A habit is defined as an involuntary pattern of behavior or practice, usually acquired by frequent repetition. We are all creatures of habit. Most of us want to break habits such as snacking after a certain time in the evening or make new ones like saving money. In many ways, habits define us. I have learned through past experience that creating new habits is as hard as breaking old ones. You make new ones by repetition. You break old ones by old fashioned hard work and vigilance. The real key to both is to make the habit you want easy and the habit you don't want harder. Don't want to use your credit card? Freeze it in a block of ice in the freezer. Want to get up on time? Move the alarm clock halfway across the room so you can't hit snooze a zillion times and be late because its not an easy handslap away. Over the past two months I've broken the habit of getting up and writing. I've been getting up fussing about contractors (more drama there btw!), painting, hammering, putting in my own flooring, redecorating, sorting boxes, etc. All sorts of things. I haven't actually been doing any writing. Why? No time. And when I mean no time, I mean a crazy lack of time.
Now, involuntarily, the habit of Mizahar has been broken. It needs to be reestablished. These blogs are going to help. If I get up, blog as a warmup, then start posting it has helped. My fingers, for heavens sake, are even sluggish on the keys. That's not right. So, starting this week, I'm going to wake up to blog about anything and everything - probably mostly nonsense - and then at least kick out mod posts Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. Mon, Weds, Friday, and Sun are going to be my PC times. I have to get organized. I have to get my act together. I have to form new habits and new loves.
Speaking of habits. I love to garden. I can't indoor container garden because I have an army of felines that live with me so houseplants don't last that long. They are, after all, glorified cat toys and snacks right? So I wanted to keep involved in my habit of gardening and I thought of a perfect way. So, for over the last two months I've been slowly setting up two tanks to aquascape. My goals simple. All natural items inside said tanks... from substrate to decorations to plants. Everything must be living besides rocks and bogwood. I think they are coming along great. The first tank is technically my husbands. Its a 45 gallon one that's looking a little empty since all his plants are babies. But once they start growing and blooming, I just know it will look amazing. The second tank is my own. Its a 20 gallon that has plant friendly substrate and a couple of huge chunks of bogwood in it. I'm in the habit of checking water quality daily and fussing with fertilizer, CO2, and a ton of other things to keep my plants happy. They are still babies too, but most will be thriving for a long time to come. In terms of fish, they are simply stocked with glowlight minnows just to keep the water cycling and have some finned friends with no desire to graze on the vegetation.
I wanted to keep the 'gardening' habit going so I'm stoked to have something to fiddle with while I'm watching the snow fall. Its almost the same anal retentive water checking that I've been doing for the hot tub. But I think I have the chemicals for that down pat too. Anyhow, here's some pictures. It isn't anything fancy, but I thought I'd share.
So far my favorite plants are the java fern, the sword grass, moss balls, and the foxtail. They all look so lush.
Many of you perhaps have no clue about my love of plants. But I'm the type of person that loves trying new varieties. Some day I'll post some pictures of my gardening idea book with all its stickers and labels and notes. I get down on my hands and knees and talk to little things that are growing. My car generally has a bit of dirt in the back seat where I've stolen (*clears throat*) borrowed cuttings or clippings here and there. There's nothing I won't try gardening. Many people wander through life claiming they love nature, but they sometimes miss whole aspects of nature in terms of the rewards of growing things. There's something incredibly charming about watching something sprout from seed and go all the way to fruit. I'm the nut that will plant lemon seeds just to have the lush trees growing out on the porch in pots. I have a green thumb through and through. My gardens outside include kitchen herbs, flowers for cutting, old fashioned roses and wysteria, and magical gardens just for doing things in the moonlight. Plants have power. A great deal of power. I think my respect for them came from rubbing shoulders with great herbalists and striking up conversations about how plants make us feel with friends.
And while I'm not saying I'm an expert, I'm not, I do however know a heck of a lot about herbs from making tinctures to hand creams to soaps that foam and don't foam and creating all sorts of infusions and essential oils. I didn't learn from books either. I learned from real people using real plants - growing and experiencing them first hand. I don't pull a text from a bookshelf, thumb through it and go..'oh... thats what I need for a cough.' If you don't have a garden and aren't a gardener... this is really hard to do. I honestly and truthfully have very little respect for the so-called experts that don't grow their own. Mail order is out the window, folks. Not only is it not safe, but its not fresh and you don't know whats been put on plants to keep them growing. I pull out my own notes and dig out my recipe for say poison oak relief rather than grabbing the calamine lotion. Plants are my life. I love them. I love them as much as I love animals.
That's why forming new habits, growing an aquascape, and writing on Mizahar is all related. And I look forward to the first week in December. That's when we officially hit our slow period at work, and that means all my vast writeups - herbalism being one of the biggest - will get put in and I can start on my goal of having my gnosis writeups completed at the tune of one or two a week.