Hail Life

Altar in the Sun. The Art Farm garden June 9, 2012

The garden is struggling to arise after two prolonged and powerful hail storms. Squashes are ripped through with stems mangled. Tomatoes bruised. More than half the seedlings have been pulverized. What the storms missed, the starlings picked over in wheeling flocks.

It's difficult to be still and be patient. It's hard not to melt with the sky into agitation. All the hard work and and tender emerging life thrashed. The hopes for service with a CSA and our farm co-op are lying limp on the ground.

But...

The garden doesn't need agitation. 

It doesn't even need feverish work. 

It wants presence and love, like all of us, after being hurt.

So I pause. I build a long neglected altar. Heather brings two statues, of Ganesh and Lakshmi. Seven keys, representing the seven chakras of the world, hang from the mantle. I place new seeds on the little niche. Then I leave the potential for new life and go, walk in the garden. Before I replant, I want to see what's really there, beyond my worries and responsibilities.

In the midst of a mangled squash plant, a new shoot pushes forward. Potatoes seem unphased. Many carrots are present and standing at attention. Life is here! Tenacious life. Remnants survive through the beatings and voracious hunger our world brings in chattering waves. Doing what life does.

Perhaps the sun that filters through the mist will delight the field soon.
Perhaps the storms have returned to their mountain home.
Perhaps I will sit here, with my wife, a while longer, not clinging to what could be or should be.
Perhaps I will continue to thank the survivors and the faithful of the garden clan,
and to contemplate the ruthless wonder of being present and still alive on earth.

-------

It's the next morning. The garden is replanted. All the rows that looked like missing teeth are filled in with seeds hungry to live, hungry to grow, hungry to feed the beauty of the world. The product may be two weeks late, but the vitality and healing are fully present.

-------

To Our Moon Bear CSA Menbers: 

Small boxes will be ready in early July. Specifics next week. It looks like the main harvests and abundance will be in full swing around July 20th. We're still set for a 12 week summer season for produce delivery. I'm waiting to see what the farm does now. All we can do is wait and see. The Earth will have Her way. Thanks for being in this process with us, this cycle of bring bounty to the table.

Rick

Copyright: Richard Sievers, Field of Seven Houses, June 2012