The Green of February Moss

The green of February moss
is especially bold
full of subtle reminders
of November gold

Apple Cider Time!

It is that time of the year when
human hearts turn towards walks
through golden woods and drinks
of sweet apple cider...

I Saw, in that Leaf

I sat beside the pond on a wet day
still, like a stone,
quiet, like a falling leaf
expecting miracles
and I waited

And I stared at the early autumn leaves
falling from the trees
smoothly as a dancing butterfly
and touching down,
lying on the ground
with the dignity of days

And I noticed on the aged bottom
of the rusting metal johnboat
a Tulip Poplar leaf had landed there
and shone gold
a bright moment on a gray day

And I saw, in that leaf
the whole world
and possibilities not yet fully realized.

Living in Community

I have not oft-mentioned on this blog the notion of living in intentional community, but that is what this living together is about for us. On this blog, I've recorded some of the sights and sounds of living together, but not talked much about the ideal of living together.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer some thoughts from Wendell Berry on living in community and related themes...

"Community, I am beginning to understand, is made through a skill I have never learned or valued: the ability to pass time with people you do not and will not know well, talking about nothing in particular, with no end in mind, just to build trust, just to be sure of each other, just to be neighborly. A community is not something that you have, like a camcorder or a breakfast nook. No, it is something you do. And you have to do it all the time..."

“A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves...”

“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into.”

“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. 

We have been wrong. 

We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”

“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.”

“'You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out - perhaps a little at a time.'
'And how long is that going to take?'
'I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps.'
'That could be a long time.'
'I will tell you a further mystery,' he said... 'It may take longer.'”

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings...”

“Love is what carries you, for it is always there, 

even in the dark, or most in the dark,
but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery. ”

~Wendell Berry

The World is Holy...

"The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves."

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”  

“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”

~Terry Tempest Williams

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life."

“Look underfoot. You are always nearer to the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Don't despise your own place and hour. Every place is the center of the world.”
 
~John Burroughs 

“Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.”

~Frances Moore Lappé

"But love of the wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need - if only we had eyes to see."
 
~Edward Abbey

"In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods we return to reason and faith."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Memorial Day Gathering

A few photos from our annual Memorial Day/Honor our Graduates party...

Wet Weather Hikes

The rain was drizzling down to nothing as we pulled up to the farm... this on a day that promised nothing but gray skies and downpours. The sun was even making a goodwill effort to poke through the clouds and so, with no guarantees, we took a wet weather hike.

This hike was especially magical and life-full. We saw four fresh, shiny-baptized box turtles (two very amorous ones) and many toads. We had butterflies flittering around us the whole way and saw two large pileated woodpeckers and heard and saw many other birds. 

 

The trees glowed green.

As we finished the dragonfly loop trail, the clouds returned and, shortly thereafter, so did the rain, as we raced back to the dry house.

I think wet weather hikes - just after or between storms - may be some of the best. There is a life that pours out of the ground like no other times.