Most of us live by seasonal time. It's instinctive. Spring is for planting, summer for growth, fall for harvest, and winter for rest and contemplation.  There is a little of the gardener in every one of us.

Growing our own food is deeply embedded in our culture, so it's natural that our social habits focus around food: finding it, tending it, preparing and sharing it.  We have evolved to garden in community.

The idea of community gardening appeals to me because it puts the skills and tasks for sustenance into a social context.  At it's best, a community garden is a microcosm of society: people from all walks of life participate; common problems are addressed; opportunities to learn abound and risk- taking is shared.  Drought and misfortune may prevail at times but there's also success, even bounty to celebrate.

Gardeners are among the wisest people I know, and not just because gardening is a skill learned through observation, imitation, experimentation and the exercise of patience.  Gardening becomes a way of life, a way of looking at the world-- even when we don't need to produce our own food.

A friend of mine who has Asperger's Syndrome recently taught me something new about community gardening: that inclusion in the garden--being part of a living network or people, plants and other creatures--helps to satisfy a very basic human need for fellowship and support.  The act of gardening, doing simple tasks in common, is especially important for people who may not have an equal chance to participate in the wider society.

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We each have wisdom within us, knowledge that transcends the everyday experience. Sometimes it's hard to identify wise words in the observations shared between friends, family and colleagues. Most of the time we lack the ability to edit the "background noise" of our own thoughts and to be purposeful in conversation. But if  we sift through the rhetoric of dialogue, and listen carefully to words, some surprising pearls of wisdom are concealed in the plain language of focused discussion. 

For the last five years I've been interviewing people about common interests-- gardening, training dogs, genealogy-- and I have discovered more than knowledgeable people on a variety of topics. When people are passionate about what they do, or what they are trying to achieve, there seems to be a sharpening of intellect, and a heightened awareness.  This awareness allows people to become more expressive, insightful and articulate, and to apply a kind of problem-solving to other areas of their lives. 

The wisdom I'm interested in comes from exploring ordinary everyday experiences. Wisdom grows through the exchange of ideas, and is nurtured by personal insight and sustained inquiry.  Wisdom does not need to be profound.  It can be simple and quiet, and give a sense of "rightness" that enriches life.

This is my first blog of the century, which is to say my first ever attempt to explore ideas in a global community.  I confess to entering the "on-line author" arena with trepidation. The sages of the day advise that a writer must have a website.  And a weekly blog.  (Who makes up these crazy edicts?)  

I commit, instead, to posting every few months a story about a topic I've recently explored, a profile of someone interesting I've met, or more ruminations on ordinary wisdom.  I look forward to sharing what I am learning, and to hearing other readers' and writers' comments.  Welcome to Ordinary Wisdom!