hatake time is here this year again.  hatake means field, but I always say I go to my hatake, not my field.  this is pronouced like ha as in have and ta is in task, and ke as in keg.  kind of…  HATAKE~

So I finally have a big hatake.

I knew for a long time that I belong in the hatake but never was so interested in growing vegetables for some reason.  I was, really, but I haven’t been very successful so far.  I guess I would need some advice, and I’ve bought books, but I can’t do it right!!!

Anyway, indigo has taken me out of Tokyo to a big hatake.

My hatake is so quiet.  and there are some houses on one side, but I could probably pick my nose or scratch my butt without worrying that someone is watching~ there are birds, the wind is there, the sun!  some mountains, and the sky~ everything is there!

My hatake time is me time, and the time that flows there is different than the time that flows in other places.  the sun is hot, the earth is hot.  the indigo is alive.  I am constantly learning about the plants.  things that I could probably read in a book but that become truly mine when put into practice.

From when I was working in my first small hatake, I knew that I should cherish every moment because there are things you can really enjoy when things are small.  I cherished every seed, every plant, every leaf.  I could pay much detail to each one.  and from that time I knew that as my hatake became bigger, I would probably not be able to pay the same kind of attention to everything.  I spent so much time with each process, sorting out the seeds, planting them, watering them, I could not space the seedlings out because I felt they might die, I waited for the rain, I took pictures, I talked to my babies!  I picked everything by hand.  From that time, I was looking forward to having a bigger piece of land to work on, but I was grieving the attention to details that I would not be able to have…  something like that…  Letting go, feeling new feelings, doing things in new ways, moving my hands, finding energy I never thought I had!

I think finally I am looking with different eyes too, looking at my indigo more as a whole, less as individual plants.  Everything I do in my hatake is a metaphor for things in my life.  like this, seeing all the little parts as a whole rather than individual parts.  It’s a different way to see.

my hatake is my teacher.  arigato.