I wanted to somehow work a Xin Loi — a Vietnamese ‘I’m Sorry’ — into the title of this post. Xin loi because it’s cool to write and humbling to say, and apropos here, as we weren’t exactly sure how to handle our new, exalted vision of a more fortified link between West and East, with a future center for healing in our far-away, beloved Vietnam. We went with popping open like the metal clips on our old-school Samsonite Heyoka suitcase, and telling everyone all about it. Exciting stuff, but, for now, far-away in both distance and in time. Or so we hope. Coming up with a future eject plan from Mý was also in reaction to being 13,000 miles away on inauguration day, and returning to a radically changing USA. “A cloud of cruelty hangs over so much of our discourse right now,” wrote a columnist in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, ”dulling our spirits and conjuring our worst instincts.” Huh. We’d argue that here, our spirits have never felt more alive, as we conjure our deepest, most peaceful, primordial tendencies. And regarding a future turning our students onto the healing power of Vietnam, we’re turning our attention now to late February in the Midwest USA, a time of great transformation and progress. “The world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,” per writer Wendell Berry, “Only by a spiritual journey by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be at home.”

Home for late Winter and loving it, we’ll soon offer up an unwaveringly, positive assist from Shinzen, along with a visit with a Native American Elder on developing a certain skill-set that can be extremely comforting during these seemingly difficult days. Winding down our Winter off-season activities, we’re segueing into the Spring Retreat Season, with a break in the weather putting our boy, the infamous Jeffrey Peter Ryan aka Uncle Jeffy to work. Felling trees last week was prompted by planning out food forests with our local mushroom man Anthony Michael Blowers, with a focuse on mushroom cultivation. Tony explained the effort will continue giving fruit for quite a few years to come, the initial mushroom crop spreading throughout The Higher Haven’s ecosystem, making it healthier and more balanced. The process starts by dropping a few smaller hardwoods, plentiful on our property, ideally before the trees start breaking bud. The upcoming inoculation will include Lion’s Mane spawn, Golden Oysters, Shiitake, and Chesnut Mushrooms.

The trees are then cut into 3-4-foot pieces, holes drilled every five inches or so, and then spawn is pushed into the holes and they’re waxed shut. This leg is the labor-intensive part, as hundreds of holes need to be drilled and plugged with spawn. If we play our cards right, we can see fruits by Fall. After they are fully colonized, they can potentially continue fruiting for at least five years, and in some cases longer. Fruits will show up in both Spring and Fall. Of course once we introduce these mushrooms to our eco system, they will become a part of it and organically spread throughout. Mushrooms are nature’s recyclers, they break down dying or dead trees and make nutrients readily available for new growth to absorb. They’ll basically balance and nice up our ecosystems, along with being predictable sightings for future events. Fruits, gifts, bartering, tinctures, it’s all currently in the works, even as the trees lie in the mud of our quickly thawing acreage. We’ll be setting the remainder of the Spring and Summer Retreat Season this week, so more info. soon.