How can you grow your passion?

Passion grows in the pants, whoops, we mean plants …

Imagine being up in the clouds, away from civilization with no form of communication, following a nutty little man, smiling ear to ear snipping away here and there at this plant and that one, yelling “Aaaiiiiiight.” That’s what we did for a good portion of our time in Turkey. We were volunteering on a permaculture site called Cloud 9 with an assortment of animals and even larger variety of plants.  It was another Workaway opportunity.  Our hosts, and now lifelong friends, Tayip and Deborah welcomed us warmly as they drove us 9km up a rough mountain road and brought us to our new home for the next month.  We had anticipated that we would be taking care of a few animals, learning about bees, doing some labor work on the land, a lot of watering and other small projects.  We didn’t realize we’d learn so much about permaculture and gardening.

As kids we were fascinated by the idea of something sprouting from a little seed and watching it grow over time. During our stay on Cloud 9 we were Tayip’s children and we were fascinated by his passion for the plants he grew, the fruits they sowed and the land he cultivated.  We reveled in every moment we spent following Tayip around, learning about gardening and growing as we applied those concepts to day-to-day life. Because life is like a garden, if it’s not thriving and growing, it’s dying.

Now some may find learning about gardening uninteresting and dull but trust us it’s fun!! However, what’s most interesting to us is we found an authentic, spirited character who had found his niche.  A person that does what he loves and feeds his soul.  Have you found that?  We sure haven’t and we know not everyone finds it easily.

In Indonesia we met a guy from Portugal who’s passion and work are now integrated because he draws bird illustrations for encyclopedia’s and other references but as a hobby enjoys bird watching.  How did he find his niche? Shooting down high flyers with his dad!  When they had to identify the birds they looked at them closely, listened to their song and eventually went in for the kill.  But the closer he looked and the harder he listened, the more he fell in love with his prey.  So here he is today, a full-time, passionate birdwatcher and illustrator.

In Poland we met a woman who is also full-time working in something she enjoys and is passionate about.  She moved to Poland, married a man, had two beautiful boys, worked a high corporate position at a company, and then got fired.  Well, you can respect the shock she must have felt and the fear of the unknown.  She didn’t know what she wanted to do next but a friend suggested in the meantime to write an eBook and enter a contest, just for fun. Now she is the successful author of about 20 books, with 2.4 Million eBook pages read per month and is loving it.  She’s on a wet, romantic carpet ride and there’s more and more people grabbing towels to clean up the mess in her page turners.

But back to the passion’s of our nature-loving Turkish friend, Tayip.  Since six years old Tayip could be found with a pair of shears in his back pocket.  He is the youngest gardener we’ve ever known of and he was learning everything he knew through experiencing it.  You could describe him as a mad scientist, experimenting with his plants on Cloud 9 but Tayip was also able to turn his fig passion, borderline obsession, into supplemental income by selling the cuttings from his trees.  Day-to-day all he has to do is give his trees some trimming and water, and later can see the fruits of his labor when he turns one branch into multiple saleable cuttings.  Now that’s an integrated life!

So here is some of the techniques we learned on Cloud 9 specifically about the fruit trees:

Grafting – taking the tissue of a bud or branch from one tree (has to be from the same family ie. apples and pears) and touching the tissue of another root tree.

Ground layering – when a low hanging branch or a damaged branch is encouraged to create new roots in the soil while its still attached to the original tree.  This can be done by weighting the branch with some heavy rocks so that it is now under the soil. Once the roots have grown, the branch can be cut from the parent tree and replanted!

This was Paulina’s favorite method and she can’t wait to experiment at home.

Air layering – similar to ground layering, the plant is encouraged to create new roots while its still attached to the original tree.  The difference is that it is done above the ground, in the air, in a bag that creates a moist growing environment for the roots. Once the roots have grown, the branch can be cut from the parent tree and replanted!

Although Tayip does so much with his wife at Cloud 9, they enjoy the company of helping hands … and paws .. and chickens, turkeys, peacocks, quail, and hedgies!

But after a long day of gardening and growing, we all need to take a rest to regenerate so we can grow some more tomorrow.

Will was the one who introduced the phrase “If you’re not growing, you’re dying” and since we’ve let it be a guiding light in our lives. Growing doesn’t necessarily mean physically growing but it means growing your brain. So as long as you’re on your continuous path for learning you are growing, this could be learning new recipes, taking a language course, training a dog, reading books, learning a new skill, etc.  Just like when we were children and we were rapidly growing, developing and learning, continue to be curious like a child in your adult life and learn something new.