The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 115

Good afternoon everyone. I am coming to you later today due to pressure of early morning deliveries and farm work. Today we are 10 days out of lock down and as a nation we are progressing slowly and yesterday I was listening to Professor Ian Norton, “THE” worlds medical expert on Corona virus emergency management, an Irish man from Kinsale but living in Australia. This man is called on whenever there is a medical emergency anywhere in the world be it on land or sea. He is convinced that there will be repeat phases of this pandemic but what I really picked up from him was that we should speak softly with each other, no raised voices as the particles will travel farther depending on the pressure of your voice. I was just thinking, is this a wonderful opportunity to both supress the spread of the virus and also very importantly to speak in a calm, easy and pleasant manner to each other. This will create also a growing and meditative practice for us all into the future and will help our state of mindfulness and wellbeing. So from today onwards lets all try to be calm and respectful to all we meet.

Continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 114

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwilllin House and gardens. Today is day 114 in The Mindful Farmers daily diary and day 9 out of lock down. I just can’t get over what a beautiful day we had yesterday. The roses were jumping out of their petals saying “look at us”, the animals were jumping for joy in the fields and my old lawnmower of 30 years started on the first pull sensing the warmth of the summer. We all know of the suns importance to our health and wellbeing. It is important that when we absorb these powerful rays that our thoughts may also be true light and find their way into words and these words have the weight of shadows and hold the layers of truth. It should remind us that having absorbed the suns rays to brighten up our bodies and minds that we then re-radiate the sunshine both out to ripple towards all who we meet and need our warm and kind words and when we look into the eyes and hearts of others that our kindness has the reverence of candlelight. So for today, spread a little of yesterdays sunshine towards all who need it because today may not gleam as brightly.

Continue to pray, bless and heal each other. Spread sunshine to all you encounter and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 113

Good morning everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 113 of my daily diary and 8 days out of lock down. It is the start of another week and no matter what happens today or during this week we will find the courage to seek solutions to any problem that may occur when you think positive thoughts, positive thoughts happen. Likewise if you think negatively, negative things happen. We are all surrounded by a field of energy that responds to our inner world. Life is not happening to us it is responding to us and every thought you think has an energy pulse that resonates. This has a quality and follows “like attracts like process”. That is why positive thinking is so powerful. So today, whatever you can do or dream you can – just begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Your dreams will come true if you have the courage to pursue them with total, consistent and persistent commitment. So for today, dream your dreams no matter what your age or situation. Pray your dreams and continue to bless and heal each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 112

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 112 of my daily diary and day 7 out of lockdown. All going well so far in our new life but business is very slow, but that is a good way to ease ourselves and our guests out of lockdown. I like the word “ease” anyway. It is nice to rest easy anyway and not to put pressure on friendships. Today being Sunday and a day of rest I like to walk easily through the farm and gardens and ponder on my life and that of my family. It also gives me time for reflection as I gaze on the hedgerows, the birds and animals and their behaviour. It also gives me time to philosophise and appreciate my environment and encourages me to continue to protect my environment for the generation of people and animals. What I always want in these gardens and farm is when people visit that the personality of our aesthetic environment at Ballinwillin House will leap out at them and they can sit apart and inhale the aroma of the surrounding environment, fresh and vibrant and at ease with nature. So for today, take a walk into nature, be at ease with nature and yourself and be mindful of the beauty that surrounds you and continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 111

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 111 of my daily diary and day 6 out of lockdown. Today I am going to talk to you about what I have seen during meditation this morning and what I have seen on the farm and in the garden. Even the smallest flower or piece of vegetation is a revelation of God but we need to see with open eyes of the heart if we are to read the wind, sand, stars, people, animals and all beneath the first level of appearance. There are many surprises and special gifts to help us all make this transition from the eyes in our head to the eyes of our heart. If we take the time to study anything and to be mindful we can understand and transform any item of beauty. Every weed can become a flower, every grey misty morning can turn into a wonderful sunny afternoon, every wave in the ocean can be the heartbeat of the universe, even when the caterpillar thought his life was over he became a butterfly. All these instances give us a glimpse of the divine that dwells in us all. We need the blessing to see and to understand. So today, take a little time to rest your eyes on your surrounding beauty of the simple things that surround you.

Continue to pray for the nation, continue to send healings and blessings to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 109

Good morning everyone and welcome to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 4 of our new life and day 109 of my daily blogs. Today will be a very busy day delivering to Neighbour Food across the country and general farming duties. With deer, wild boar and goats you must check everything everyday as they are wild animals and they can get up all kinds of mischief but I would not change my type of faming for anything because my animals on the farm bring me great joy. I remember when I was a young boy my parents would always bless new born animals with holy water and every time they would see the animals in the fields they would always bless them verbally. At that time I didn’t take too much notice but no I fully realise how powerful these words and blessings were and are. Likewise, anytime we left home they would bless us and did so until they passed from us on earth. Today, formal blessings are rare in our society but I believe parents should do it all the time to their children and friends and community and wish everyone well as we do each morning in our little broadcast. It is a beautiful and lovely custom and one we might remember to enact more consciously. So today please send blessings to all who are near and dear to you and continue to pray and send healing to each other and wear that smile. Have a lovely and peaceful day.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 108

Welcome to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 3 of our new life and day 108 of my daily blogs. Good morning everyone. Quite a nice morning here this morning. I just completed a very nice meditation and the thoughts that came to my mind this morning is the fullness of the farm and the fullness and plenty of the garden and in this high summer season all this plenty is a blessing from the soil and Mother Earth. This is a season generous with its delight. The garden, as you can see, is lush with beautiful bright roses and splendid flowers. The borders are a rainbow of colour. The barn is full of sweet scented hay and the animals are happy in their knowing that all is ok for this winter and they are always in the knowing. So we have achieved so much so far this summer but we must take some time out to enjoy it all and we must remind ourselves to slow down and just look. Then the fullness of our summer gardens will fill us with gratitude and we cannot help but give praise and thanksgiving and blessings. To bless is to honour and to honour is to celebrate, to celebrate is to experience joy and to experience joy is to give thanks.

So today send blessings, healings and joy to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 107

Welcome to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 2 of our new life and day 107 of my daily blogs. Well things are beginning to look up – we had our first guest last night and a few restaurants have ordered some of our products and for that we are very, very grateful. It’s a slow start but it’s a start. It is like starting up a new business again and trying to explore new avenues of doing business and working really hard but we are up for that challenge. We must change the way we look at things and then the things you look at “change”. We must pick up and pick out some of the good times and the good things that happened us during Covid19. That will allow our energy levels to rise and then we begin to start our new life, our new recovery road and it is wide open for us all to travel on. When we change our feelings we change our frequency and to change our feelings we change our thoughts. So on our new journey together we must be happy, enthusiastic, passionate, joyful, focused, relaxed, rested, creative and flourishing and all in a mindful circle in this way you will attract more positive things and positive people into our lives. So today, continue with all of the above, continue to pray, bless and heal each other and wear that positive and intoxicating smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 106

Well, well, well. We have done 105 days of lock down and now it is our first day of a new freedom and I wish you all the very best in health and life and all things near and dear to you. So this morning your early morning thoughts will be anxious until you relax. Take a deep breath and meditate and be mindful of your new free world. Say a few simple prayers or some warm thoughts to people near and dear to you then suddenly your day will brighten and feel more friendly. Anxiety stems from asking the wrong questions. We ask ourselves time and time again if such a thing happens how will I handle it but the real question is whether you can cope with whatever happens so remember the 10 short simple little words “if it is to be it is up to me”. Very few people doubt the quality, indeed the beauty of the messages as a people of faith we can carry. The big question for us all today is how well do we carry it?

Today can be the first day of our new life. Remember these 10 little words and continue to pray, bless and send healings to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 105

Day 105 of lock down and it is the last and final day. I hope and pray it is. Today being Sunday, a holy day and rest day is the perfect way to end lock down. In a mindful, meditative and thankful way that we are emerging. Some of us are emerging unscathed from a family point of view, others have suffered sad and deep loss of loved ones and we pray for you today. Others have lost jobs, lost businesses and many have suffered mental health issues. But now on this Sunday June 28th we must prepare to take our first step into the world. We must believe in the new world. One of the biggest barriers to achieving our true potential is the huge collection of negative beliefs we have built up in our minds over the years and especially during this pandemic. Our beliefs about certain events help us cause how we feel and because most of us are unaware of them we allow them to limit our potential for nearly all our lives. Beliefs can change the way we act, feel and think so from today onwards let us pray that we will change our belief going into the future. It will not change the past but it can change the future. It is never too late to be what you might have been. Continue to pray for the health of our nation. Continue to heal and bless each other and have a lovely peaceful, mindful Sunday and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 104

Good morning everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on this damp Saturday morning. A busy morning so far, deliveries to Neighbour Food commenced around 4am and back here around 11.30am, now doing my blog and then off farming for the day, moving deer and wild boar to fresh pastures and the goats also need new roughage, all in a days work but I am very happy, very mindful and very peaceful in myself and I am completely immersed in the now as I complete each task. So today I want you all to be totally present in the NOW no matter your task, situation or problem. Focus on the now. Focus on your breath and repeat these amazing words “if it is to be it is up to me!”. Why worry over the future? The present is all we have. The future will soon be present and the present will soon be past. Isn’t there a lot of wisdom in those words? The past is history, the future is mystery. We always have a choice. We can be happy now in the present moment or we can choose to be happy “when” or “if”. It is always our choice. We live at the foothills of the beautiful Galtee mountains and I often say to people “it is not the mountains we conquer but ourselves and enjoy the climb”

Continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 102

Good morning everyone and welcome to Ballinwillin House Farm on day 102 of lock down on the farm, gardens and B+B. Today is St. Johns Day. On Monday next, June 29th, we hope to open up again for business on a limited manner until we see how things go and during that week I will be spending a lot of my time on retreat on the farm and in the gardens where I plan to retreat and reconnect with nature. I will also be opening up for you to come on retreat and join with me to celebrate and join in thanksgiving for our survival during this very trying time. In one way it is easy to retreat in lock down because you don’t have much distractions but it is another challenge to go on retreat when you are free to do many other things in your life. So now let us call for a new life awakening and to call out for a new freedom so that your heart may know the patience that can draw infinity from our limitations. May we allow time to give way to a deeper generosity so that from this day forward we will always feel a new spring time and may all that holds you fall from its hungry ledge into the second surge of your heart.

Continue to pray, bless and heal each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 101

Good morning everyone and welcome to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 101 of lock down. It is difficult to believe that we are entering another era of 100 days and I hope and pray we as a nation can progress out of this pandemic in a mindful and healthy manner. Well, things are very different at Ballinwillin House today as our two beautiful grandchildren Ada and JJ left us yesterday evening for their home in Leixlip as their crèche has re-opened and Mammy and Daddy are back at work. We miss them awfully but they, like all of us, must have their own life but having them for the past 100 days was fabulous and beautiful. For all of us it is a new beginning. Each new beginning always directs us towards that new frontier and that is why we must reach for guidance, blessings and prayer. In our nervousness and confusion, fear and uncertainty we call upon invisible structures of original kindness to come to our assistance and open pathways of possibilities by refreshing and activating in us our invisible and untapped potential. But when we bless and pray, we work from a place of inner vision clearer than our hearts and brighter than our minds. It is then that we can “harvest” the wisdom and ability that is dormant in us and from today onwards we can harvest the new and hidden gifts in us all. So continue to pray for a new beginning for us all and bless and send healing to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 100

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin Farm and gardens. Today is really a milestone in Covid19’s history. I initially started doing Facebook lives on a weekly basis but when lockdown was announced I decided I would do one every day to record what was happening on the farm and gardens and what was going on in my mind and family circumstances, initially we as a family and a team were in absolute turmoil with our business shut down and no income and no visible income initially but we didn’t sit down and do nothing. After about 40 days planning we organised to get set up with Neighbour Food markets and slowly but surely we began to do business again, nothing major but enough for survival until this pandemic ends. The big learning curve here was that everyone was in much the same situation and if not for the support of family and the team we would not have survived. So I am forever grateful to all concerned but most importantly it was a time for “big decisions”. We all know now that this came out of nowhere. We all know now that again and again we cannot predict what life may bring to us, the time of mind is hard to read. We still don’t know what form this pandemic will finally take but we must have the courage to walk out again into the unknown and trust again that our new found life will be richer and that we will lose nothing but what has already died. Perhaps the old life had lost some of its soul or the old life where once we belonged calls nothing alive in us anymore. We must come alive now and live to the full in our new world with prayers, blessings and healings and ask ourselves “are we going to be the better people now”

Continue to wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 99

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens. Day 99 since our business closed down but now we are only a week away from opening up for business again and I can’t tell you how much we are looking forward to opening up once lock down is over. We really really miss our guests and the company we share here together. So one week to go and we will be offering one nights free bed and breakfast to the winner of our competition to reopen and also we are offering a wild boar BBQ pack with a bottle of bubbly and some beautiful, homemade chocolate brownies from Praline here in Mitchelstown to mark “100 days of my lock down blogs” so celebrations all round and why not? We are living in a time which may be timeless, we don’t know, but we must be positive and get on with our new life because the world as we knew it is gone and gone forever. We must rebuild, renew and regrow and above all we must be prepared to change no matter what age we are. To change is one of the greatest dreams of every heart, to change the limitations, the sameness, the pain, for too often we look back on our old patterns of behavour or on the kind of decisions we make repeatedly make and yet more often than not they fail to serve us well. We must now aim for a new and more meaningful way of life and a more mindful, peaceful pathway to our new life. So today let us all ask ourselves, “are we ready to change?” Please answer yes!

Continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 98

Good morning everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on this wet and windy Sunday morning and today is Fathers Day. My dad passed away on March 5th 2004 but no matter how life changes and no matter what I do a special place within my heart is always lest for him and him only. He was a very pleasant, great man powerfully strong and an unbelievable worker and his work ethic will always be imprinted in my mind but try as I may I could never achieve his level of persistent endurance. The longer I live the more of his presence is laid down in my memory and his gentleness towards his family drew no attention to itself and he always filled our home with a climate of warmth, kindness and each of us were left free to seek our own direction in life but with his guidance. His presence was always like a sheltering oak tree where our fledgling hearts could shelter. Wen we worked in the fields you could sense the earth was able to trust his hands as we tilled the soil together. In those bye gone days there were many things we could have said but words never wanted to name them and perhaps a word that is quietly sensed across the air in another heart became the inner companion to one’s own unknown and as the song goes “I miss you my old man” but I know and feel your spirit sheltering over  us all here in Ballinwillin and again in the morning we will walk to Thinking Path together.

Continue to remember your father on this day and pray. Bless and heal each other and smile that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 97

Good afternoon everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on this blistering day at the foothills of the beautiful and wild Galtee mountains. Today I am coming to you because of many reasons but mainly in the morning I was delivering to the wonderful Neighbour Food markets and then some farming and now that most of my work for this day is done I am going to celebrate this evening the Summer Solstice. In my childhood days in West Limerick this was always a special time and much celebrated as it marks the midpoint of the year and the beginning of summer and the longest day of the year and my parents explained it was all about embracing the sun and its electrifying power. It was explained to us as we were all gathered round that “it was always a time for new beginnings” and by God do we need a new beginning now as our great little island is struggling to emerge from this pandemic. A new beginning, a time of renewal and a celebration of the sun whose power is needed for Mother Earth and for all of us to survive and thrive and survive we will! It should also remind us of the light that exists and shines within all of us. It is also a time for opening ourselves up to the light and letting it uplift and inspire us. What I recommend to all of you on this special day is to set your intentions for the year ahead, be very focused on the now, inhale the power of the sun, focus on your breath and meditate on these powerful moments and let the life force energy from the sun beam you up. Harness the power of this years Summer Solstice because we need it like we never did before and it wont let us down.

Continue to pray also and send blessings and healings to each other like never before and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 96

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens. A nice mild morning here and all peaceful but I cannot stop thinking of the family of Detective Garda Horkan in Mayo this morning, a man who lost his life in the line of duty as a police man. He paid the ultimate price for our protection and safety with his life. So today I would like to ask you all to pray for his soul and spirit and for his family and friends as they weep their loss, no longer they will look towards each other in this life but the spiritual presence will always guard over us. The same applies to all the people who have lost loved ones during this pandemic. Let us all pray today that the distance of all their names will dwell inside the rhythm of breath and as close to us as we are to ourselves. Though we cannot see you with our outward gaze we know deeply that our souls gaze is upon your face and smiling back to us from within and may this dark grief flower with hope in every heart that loves you.

So continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other and keep that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 95

Good morning everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 95 where our hopes and prayers are rising and we are emerging slowly and successfully from this awful plague that has been suffered upon us. This morning as I do every morning, I sent out healing to you all and especially to people who request it and you know we all have this power to heal and bless each other as we send out the waves powerfully to the people in need. Healing through prayer benefits those who suffer from fear, anxiety and depression. Any persons state of mind and emotional issues have physical aspects too. Both our physical body and our state of mind continually need healing and prayer from the depth of our souls. The results can be phenomenal and I have heard back from many, many people who have made requests, especially in the area of mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. We all need strength to carry on in life but wouldn’t it be a wonderful feeling every day if we believed that there are people out there praying and healing for us also. You know what trying to push a car to start is like and then when others come along to help you push the car if makes a difference doesn’t it, now just do it.

Continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick

The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 94

Good morning everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens. It is a nice morning here this morning, calm and a little misty. I could not but think this morning when I was doing my early meditation about the beauty surrounding me in the gardens and many of you may think that beautiful things are far too expensive for most of us to purchase but what occurred to me early was that the beauty of creation and this garden and all its beautiful plants and trees is there for all of us, and free for the taking. We always know in our hearts what is best for us but often we don’t want to hear it and so we don’t listen to it. Our hearts tell us that we are too busy to think about taking a breath so today why not take a little time out and take time to experience the beauty all around you. Consult with your inner self and listen to your heart of hearts for it is here that we will find the source of wisdom.

Continue to pray, bless and send healing to each other and wear that smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick