The Tending Pace: Micro nourishment for Macro Thriving

Hello Hedge Schoolers,<br/><br/>This week I wanted to delve into the world of overwhelm. When great intentions become so large that they strangle us with anxiety. The inquiry is a constant fringe conversation I have with myself. As a perennial yes man, my eyes are bigger than my belly. Insatiable curiosity and wide interests lead to deep rabbit holes that breathe me alive and dead in the same breath. What do I mean by that? The scale of the dream or vision I have energises me and then overwhelms me. So much so, that I hardly move. This experience would be familiar to everyone at least at some point in their life. For me, the overwhelm comes from desperately wanting to put the finishing touches on my book but life is snagging me on the brambles of responsibility and must-dos. <br/><br/>So how do we move through the quicksand of overwhelm?<br/><br/>The Tending Pace<br/><br/>Nature is a master teacher. Efficient, effective, and emergent. So I began my inquiry sitting in nature. Actually with my fingers deep in the soil of the rose bushes near our front window. As the plants prepare for the space of winter, I find myself tending to the overgrowth. Pruning. Shaping. Nourishing the soil. Removing the excess. The process requires slowness and consistency. A thriving garden is not achieved in one sit. In one tremendous, all-out exertion. Nature requires a more intimate relationship, with regularity a key feature. This tending pace is bouts of micro-nourishment over a consistent period. Without it, my garden will fall into disarray. The balance of the environment is thrown off as members of the ecology throw their weight around, strangling the life of others within. For my garden to thrive, I need to tend regularly. <br/><br/>Moonshots and mini steps<br/><br/>For anyone with a grand vision or dream, the peak of the mountain can feel out of reach. The list of things we need to do, don't know how to do or items we don't know we need grow widely in the ecology of our mind. Such weight freezes us in stillness, unable to take