Since our last newsletter there have been lots of subtle updates and changes. Our core CMS has been updated along with a number of components and features to improve stability, security and performance. If you run into any new bugs or problems, please let me know so I can get everything working!

We've also added a new Premium Feature – Photo Galleries. These fun and easy to use galleries let you share your world with us. You can an example in my profile.

I've been busy updating the site and working on side projects, including my garden and johnmichaelthornton.com, but I have been writing a few short articles on Choosing a Psychic, gardening and cooking. Our other members have been rather quiet lately, but you can always get in on the conversation in the Forum!

Lots of the current chat in the forum is about gardening and I love it. All over the news these days you see these little stories, often buried under a mountain of campaign coverage, about how Americans are returning to gardening, often in hopes of reducing food costs, but also out of a desire to have safe and nutritious food available independent of the increasingly unstable global food market.

My family has always been full of gardeners. My maternal great Grandfather owned a feed store and Grandma always talks about how the worse the economy the better he did, some things never change.

Both sets of grandparents had organic gardens and I remember sitting on my Grandmother's porch on a raining summer afternoon in Texas, shelling butter beans and watching the wind and rain whip through the pecan trees and bend the flower stalks.

Here in Ohio, my Grandfather used to have the most amazing tomato harvests and Grandma would spend many a summer day putting up dozens of cans of tomatoes. When she moved into an apartment a few years ago, there were still aging jars of tomatoes stashed away in the basement.

My parents' garden was always big and sprawling, a stark contrast to Phyllis's garden next door with its tidy raised beds neat rows and clear paths. Three years ago we changed my folk's garden to raised beds and I can't help thinking about how proud Phyllis would be that we finally decided to follow her example.

That's the thing about gardening, it's not just a way to get food, it reconnects us with our families and our history. When I stand in the sun and weed the lettuce I remember my Mother showing me what to pull and what to leave.

Picking tomatoes I see the baskets lined on Grandpas porch and remember the smell of summers past.

Planting herbs I remember Phyllis passing me sprigs of garlic chive through the fence. Thirty summers gone past, stretching back through hundreds of generations, summer is about family and the harvest.

This summer we welcome back to our family a number of Featured Directly Members: The Theosophical Society of Akron, Pat Beers, and Linda Knapp.

I had lunch with Pat this past week. She has been a tireless promoter of this site, even though she has never signed on (technophobe). She passes out fliers and tells people about the phone readings she has booked from as far away as Florida and Washington. Even though you'll never read this, thanks for the support Pat, and welcome back.

The Theosophical Society of Akron was one of Pat's recruits and there is a new contact person who knows how to work her computer, so I look forward to hearing more from them over the next year.

Linda Knapp and her husband have been working tirelessly to support the metaphysical and psychic community here in Ohio. Organizing psychic fairs, networking and spreading the word, we are happy to welcome them back.

Have a great summer!

John Thornton
AmericanMetaphysics.org Founder