When the holiday seasons come around, it means many different things. The holiday cheer may bring you happiness or may very well bring less happiness to your already busy and perhaps stressful life. As each year passes, I find that I care less for material things and care more for the opportunities and experiences that I have been fortunate enough to be a part of.
Years ago, we began to travel around Christmas time and it brought a new and interesting perspective to all we had been accustomed to in life. It was a bit of an eye opener for my children as they had in the past enjoyed the more material side of Christmas. The faith or religious side of the holiday season was always present but as the years went by, we began to put more value on sharing the love, sharing the goodness and for sure sharing the fellowship of wonderful food and amazing company.
Removing a lot of the frivolous parts of the holidays may be an option for you. For us, it gave us an opportunity to experience other cultures and climates and gave my children a huge appreciation for the life that we live each and every day. Living a simpler life is an option that does exist. Living a life that has less material value also means it is possible to leave the rat race behind. Living a life that revolves around the production of food, the sharing of knowledge and the ability to help others is possible. The ability to grow at least part of the food you consume could be part of what you value in life.
I feel thankful that my career is in horticulture. Although none of my children made an entire career in the field of horticulture, all of them spent some time in their lives making a living in this field. This I am sure reflects the values of how I was raised – growing food and ensuring we put food by ensuring we had the quality and quantity of food available all months of the year. Now, moving onto the next generation, I am enjoying seeing my granddaughter also understand the importance of growing food and nurturing the land that we live on.
Recently, on a trip to SE Asia, I once again saw vast differences between what we consider our “normal” lives and how others live in countries that follow an extremely different way of life. I felt very privileged to be able to enjoy living in a climate that could produce literally all the fruit that I dream about consuming while living in Canada. However, I also had the pleasure of being reminded that my life is much more frivolous than most of the people I met in spite of living rather modestly by Canadian standards. Each time I travel, I am thankful to have this opportunity and do so and try to share my horticultural knowledge with the people that I have the good fortune of meeting.
One of the major focus areas of the not -for-profit Orchid Horticulture that I work for has always been food security and food sovereignty. The last Blue Sky CBC radio show I did this week had a focus on growing food inside in winter. Due to our climate, we do not have many alternatives, but it once again brought home how important it is to have the skills and knowledge to grow food and thus ensure our quality of life improves. This also can help to offset our rising food costs and issues we are experiencing with the food supply chain.
Our first online paid course is set to go on Jan.14 and is all about Growing Food Indoors in Winter. This focus mirrors many of our presentations done on Facebook and Youtube that we also regularly share. If you are interested, join us to learn more about growing food in any of our outreach sessions.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday Season and may you and yours enjoy good health, happiness and bountiful amounts of quality food that you produce!
Hanbidge is the Lead Horticulturist with Orchid Horticulture. Find us at ; by email at [email protected]; on facebook @orchidhort and on instagram at #orchidhort.
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