Harvest

Bowed heads yield to the burden of time. Earth, her bowels depleted, heaves in surrender to death.

The naked landscape probes the recesses of my soul. I lie on the ground, furled in the solitude of a barren womb and am stilled by the mystery.

The mystery, the amazement, the miracle. 
The miracle.
And isn't that always the miracle? That sterility swells with vitality? That I can lie in wonder on a cold ground, looking up at crumpled ashen flowers and know that they promise life?

Each one of these Sunflower seeds will grow into  a vibrant yellow flower next Summer. Every head is bulging with seeds, crammed with life.

And that is the greatest mystery. If God can take a seed from a plant and work this miracle, how much more can He do with an eternal soul? How can we behold such grandeur and not know that we are destined for greatness?

How can we go about our days, taking for granted that day after day, month after month, year after year, the earth will replenish, renew, bear fruit, put forth seed... sustain our very being...yet  forget that God is doing the same for us? Our lives are the seeds in a destitute existence...and God is  anticipating the harvest.

 And the people who will plant seeds, knowing and expecting the harvest to come, refuse to believe that God can work the same miracle in our souls. All creation proclaims who God is and what He does. All creation is the supreme manifesto.

Why thus longing, forever sighing for the far off, unattained and dim, while the beautiful, all around thee lying, offers up its low perpetual hymn?
Wouldst thou listen to its gentle teaching, all thy restless yearnings it would still; Leaf and flower and laden bee are preaching thine own sphere, though humble first to fill.

~Harriet Winslow Sewall

A Little About The Garden

Ben and Will took over the gardening this year while their dad was away......
It looks like Dad might be out of a job next Summer!

Here is Will with his abundant peppers....I think he had ten different varieties. He enjoyed 'pepper sandwiches' for lunch all Summer. (Notice John Paul poking his head in the doorway.)

The freezer is filled with tomatoes, peppers, and green beans. The pantry is loaded with jars of salsa...our favorite. Some of the tomatoes were grown from heirloom seeds that have been in this community for years. The Ox heart tomato, a hearty flavorful tomato shaped like an Ox heart, has been passed on from friend to friend. The friend that gave me our plants asked me to harvest the seeds so that we can have more plants next year. I saved the seeds on a small square of paper towel and put them in an envelope for her. I think that this 'seed sharing' is the essence of what I love about living in Deerfield. It truly is a community.

One Moment

I felt life breathe today~green, fresh, vibrant, undying~



 She will not "go gentle  into that good night"(click here to read the poem)
She will cling to what is hers
She is still becoming



 still pulsing, still singing,




 still flowering, still giving
delicate abundance





  She weaves a bower of beauty for us to behold

Her gentle arms embrace me for one moment

peace.

Mary Margaret led me into the garden today to discover the Mustard greens and Romaine lettuce that had replanted itself from the Spring growing season. We even found a bit of Arugula. Do you know what an Arugula flower looks like? It's the flower in the fourth picture down. I was awed by the life abounding in what looks from the distance to be a has-been ,withered, used-up garden. There is always life to be found; that life is the pulsating of God all through His marvelous creation.

Our Growing Garden

What we have growing so far: onions, lettuce, potatoes, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, basil, dill, oregano, rosemary, red and green peppers, jalapenos, rasberry plants(pictured), and corn. Also included is a picture of our beehive.