Dharma Gardens

Greetings and Welcome.  My name is John William Scott: William to my birth family and in my youth, and John W. now — having forsaken a perfectly good middle name and  claimed instead the most bland moniker that western civilization has to offer.

I aim to live a simpler life, casting a shorter shadow and leaving lighter footprints — not just for my environs or our planet but as ultimately as a gift to myself.  This is a personal choice and while I do not expect anyone else to share these goals, I hope to journal my path in this blog.

As I close out my fifth decade (I turn 50 in May) and the waning economy squeezes my business, I am fortunate that the world of consumption no longer captivates me.  It is not that I have taken a  vow of austerity to avoid the gadgets, media, and marketing that dominate modern life.  Instead, I have found that they have each naturally lost their luster.  I do not preach that materialism and commercialism are intrinsically evil; or  that you too must — or even should — forsake them.  We each have our own priorities and joys in life.  That individuality is an integral part of the beauty of human life.

It has been a momentous, even if gradual, personal epiphany that the fulfillment of my own desires (materialistic and otherwise) does not lead me to joy or even happiness.  Indeed, the void that follows is more enduring than any  fleeting sense of relief and attainment.  That in turn has inspired me to appreciate and cultivate simple pleasures.  I have never been happier.

My vegetable garden is the hub of my re-invented life, and will be the focus of many of my posts.  It continues to provide me with countless valuable lessons in growing my own food and useful metaphors for life.  I expect to also touch on  kindred themes including the localvore movement and perhaps simplicity itself.  Undoubtedly, other categories will suggest themselves and priorities will shift (I have a tendency to meander) so I will do my best to organize my posts so that each reader can easily separate their own grains from the chaff.

Namaste…

-John