Cultivating a ‘Stop-Time’ Moment in a Garden By Jan Johnsen

Photograph by Jan Hohnsen - All Rights Reserved Have you ever experienced a moment when the wafting fragrance of flower blossoms captured your attention and lifted you away? Or when the birdsong around you was louder than the chatter in your head? This exquisite moment of stillness or what I call, ‘stop time’, can occur anywhere and anytime: while you bask in the warm morning sun, while gardening or while hurrying to your car! At these times, you may have paused and looked around, drunk in the fragrant air and felt an abiding connection, for a brief instance, to everything around you.

That rare moment of ‘remembrance’ can become a more common occurrence if you take the time to notice the natural world. Just as a wine connoisseur slowly relishes that first sip on his tongue; you can learn to savor a flower, a rock or even a breeze. This is the secret most gardeners know — if you deeply appreciate the workings of the earth’s ecosystem, you can revel in ‘stop-time’ moments while puttering in the yard. In fact, wine and gardening are very similar; although not essential to life, they enrich our everyday experience, adding a soft, voluptuous fullness to normal routines.

Photography by Jan Johnsen - All Rights ReservedSavoring a garden asks that you look closely, as a child would, at the microcosm of pulsating aliveness that exists everywhere. Once you notice this amazing tapestry of life under your feet you will delight in the little things you find there: the snowdrop peaking its floral head up, the earthworm majestically working the soil, the autumn leaves resplendent in their colorful garb or the white flowers bobbing in the moonlight’s glow. Keen observation and quiet awareness will – in time – transport you to that elusive and exquisite ‘stop time’ moment.

Jan Johnsen is a professional landscape designer and principal of Johnsen Landscapes & Pools ( www.johnsenlandscapes.com ) in New York.

She is also an author and speaker.

Please check out her blog ( www.serenityinthegarden.blogspot.com or visit her ‘Serenity in the Garden’ on Facebook)

Ortho’s All About TreesBio continued: Ms. Johnsen was named 2003 Instructor of the Year by the New York Botanical Garden. She has also received an AICP achievement award and a Progressive Architecture (PA) award for rooftop greenhouses in NYC. Jan has several books to her credit – her book, Ortho’s All About Trees, is published by Meredith Publishing. She is an engaging speaker and gives talks and workshops throughout the U.S. on the true healing power in plants and places.

Reclaiming the Ancient Tradition of Tree Wrapping by Jan Johnsen

A Sacred Garden Primer by Jan Johnsen

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Merlian News Podcast Interview with Roland M. Comtois

In this podcast interview Roland Comtois talks with Merryn Jose about communicating with spirit, channeling, and mediumship. Roland, a Rhode Island native is widely known locally and abroad as a Spiritual Medium and Channel, who channels the world beyond. His “Messages for the Soul” audiences have reached the tens of thousands across the miles. He is the founder of the “Inspiration” Foundation and “I Believe” publication which goal is to inspire and empower others through love and compasson, as well as author of And Then There Was Heaven: A Journey of Hope and Love.”

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José Argüelles Passes On – January 24, 1939 – March 23, 2011

| by wikipedia.org

“José Argüelles was currently director of the Noosphere II project of the Foundation’s Galactic Research Institute, inclusive of the First Noosphere World Forum, a project that involves creating a dialogue that unifies a network of organizations working to promote a positive shift of consciousness by 2012 with the vision of the whole earth as a work of art.”

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The Health Benefits of Peanut Butter by Valery Elias & PeanutButterLovers.com

| by Valery Elias & www.peanutbutterlovers.com

Valery Elias writes,Dr. Richard Mattes, a professor of nutrition at Purdue University, says, “A tablespoon or two of peanut butter is all it takes to net a world of benefits for both the heart and the waistline.” Also, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are no detectable trans fats in a standard 2-tbsp. serving.” According to PeanutButterLovers.com, ” Eating low glycemic index foods such as peanut butter, yogurt, beans and broccoli along with a diet high in cereal fiber can significantly reduce the risk of non-insulin-dependent diabetes in women, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

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March 2011 Merlian Newsletter

| by Merlian News & Team

Merlian News is now translated into over 50 languages! Just go to www.merliannews.com, upper right hand corner to Google Translate and use the drop down menu! Please don’t forget to check us out on Facebook & Twitter! Also, take a look atthe website of the month! We welcome Spring with book reviews by authors Nancy Mehagian & Dr. Steven Manly, articles on the Love Kitchen, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, Watkins Books, Dr. Andrew Weil’s Inegrative Medicine Clinic and more from Robert Moss as well an article on how you can help with the tragic natural disaster in Japan.

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Purpose of Life by Jocelyn Graef: Part 4 of Great Awakening

| by Jocelyn Graef

“From biggest perspective, the purpose of life is to carry you forward on your great journey home, your final merging once again with the source whence you come. We will use very simple analogy here to explain this journey. It is as though God is great ball of light, like sun, shooting sparks. Each spark that is shooting out is becoming individualized being —whether rock or star or tree or human and so on. Each spark, each being, is containing within its essence the life force that is God…”

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The Supernatural Kids Cookbook by Nancy Mehagian

| by Nancy Mehagian

“An exciting and innovative collection of healthy, tasty and easy to prepare foods that introduces and encourages mindful eating for junior chefs. Learn about food groups, basic prep, kitchen equipment and how to create snacks and healthy meals the whole family will enjoy! Kid tested, Mother Earth approved!” Illustrated by Alexandra Conn. Foreword by Bridget Fonda.

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Cultivating Certainty: During Significant Transformational Times by Triza Schultz

| by Triza Schultz

The butterfly has long been a symbol of transformation by indigenous people around the world because of its dramatic stages of metamorphosis from a slow crawling caterpillar into a luminously flying creature. It symbolizes the change that must occur for its complete value fulfillment. Being a part of nature, we can see ourselves within the labor for freedom of flight on many levels… This is a spiritual evolution for the most basic truths of life, which of course, will rock political and religious suppression because it must…”

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Dreaming In Foreign Languages by Robert Moss

| by Robert Moss

Dreams prompt us to expand our vocabulary, setting us learning tasks ranging from the language of quantum physics to the identification of different types of hermit crab. Even if we decide not to take more than a few steps in some of these journeys of learning and remembering, our ability to decode an initially mysterious word or symbol sometimes provides important objective confirmation that we are dreaming into transpersonal and/or ancestral territory.”

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Interview with Sandra Ingerman By Megan McFeely

| by Megan McFeely

Several months ago I had a conversation with a great American Shaman, Sandra Ingerman…we discuss how we as individuals can actively participate in the healing of the world…what Sandra says can be applied to any world event…How can we support positive things and how can we work with the positive in seemingly negative situations? We also talked about what is being taught to us through world events and how we might listen to the symbolism…and support what is being born….And then we moved into the idea of spiritual responsibility…what can we do to champion what is coming alive in us and around us and how our joy and following our hearts can guide us beyond ego desires to contribute to the health of the whole.”

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