HANDS IN THE SOIL: EYES ON THE FUTURE
Translatable Skills Workshop / Landscape
It occurred to me one day that there are many spaces here at Aliceville FCI, where we do things that could potentially translate to an entire scope of skills that could be listed on a resume for someone who has limited job history or education.
So I started writing about, talking it up. Run it by different department heads.
Perhaps genius is sometimes born in laziness because I must be honest and say, that turning a rough job that was mine to do into a workshop was possibly motivated by the fact that whereas I can still sling a shovel around like a 20 year old, well now I pay for it a little afterwards.
I have been planning to add a liner to this one big garden for about a year now, I was waiting for spring. It would have taken me about 2 weeks to do, but I would have gotten it done.
You see with every warden, the landscape of the compound has changed in some way. I have been here under 4 wardens now.
From year to year, I have literally moved roses, azalea and, entire beds of plants, all over from one acceptable space to the undetermined other.
When I first became head of landscape, we had a great warden who loved flowers and allowed them to be planted in several different areas.
In contrast, we had another who saw no value in having the plants. There is not one single tree on this compound, plants are needed. I can honestly say, we have beautiful beds that are bursting with beauty right now.
My heart is light knowing that I have trained the ladies to care for them as well as I have over the years.
Our current warden accepted a proposal from me to install an incentive based community garden and loved the idea of turning it into a 4 part writing workshop.
Yet, after spending years writing to congress, various wardens, Earth Justice, and 60 Minutes about how much we need a community vegetable and herb garden – just when finally there was hope – I was granted clemency.
I know this is such a great thing but I am a girl who likes to get stuff done, I like to see projects through to the end.
So with the LCP garden being without a liner, I had an idea.
As I said, I could either do the task by myself and spend about 2 weeks in like some sort of me vs. shovel mode
or I could use the situation as an opportunity to show the women who will take my place how to do something that will train them in how to implement the community garden in the way the proposal was submitted.
In this hands on workshop, participants engage in a real life garden project, while learning translatable skills that will apply to the workplace and beyond. As I said, the project consists of the total strip down of one of our largest beds here, removing everything down to 2 ft.. of ground in order to inert a liner to keep out weeds in the future years.
Each day, we found time to stretch with a yoga circle, review some of our material, talk about the power that is born when women come together to learn and do a project together, we sat and went over more material and I talked them about
how they can use the skills they are learning on a resume.
The SOFT SKILLS will be in learning how to :
COLLABORATE on the project-
-learning to find the flow while working as a team in a shared space
* The women moved so well in the small space where we had such time restraint ( racing to get the plants back in the ground before the end of the day ) It was very impressive.
-gaining a sense of RESPONSIBLITY
* Almost all of the women had various responsibilities that they had to run off and take care of from time to time, they demonstrated a great measure of responsibility by ” juggling everything ” and coming back to the project where they were able to get right back into whatever we were doing.
learning how to care for the garden
-showing up for the workshop on time with what is needed that day
TIME MANAGEMNT
– learning to complete the tasks in limited windows
-problem solving-adjusting for weather, working with limited resources
-patience and perseverance
HARD TECHNICAL SKILLS
Basic Horticulture
-plant care
-soil health
-planting
-design
-liner installation
Tool Use and Safety
-shovel
-rake
-trowel
– spade
We have a term here, ” testing your gangster “. I love the term because to me it is when things here are super difficult and I am forced to use my best skill level to joyfully complete the job.
On the first day of the workshop we experienced this to the ninth degree as they secured the compound numerous times as the facilities crew were bringing in heavy equipment and each time, we had to stop our project and hold on.
The first morning was powerful.
Eight of us sat in front of the garden along the sidewalk and took a PRE-TEST.
Going over the test, helped us get an idea of what to expect in the days to come.
1) Name 5 components of Emotional Intelligence
-self awareness
-self regulation
-motivation
-empathy
-social skills
This question led to a perfect discussion in our circle as one of the ladies shared that she felt she has too much empathy.
I asked her if it may be more accurate that she has a lovely measure of empathy but too few or undefined BOUNDARIES.
She thought that was eye opening. She wrote in her journal to become more aware of what boundaries she wishes to set or define for herself.
2) Name one way we can build EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.
-active listening
-mindfulness
-stress management
-seek feedback
-improve emotional vocabulary
This became a lovely Segway for the beauty and benefits of gardening.
We talked about Blue Zones and how the women all across the globe who live longest and healthiest on this earth have 3 things in common:
-they eat from a garden
-enjoy a sense of community
-they live their lives with purpose
3) What is the very first thing we must do before beginning any project?
The answer I was looking for is to ” set clear goals “. This led us to the agenda at hand.
This project has a short term goal and a long term goal; first, what is right before us is the need to line the garden to eliminate the overgrowth of weeds, next is the long term goal of gaining the experience needed to execute the
implementation and objectives of the community garden.
After the first two days, I am certain they will have no trouble pulling it off in my absence. These women are elegant team players and incredible listeners.
4) Maintaining a __________ ____________ even during physically demanding or repetitive tasks can keep the team motivated.
Naturally, the answer is POSITIVE ATTITUDE!!!
5) What is the best way to minimize wasted time and keep down confusion?
The answer is to REMAIN ORGANIZED.
Today was the second day of the workshop, and I can tell you that it was almost comical, the drastic goings on of the compound operations, while we were trying to execute this project.
Imagine this:
The final question was to define the word, aesthetic.
It was my greatest pleasure to bring to their attention that, where as a beautiful wall, a sunset or a painting could be aesthetically pleasing to the sight, a garden has the unique agility to touch all of your senses. Aesthetically pleasing like nothing else. Touching your soul, piquing your sense of sight, touch, scent and taste like nothing else I know of in this world. A garden is truly a space we can count on to please all of our senses and give a an aesthetic pleasure like few other things on this earth.
By the end of the workshop, the women not only understood all the above mentioned, but too, they had a different idea as to some possible future earning ability. We talked about the fact that they could easily start a landscape company, work for a garden center. They were even more motivated when I told them how much they could charge if their work was premium and pristine, and if they exercised the skills they learned throughout the week.
In our final circle, I shared something beautiful, apropo.
I shared a story about a man named Jarvis Jay Masters. He was featured on the cover of the HUMAN KINDNESS little rag that comes, it’s called A LITTLE GOOD NEWS.
The story is called EVERY DAY LOVE. I knew they would like the story, the birds are everywhere here right now…
Jarvis wrote a book , THAT BIRD HAS MY WINGS. Oprah named his book ONE OF THE TWENTY BOOKS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. They writer said it is a book that was sticky, it sticks with you in a way that makes you want to open your eyes and see the beauty in the world, makes you open your ears to hear what people really have to say, open your heart to show
yourself and others the love we all so desperately need.
The catch is, Javis was recently released from prison, having spent his entire life – beginning in the foster care system at 5, in and out from there; San Quentin for armed robbery at 19 and several years later, he was wrongly accused of murder.
He spent over 40 years in San Quentin and 21 of those were in solitary confinement.
The author says Jarvis learned to see himself and his surrounding clearly. He finds beauty and love in what he sees.
As aesthetic was sort of our word of the week, I asked them what they thought the aesthetics were like where Jarivis had been all those years.
They determined that it was cold, hard, bland, sad, depressing, hopeless.
We also learned that in order to build emotional intelligence, they must be increase their EMOTIONAL VOCABULARY. Learn how to express how they are feeling. We talked about ways to sit with ourselves in still and imagine that the emotions we are done with, have some beautiful, creative exodus from our life. I prefer birds to fly away with ribbons of things I wish to part with. One of the ladies said she would like to shoot them out on an arrow with a bow .
The women in our circle began talking about how amazing it is that Jarvis, probably having never received much love, he was able to go on to give it and write about it in a way that inspired millions.
The warden came by and said it looked great and to plan the next one!!!!
