Cumulative Key un/learnings

OP 2 HEALTH & HEALING
   •   Embracing healthy cleaning supplies
   •   Increased awareness around my own exercise patterns including time of day and what I like to do.
   •   Refined stress management techniques. Incorporating social support and empowerment.
   •   Recognizing Patterns of Happy people -- primarily attitude and acceptance.
   •   Embodiment of play -- including unstructured outdoor play time.
   •   Greater connection on phone and digitally with friends and peers.
   •   Implementation of exercise, breath and meditation (the space existed and when teaching others “how to be happy” the greatest learning ended up independently recognizing “how to be happy” - this is a corollary to what I have always said: that the greatest part of being in massage school was learning how to receive a massage.)
 This attempt to bring together over a decade worth of experience within many fields of Natural Health Care including nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, meditation, community, touch gave me substantial pattern level awareness around our personal ecology and maintenance.  Intending to coach others, I let go of the high level of refinement and look for the major patterns of health. This is in line with my general philosophy around health as well in that I think very specific remedies are largely for very specific conditions; whereas, in order to discover and maintain good health, there are some preliminary guidelines/patterns that I think most of us should observe prior to very specific interventions like drugs and surgery.  Inspired to continue growing as an herbalist, placing myself in the role of a student at the herbal seminar offered me the moment to be in the first seminar where I wasn’t a helper or a leader in about 5 years. This was very helpful and I recognize my own need to source support and growth from other teachers.

OP 3 Chocolates and Cordials
how quickly I learn something when I Just do it. Play    •    how to fail gracefully and proudly. I truly embraced failure as a path toward learning.     •   how to temper chocolate    •   how to use chocolate molds    •   how to dip chocolate    •   considerations around marketing and production beyond solely the product — logo, packaging    •   how to emboss    •   conventional liquor making methods    •   exploration of medicinal methods    •   awareness around sugars and alcohol    •   how to document effectively -- happy with some of my charts    •   how to read material from multiple sources and find the themes, source the truth from multiple online perspectives     •   how to experiment to question conventional wisdom    •   Perhaps the greatest learning was that giving anything time is how to become proficient at it. The first couple times it felt like a PROJECT (daunting) to make chocolate, eventually, it became something that could happen while I was making dinner (or "oh, i have an hour now")    •   Great contrast to my more abstract/intellectual OP on health because I had PRODUCT at the end of many days. I realized that sometimes I buy things just to materialize that I did something that day. It’s hard to explain how abstract so much of our work is. I don’t understand how people can work a year of their life without anything to hold in their hand. And I think for many, the compulsive need to turn their paycheck into “stuff” is based on this aspect of wanting to feel like something “objectively/materially” happened today.   A glimpse into the materialistic culture we are is a foil to the abstract conceptualization that much of today's professions do.
    •   curriculum creation mimics the design process.

OP 4 Land Stewardship
Clarity in Communication is highly valuable:
When delegating a task in Spanish, the more complex the task, the better to demonstrate in person at least once. Communicating ineffectively in Spanish points out the difficulty of having someone understand exactly how I want it done.
Family: Everyone has different hopes and needs. Creating space for sharing these is very valuable.
NURSERY
Just doing it with awareness and documentation is great.
Cuttings
   •   Everybody on youtube recommends putting cuttings in a terrarium.
   •   Semihard cutting are my favorite. However, in the past, I exclusively used these to the detriment of throwing out softwood tips and hardwood which also do well (especially under different conditions).
   ⁃   Softwood needs constant water (even a jar of water) whereas hardwood will rot with excess water.
   •   "Why take a cutting when you can plant a seed." Herebierto & Don Miguel.
   •   There is exponential growth that occurs in nurseries.
   •   Plants at the edges receive the least water.
   •   Daily water in nursery is TOO much for many cuttings: roses, geranium. I like daily water for the first week then every other day.
   •   Lightening soil is more significant than fertilizing for my nursery.    Peat moss and sand good nursery mix.
   •   Herebierto recommends sphagnum moss for air layering.
   •   Gross vs. Refined knowledge & Rapid Prototyping: I tried to refine knowledge before I even had enough experience to know what to look for. Useful to know general patterns before refining knowledge.
   •   Use healthy vigorous shoots for new cuttings. Don't stack functions of pruning and cutting. I like deadheading and cuttings as rose flowers are new growth.
   •   Desert plants: Succulents: let latex drip out 1 day -3 days. Aloe and cacti can go right in the earth (aloe -- peel off some leaves).
   •   Heriberto does amazing succulent propagation from simple leaf cuttings on perlite lightly misted and the roots simply shoot out. Under shadecloth. Amazing.
   •   Propagation methods seem very similar: cuttings, layering (ground/air), grafting.
   •   Nurseries are a wonderful example of good design:
   •   Looking years ahead.
   •   Documenting what is happening.
   •   Actively Experimenting with new plants and new techniques.
LAYERING
Visceral understanding of layering plants with ground layer, shrubs, small trees, canopy trees, incorporating vines.
PRUNING
Sometimes pruning things back is the best way to create more: roses, basil, life.
TEACHING is a great way for me to learn.
Holding the lens of teaching others often encouraged me to articulate to myself what I was doing: soil, water management, propagation
LEARNING
New learning strategy -- watch a dozen youtube videos is becoming second nature. I don't think everything on youtube is true but I love hearing what a dozen people say and then trusting key patterns. There is the risk of the echo chamber effect; however, we the same risk exists in academia.
GENERAL
When I say every day for a week "It should only take 30 minutes to drive there, but every day this week, something slowed me down by 15 extra minutes." Perhaps eventually I will learn it actually takes 45 minutes.
"Barato siempre sale mas caro."
Trying to go cheap always ends more costly.
Capitalism destroyed the gift economy. Even people that I genuinely want to gift something, the culture in which we live leaves a residue of obligation.
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION is great
Nursery: Keep Playing.
Earthworks & Water:
Playing with diverting water during the hurricane was very fun on our non-sloped land: momentum and 1 degree slope.
Agave. I have researched and researched agave syrup and tequila without fully grokking it. I need to dig one up as it sens shoot and understand what I am looking at.
I like Managing people
I hope to start companies where I set up the system and have employees do the execution.
I am appreciating design and abstract conceptualization and recognizing viscerally how powerful it is to share our intentions with ourselves and team members. Creating space and time to share necessary information seems to be the most challenging part of organizations.
SOIL
Put organic matter in the soil and it becomes soil.
Compost
Many people on the internet believe that cuttings even when dried for a week or two are still green in a compost.
Going heavy on the brown is a great way to mitigate flies and smell (and simply slows it all down).

LIPD

1 Creating a framework in which to contain information is an invaluable design tool that I use when allowing multiple projects to percolate simultaneously. This allows me the structure to record insights, content and personal process in a useable space.
2 Clarity regarding my professional pathway has grown as the recognition that I love to do/contribute and as I learn and progress, invariably something that I want to do is valued by someone. I am settling into a deep comfort that I can truly do what I want and the abundance is not that of monetary security as it is the abundance of joy in being of service in a way that fills my heart.
3 I really enjoy work. I get restimulated by being overwhelmed/too busy/having to work. I am very interested in recognizing that I will always have services, products and new interests that can support my lifestyle. I would like to see work as a bonus and something I get to do when I am inspired to be of service in that way. Indeed, there are so many ways I love to be of service, I need only be careful of not trying to do too much.
4 I was amazed at how small my bucket list is. And that much on it, I'm not even very attached to. I still think of myself at times as a twenty year old kid that wants to see the world and this helped reshape my view of myself and appreciate the many journeys and experiences that I have had. Indeed having kids and being in extreme latitude during soulstices are the only things that really tugged at my heart. That being said, I see how I am interested and passionate about all things permaculture and keen to learn and embrace many new skills (this, however, feels outside the scope of a 'bucket list'
5 A major learning that I only begin to be able to articulate is that 1 - 2 simple reflections is perhaps the most essential aspect of our project work. When I come away from a workshop, I often am overwhelmed with the amount of material and wonder if I can re-present that material in the story context of the facilitator. Rather, I intend to shift my focus to incorporating the 1-2 headlines of impact upon me to inform the story I will share.

Capstone OP 5: Learning Review

5.2.5 Core Report: Cumulative Key Outcomes and un/Learnings

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