Plukrijp Newsletter – 2023 week 26

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Plukrijp.be vzw – Zetel: Trommelstraat 24 – B 2223 Schriek
RPR Mechelen – O.N. 0553.553.660 – www.plukrijp.be

Upside-down the good newsletter

2023 – week 26

Upside down = instead of announcing what we plan to do
(& most often find out we do not need to do), we relate what we really did

The updated list of vegetables & fruit that can be harvested this week is available on our website under the heading “Current Harvest” :

https://plukrijp.be/op-dit-moment-te-oogsten

This week @ Plukrijp

We did:

We continued the renovation of the kitchen & bathroom in the veranda house. We placed tiles in the kitchen & the wooden structure for the new counter in the kitchen.

We noticed we may need some extra pieces for the reconstruction of the kitchen & bathroom such as sinks, shower sinks, taps & cranes, etc. Please send us a mail or message & let us know if you have some laying around or know anyone that does have any! Thanks everyone :)

We harvest & present everyday the beautiful fruits & veggies growing around the farm in the shop up front to show what there is to harvest, invite people in, & add value to the abundance on the farm by putting some clothes from the free shop, as well.

We weeded the open tunnels & shuffled around the courgettes.

We watered the closed tunnels.

We continue to prune & clip up the melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, & gherkins.

We had the nice visit of Aneth who came & helped us in the garden. Thanks Aneth!

We weeded the carrot & leek lines at the Hei & some extra forgotten patches with weeds around the compost pile.

Lieven David came for a tour & helped us see together what we might not have seen alone: some more possibilities for making value of our abundance of compost, the innovative irrigation system Frank put into place for the closed tunnels, & some weeds that have taken their place in potentially not so practical places. Thanks Lieven for the insight & time!

We celebrate the trommelstraatfeest where everyone comes out to play on the streets & gather around music & food. We help where we can & offer our unique skills: Tom gave a circus initiation, Jojo gave a drumming initiation, & Bram gave some Wuo Tai massages.

A few words from our friend Bram

Castles…Fortress…Bunkers…

During the week it became clear that letting go of resistance releases an quantity of energy that was used to keep the defense mechanism standing. What do we do with this one expected wave of free energy? That is or can become a choice.

This week was quite loaded with situations where we spoke from a place that I’m better than the other one, covert up by some layers of justifying stories. It came to a point where we used the image of castles and that we are all speaking from behind these immense brick walls, always trying to conquer the other one, or at least to keep the walls up so nobody could come in and touches our deepest pain. At the end of the talk, when we where overthinking the idea that when Love really comes to us, we still push it away by the conviction that we don’t deserve it.

This is also what I shared: I had a moment with my partner Maud, where she was kissing me in such a way that i felt wanted, my thoughts described it as : Bram, she really wants you? No, this can’t be true. I was clearly doubting if it could be real and there I realized that when the chance is there to feel welcome, to be accepted for who I’m…I didn’t believed it. This moment of sharing in the group brought some tears and goosebumps, we gave hugs and continued the moment with silence.

Now comes the tricky part. So I suppose that we all had a moment where we could look inside our fortress to see and feel the identification with that pain. This inside gave a crack in the wall and light could shine through. The recognition of this hidden pain, definitely in group, comes with a wave of energy that was used for the construction of this brick wall and who is now of a potential use to serve our creation.

Only after, I could see that we/I mostly recreate what we know, what we do out of a habit. The extra energy brings an unease in the body and it gets released by the used roads, in most cases destructive behavior and rebuilding the wall. By observing my companions I could see different outcomes of that energy. In my case this time doubt, a simple question what I would do in the afternoon kept me busy with the result that I did non of it.

I guess a healthy dose of discipline is needed to stay clear and focused to sublimate these energies for the use of well being.

Bram

Inspiring Book

A few words from our friend Niels

Outside the Castle Walls

Life is too much. We have bad experiences and we become afraid. We get hurt and invaded, so we build The Wall.

We feel safe behind our wall. So we keep building until we have our Castle.

Then you see her and you decide to lower the drawbridge for her. She steals your gold and children, shit.

Time to build the bunker beneath the Castle. Bomb proof, the highest tech!

In the daytime you ride around in full armor so noone can recognize its you, the fool at the kings court.

Ok, enough of the confusing metaphors. Where am I going with this?

Life is tension between defending yourself and getting close enough to people to be able to work together and enjoy their company.

If we dont have any defences then we get wrecked. We need an immune system to deal with illness, roof above our head and walls to protect us from the elements.

We need to check peoples intententions with us before we get too entangled, by being guarded with our inner world.

But defences get out of hand. Before you know it you have a gate, two locks and a security system.

You;re alone, locked in, or locked out, or whats the difference really?

Often we find that we hold on too long, or in the wrong situations to behaviors that no longer serve us.

We find sometimes that the walls built to protect us are really keeping us alone and isolated when really we wanna reach out.

It’s time, people you can trust are at your door, they want you to come out and play.

Do you open the door and come out to meet them? Do you leave the armor and the rusty helmet at home so you can mingle?

One mistake could get you hurt badly, but most of the time its the heavy armor that’s overkill.

The crazy thing is that when you truly meet another person, both not wearing armor, its almost always deeply transformative.

It’s easier to stay ourselves just a little longer, to indulge in gossip just once more, to stay inside our walls and hear the news secondhand and rage on about the state of the world.

I do that sometimes… and that’s ok.

Outside the Castle walls, life goes on all around. There is nature, immense beauty, adventure. The real tragedy would be to grow old inside my self built castle as life passes me by.

Lets give it another chance, shall we?