SpiritWorks Herb Farm 

Participant Standards for Working on The SpiritWorks Herb Farm

 

These standards are offered in recognition that we grow more than plants here; we grow ourselves, and we grow a community.  These standards aim to encourage personal growth and to support each of us to develop higher standards for ourselves in all areas of our lives by practicing them in a learning environment that values personal growth.  Anyone can be good at being mediocre.   When combined with commitment, perseverance, and attention to detail, these standards enable one to achieve excellence.  If you need clarity to embrace these standards fully, please let us know, and we will discuss them in more depth.

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THE PREMISE:

• Everything, everything, everything you do says something about you and how you are in your relationships (with yourself, with others, with your habits, your work, your environment, and in your communication).

• Know that Lindy is not psychic, she just knows how to recognize patterns and what to expect. Anticipate feedback that supports developing excellence.

• Your work and life here is a practice ground for your “real” life.

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THE STANDARDS:

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• Rule #1: No one gets to be wrong.  If there is a problem, look at the process that created it, not the person.  Blame has no place here.

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• Basic Standards:

  • Confidentiality:  What you see, say, hear, and do are confidential. You can share what you learn and your experiences, but not others' experiences, without their permission.

  • Being On Time: Be at the designated place at the designated time, ready to go.

  • Who’s in Charge: Know when you are meant to lead and when you meant to be led.

  • Service: Know the difference between pleasing and serving. When serving you are invisible.  When you are pleasing, the ego is engaged.

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• Cultivate Attitudes that Work Well: 

• • Cultivate a "can-do, no-problem” attitude to yield powerful results.

  • Focus on what you can give, rather than what you can get and you will receive more than you ever imagined possible.

  • Do Not Entertain Negativity.  Never Denounce Anyone.

  • Expect Nothing, Earn Everything. 

  • Trust in the good intent of others and refrain from making judgements

  • Cultivate curiosity, deep listening, stillness, non-reactivity.  Observe, notice, and feel what is going on within yourself when stimulated by someone or a situation. Give others the benefit of your curiosity and doubt.

  • Reframe perceived problems into opportunities that can be an invitation for self-exploration.

  • Please be proactive and not projective with your anger. Anger & irritability are a highly intelligent emotions indicating a need for space to pause and reflect on what you need.    If needed, ask for time out to explore rebalancing yourself.

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• Excellence: Give your best to each job, focus on doing your best, not on perfection.  Seek to identify progress not perfection.​

  • Clarity: If you feel you have been given insufficient direction, ask for guidance.

  • Making Things Up:  *  Don’t! * If you do not know how to do something, get clear direction, no ego engaged.  Tell your leader if you made anything up, so it can be checked.

  • Do Each Job Completely: Leave the site better than you found it, clean up and put things back, report completion or status of projects at the end of the day.

  • Details Details Details: Everything everything everything you do says something about you.  It is all in the details.

  • Mindfulness with good body mechanics avoids injuries. Monitor your self and others.

  • Avoid Distractions: This includes distractions to your work and distractions within team relationships.

    • Try to stay on-task, and encourage others to balance conversations with productivity.  

    • Cultivate discipline within yourself and support others to remain focused in the present moment.

  • Supportability: Be open to feedback and don’t take things personally; trust others; ask for help. You’re not supportable if everyone else is wrong; if you are tired, you are doing it alone and consider teaming up.

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• Accountability: 

◦ Do what you say you are going to do and if for any reason, you don’t, let the leader know.

◦ Be responsible for your experience here, your belongings, what you create here for yourself, others, the farm.

◦ Help others. Those living and working here are asked to help those visiting to honor our standards.

• Never Leave Your Work, Physically or Mentally:  If you need to take a break from what you are doing, notify others and explain your work to whomever takes over.  This can be a saftey issue and speaks to being accountable to the community.

• If you think someone needs support, ask what they need and assist them in getting their needs met.

• Honor The Site:  Our intention is to protect the spiritual and energetic vitality of what grows here, both plants and people, recognizing that this property is a healing sanctuary with much medicine.

◦ Clean up and put things back.  

◦ Leave things better than you found them.  

◦ Create a respectful relationship with the site. 

◦ Quite time is observed from 10:30pm - 6:30 am

◦ Keep track of your stuff.

◦ No Smoking - No Drugs - No Alcohol - No Firearms

◦ Use of cell phones and electronic devices is limited to personal time.  Please do not leave devices logged into Wi-Fi when not in use.

◦ Monitor your thoughts and conversations, cognizant that thoughts, whether spoken or not,  affect people and plants - Politics, war, hate, crime, collective fear-based topics, negativity, have no place here.

• Honor Your Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, Physical and Interpersonal Needs: Take good care of yourself with good food, water, rest and play.  Let it be known when you wish to work on your own and when you wish to work with others and when you need personal time for yourself.

• Reflection:  Time spent in quiet, while working or on a sit spot, is potent. Seek it when you can here.

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• Sustainability:  Sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely. 

  • Economic sustainability is the ability to support a defined level of economic production and consumption indefinitely.

  • Social sustainability is the ability of a social system, such as a community or country, to function at a defined level of social well-being indefinitely.

  • Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely.​

  • Habits that ensure what is available today, exist tomorrow here at SpiritWorks

    • What you eat today was harvested before; What you harvest will be eaten later.

    • Reduce  -  ReUse  -  Recyle

    • Lights off when leaving 

    • Heat off when room is not in use

    • Minimize food waste

    • *** No wildcrafting or harvesting without permission.***  

  We are monitoring sustainable practices to ensure abundance in the future.

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I commit to honoring the above standards.  When I encounter physical or emotional obstacles, I will remind myself that everything learned and experienced – whether they may seem positive or negative at the time - can be transformed into personal growth. Working through these challenges will help me develop my best self and will bring the greatest gifts to the SpiritWorks community, the land and plants we nurture and those I encounter when leaving here. I will honor the commitment I have made and invite you to join me with this foundation for what we create together.

Lindy

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