Yesterday, I shared about our chickens and how there seem to be similarities to people. It reminded me of something I saw at a lecture once about Johari's Window.

Johari's Window is named after Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram using parts of their names. It represents our own inner landscape and how it affects our interactions with others.

We have chickens in our suburban backyard. We received our first chickens a little over a year ago and have had an interesting journey. We lost some to an illness and a dog attack and we've adopted others from multiple people. Our flock now contains 6 different girls of different breeds.

If we were farmers, we would likely raise a lot of chickens and perhaps never really take the time to get to know each different personality. But, as farmers in the burbs, we actually spend a fair amount of time with the girls.

I've spent the last two weeks sick with the latest flu going around. Last evening I talked with my son and he had been sick as well. The main difference is it only lasted a few days for him. As we talked, I was thinking about why he would be healthier than me, besides age. In the course of the conversation he told me about several of his friends who had been ill. The common theme that seemed to run throughout how long someone was sick had to do with walking.

You see, my son uses public transportation almost exclusively. And, it requires he walk between some points.

We've all heard the expression to "stop and smell the roses". It really only takes a moment to look around us and breathe in the beauty of nature. It may be a flower, the snow, cloud formations and crystal blue of the sky. Take a moment out of each day to appreciate the gift of this great planet we live on.

It is so easy to get focused on where we are going, what's next. But that moment of taking in nature, reconnects us to the present moment and the ability to remember our connectedness.

In 2005 we built a solar greenhouse. The beauty of the greenhouse has been fresh tomatoes in January, a quiet place to escape and a learning space about gardening and nature. In 2007, we decided we would add an aquaponics system to the greenhouse.

Our solar greenhouse