SpiritWorks Herb Farm 

Participant Standards for Working on The SpiritWorks Herb Farm

 

These standards are offered in recognition that we grow more than plants here; we grow ourselves, we grow a community.  These standards have the potential to support each of us to develop higher standards for ourselves in all areas of our lives by practicing them in a learning environment that values personal growth.  If you need clarity to fully embrace these standards, please let me know and we will discuss them in more depth.

 

Anyone can be good at being mediocre.  These standards, when combined with commitment, perseverance, and attention to the details, enable one to achieve excellence.

 

THE PREMISE:

 

• Everything, everything, everything you do says something about you and how you are in your relationships (with yourself, with others, with your habits, your work, your environment, and in your communication)

• Your work and life here is a practice ground for your “real” life.

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THE STANDARDS:

• Rule #1: No one gets to be wrong.  If there is a problem, look at the process that created it, not the person.  Blame has no place here.

• Confidentiality:  What you see, say, hear, and do are confidential. You can share what you learn, your experiences., but not about others experiences without their permission.

• Who’s in Charge: Know when you are leading and when you are being led.

• Service: Know the difference between pleasing and serving; know what serving is. When serving you are invisible.  When you are pleasing, the ego is engaged.

• Cultivate Attitudes that Work Well: 

• • Cultivating a "can-do, no-problem” attitude yields powerful results when action with commitment is carried through to completion.

  • Focus on What you can Give, versus what you can get and you will receive more than you ever imagined possible.

  • Do Not Entertain Negativity.  Never Denounce Anyone.

  • Expect Nothing, Earn Everything. 

  • Trust in the good intent of others and refrain from making judgements ; give people the benefit of your curiosity and doubt.

  • Cultivate Curiosity, deep listening, stillness, non-reactivity.  Observe, notice, and feel what is going on within yourself when stimulated by someone or a situation.

  • Focus not on perceived problems, but on the experience as something that is a catalyst and invitation for self-exploration.

  • Anger (irritability) is a highly intelligent emotion indicating a need for space to pause and reflect on what you need.  Please be proactive and not projective with your anger.  Ask for time out to explore rebalancing yourself.

• Being On Time: This means being at the designated place at the designated time, ready to go.

• Never Leave Your Work, Physically or Mentally:  If you do,  explain your work to whom ever takes over.  This can be a saftey issue and speaks to being accountable to the community. Mindfulness with body mechanics also pays off.

• Avoid Distractions: This includes distractions to your work and distractions within team relationships. Try to stay on-task, and encourage others to do balance conversations with productivity.  Cultivate discipline within yourself and support others to remain focused in the present moment.

• Clarity: If you feel you have been given insufficient direction, ask for guidance.

• Making Things Up:   Don’t.   If you do not know how to do something, get clear direction, no ego engaged.  Tell your leader if you made anything up, so it can be checked.

• Excellence: give your best to each job, focus on doing your best, not on perfection.  Seek to identify progress not perfection.

• Details Details Details: This is how everything everything everything you do says something about you.  It is all in the details.

• Do Each Job Completely: Leave the site better than you found it, clean up and put things back, report completion or ststue of projects at the end of the day.

• Sustainability:  Sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.  For more practical detail the behavior you wish to continue indefinitely must be defined. For example:

• Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely.

• Economic sustainability is the ability to support a defined level of economic production and consumption indefinitely.

• Social sustainability is the ability of a social system, such as a community or country, to function at a defined level of social well being indefinitely.

• Habits that ensure what is available today, exists tomorrow

  • What you eat today was harvested before; What you harvest will be eaten later.

  • Reduce  -  ReUse  -  Recyle

  • Lights Off when leaving 

  • Heat Off when room is not in use

  • Attention to Minimize Food Waste

• Accountability: 

◦ Do what you say you are going to do and if for any reason, you don’t, let the leader know.

◦ Be Responsible for your experience here, your belongings, what you create here for yourself, the farm and others.

◦ Those living and working here are asked to help those visiting, to honor these guidelines.

• Supportability: Be open to feedback and don’t take things personally; trust others; ask for help. You’re not supportable if everyone else is wrong; if you are tired, you are doing it alone and consider teaming up.

• Fall Outs: if you think someone needs support… ask what they need and assist them in getting their needs met.

• Honor The Site:  Our intention is to protect the spiritual and energetic vitality of what grows here, both plants and people, recognizing that this property is a healing sanctuary with much medicine.

◦ Clean up and put things back.  

◦ Leave things better than you found them.  

◦ Create a respectful relationship with the site. 

◦ Quite time is observed from 10:30pm - 6:30 am

◦ Keep track of your stuff.

◦ No Smoking, Drugs or Alcohol, or FireArms

◦ Use of cell phones and electronic devices is limited to personal time in the library.  Please do not leave devices logged into Wi-Fi when not in use.

◦ Monitor your thought forms and conversations, cognizant that thoughts, whether spoken or not,  affect people and plants - Politics, war, hate, crime, collective fear-based topics, negativity, have no place here.

◦ *** No wildcrafting or harvesting without permission.***  We are monitoring sustainable practices to ensure abundance in the future.

• Honor Your Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, Physical and Interpersonal Needs: Take good care of yourself with good food, water, rest and play.  Let it be known when you wish to work on your own and when you wish to work with others and when you need personal time for yourself.

• Reflection:  Time spent in quiet, while working or on a sit spot, is potent.  Seek it when you can here.

 

I commit to honoring the above standards.  When I encounter physical or emotional obstacles, I will remind myself that everything learned and experienced – whether they may seem positive or negative at the time - can be transformed into personal growth. Working through these challenges will help me develop my best self and will bring the greatest gifts to the SpiritWorks community, the land and plants we nurture and those I encounter when leaving here. I will honor the commitment I have made and invite you to join me with this foundation for what we create together.

Lindy