich enough and advanced enough that no person should ever go hungry. But in NM, 1 out of 3 children goes to bed hungry, seniors have to choose between vital medicine and eating well, and families struggle. These are huge things to tackle and that's why - although they are not a part of our start up - they are never far from our heart. The soul of Project Urban Greenhouse is making food equity a reality.

Project Urban Greenhouse is a startup seeking funding to begin operations. We are perched and ready to GO!


Right now we are seeking funding in two ways:
1) Debt equity, loans or angel funding to start up the for profit urban farm business
2) grants and donations to set up the Marketplace Pavilion (I am currently able to accept tax-deductible donations through my fiscal sponsor HERE and will soon be a 501c3 and able to accept donations directly.)

I am working on a crowdfunding campaign with an amazing local artist that I hope to launch in August.

And in the meantime, I have decided, I will be writing more often about the awesome aspects of Project Urban Greenhouse and why I am so passionate about it.

If you have any questions at all, please contact me!

GO PROJECT URBAN GREENHOUSE!!!!