The Phantom Planter

 45 today guys!! I remember years ago in my buyers of anything sellers of everything superstore I had this man who worked for me who I called Big Wig, he had a head of hair on him that put the Jackson 5 to shame. Big Wig used to call me Mad Dog.  He worked for me from I was around 25 till about 30. Right at the peak of the madness in my life he was there.  Everyday was party time at my store back then, mini casinos out the back with a massive furnace on the go all day burning the stuff we couldn't sell and all sorts of other dodgy goods it was good for getting rid off.  I made a driving range at one of the shutters and had the neighbours tortured with golf balls bouncing about their driveways.  I could write a book about this place.  We sold everything from double decker buses to speedboats.  And we boasted the largest bric-a-brac section in the world I would have said. It was a massive warehouse filled with everything from years of house clearance....

 In Buddhism they believe in reincarnation, that we are reborn over and over again and each rebirth depends on the quality of the life you live now. Some Buddhist teachers are able to give the exact types of rebirth you will take depending on how your living now. Like one Buddhist teacher said that if you live in complete vanity in this life, your next rebirth could be a very ugly deformed type person. Another I heard say that murders will be reborn into rat infested poverty. When you really get down to the bare bones of Buddhism everything in this life is karma manifesting. We are all self creating beings living out our own karma. I used to love bodybuilding when I was younger and still do on and off training with my son and other young kids. I do a mix of slow isometric weight training mixed with calisthenics. When I look around at bodybuilders these days eating all them chickens and eggs everyday just to pack on some extra flesh around their bones, I cant help but think at times...

 Doing upside down situps using Gravity boots give you some core burn alright! Also good for alignment of the spine and helps back aches.  My body mind and soul was destroyed after a lifetime ducking and diving in the underworld. When your up to your neck working moves looking over your shoulder all the time, the last thing on your mind is health and wellbeing.  For the past 10 years I've been learning so much about me and how to fix the damage thats been done.  My back was always wrecked from an early age offloading lorries of dodgy goods for my delboy dad. He never gave me any proper lifting instructions when the shipments of cigs were coming in from Andorra. All he was saying was "Fer F**ksake son get them cars filled before the police come"... Soon as the shipments came in it was all fast and stressed getting everyone loaded up.  I was born into madness with my delboy dad. All go go go it was working moves wheeling and dealing 24/7! Tell you one muscle group...

 It was this day last year that we got the land donated for use to plant up our new Lisnabreeny Community Orchard. When I look back at what has been created here in the past year its pretty amazing. We have around 300 Irish variety apple trees here with many of them memorial trees. So many families have came to plant trees in memory of their lost loved one with many of them having their loved ones ashes in with the trees too. Cant thank the couple thats given us this land enough, some nice people in the world. Also this would not have happened without Tony Mallon, who for many years has always had his ear to the ground for me. He put all this together, connecting myself with the couple that owns the land. Appreciate it big man, cant thank you enough. Then I will never forget the first day of planting, I had said to a big secret druid guy who I always see in the forest with his staff to come along for the planting. I never expected him to call and there he appeared that day. Since t...

  Stilling our minds has to be the most needed things in the world today.  The mind is a muscle, when we train it well we have better control over our thoughts.  Nothing brings more suffering than an untrained mind and nothing brings more happiness than a well trained mind.  Playing the monopoly board for too long and not recognizing my ego over the years disturbed my mind big time!! A big part of my life practice is stilling my monkey mind. Not easy at times, for the mind goes where it wants and does what it wants.  I truly believe though that there is a tranquil place within us all where we can go too and getting caught with the BS of the world at times is just taking us further and further away from this place of peace which lies within.  First time I ever sat and meditated I saw that I was not running the show within my mind. My thoughts were being controlled by others. The wee man down the road that didn't pay his bill last week, making me think hate a...

 Just passed 120k followers on The Phantom Planter Facebook page!! For some reason I think the Facebook algorithms are liking me again. My page sort of stuck at 115k for around 2 years then in the past month or so its went up by 5k followers.  Thank you to all the new followers. Hope you all phantom plant a tree and I hope the other 115k followers are phantom planting also.  Imagine 115k people all planting 1 tree a week.  My mission is to promote the connection back to nature. It doesn't matter what any government or conservation groups does for nature. If the people at the grassroots of society are not connected to nature then we will never respect it. Nature will be just seen by future generations as another commodity.  We are a forest people, we have evolved out of the forest. Thats why we all feel good around the trees, its our true home. The more I study body movement the more I see we are so perfectly designed to climb trees and hang out with them.  ...