Preparing for Abundance

It has been a while since I have done any writing on here, but I feel that things are starting to settle down. I'm done for this academic year at Purdue and have just a bit of grading left for my community college class. Due to the current political climate, we already are projecting more than one-third less international students in our program next year. I hope that we can survive this storm as it may get worse before it gets better and hope that those above us can and will support us and speak up! I am confident that we can and will come out of the other side of this stronger!

Last week, on May 2 would have been my grandma's 100th birthday. She passed away a couple of weeks after her 90th birthday while I was in Korea. I miss her a lot as she was always someone that I loved to talk to and spend time with them in St. Louis. She always had an opinion about everything-and was genuinely interested in yours, too. She was also someone who was very keen on having good manners and etiquette when going to someone else's house or going to dinner and tried to instill these values in me and my younger brother. However, she was always cheerful-or at least tried to be- even though she had a lot of worry and anxieties.

I am reading Sky Full of Elephants (2024) a debut novel by Cebo Campbell, which is very interesting. It is in the US and all of the white people one day decided to walk into bodies of water, drowning themselves, and the aftermath. The story is focused on a man who meets his long-last daughter who is half white and half African American and they go on a cross country journey together. I will give a more thorough review after I finish it, but I find it captivating.

I know as a white man that it might seem a bit strange, but I read and have read many novels about the African American experience. Toni Morrison is obviously one of the first to come to mind with novels such as Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Then to Tayari Jones' American Marriage now to this book by Cebo Campbell. Anyway, I hope to do a little reading this summer and it is convenient since the library is within walking distance from our house.

As far as writing is concerned, I might try to do some last read through and edits of Betty and Clark and self-publish it on Amazon this summer. There is a contest through Amazon UK that I might try to enter if I can get it finished in time and the novel qualifies, but I think it should. I am not sure if I will look at my third novel this summer or maybe spend some time to go back to a spy novel that I started a while back, paused, picked up again, and then set aside. But it might be a fun summer activity to do.

And it wouldn't be spring/summer without talking about gardening and plants. The picture to the right is of one of the lemon balm plants that comes back every year and spreads. Lemon balm tea is one of my favorites!

I usually do really well with herbs for the most part since they are pretty carefree and I don't really need to do anything to help them like lemon balm, peppermint, sage, lemon thyme, and lavender to name some.

I also have some giant garlic plants that have done very well. I will probably have scapes in the next few weeks. Bird or rabbits have eaten my peas and a lot of my bok choy and cabbage plants. I should have left protection on the peas for a little longer. However, for the most part though, rabbits and birds don't seem to eat the few volunteer lettuce plants that come up.

In addition, I have about 15 asparagus seedlings in pots that will stay in the pots this year before I plant them in the ground next year. I think they all are doing okay even though some of them look dead, I don't know what is going on under the soil. Lastly, I have about eight tomato seedlings, two pepper seedlings, and two okra seedlings inside that I will plant outside in the next few weeks too. Hoping for some good growing conditions and healthy plants this year, and getting some bumper crops!

I hope that everyone is taking care of themselves these days as it seems to require more and more attention these days. However, I am busy sowing seeds in all areas of my life with the expectation and anticipation of abundance coming! Finally, please continue to take care of yourself and those that you love!