A Morning Thought...

 Morning thought:  

There'd be no need to save the world if humanity had not forgotten how to savor it!

It's Saturday morning as I sit here writing some thoughts... a delicious farm breakfast heavy in my stomach, while, outside, the leaves are heavy with the morning's rain.  

We walked the woods, this morning after morning chores - a spiritual practice for us - grounding ourselves to Mother Earth and all her glory.  As we walked, we occasionally broke the silence to bring attention to this or that catching our eye.

Hemlock varnish mushroom (ganoderma) Reishi family

For some, this walk would be nothing more than exercise - for us, it is a sacred practice of gratitude.  As we walk, we talk of the wonders that we are so privileged to experience while inhabiting our human bodies.  Above us we hear the steady rain on the canopy high above our heads and feel the moisture on our exposed skin.

Tulip poplar blossom

The mist in the air carries the scent of the soft loamy soil that gently cushions each footfall - the ground squishing beneath our feet...shooting tiny squirts of moisture like a sponge being squeezed.

Our eyes are filled with a verdant explosion of ferns, and shrubs and trees.  Abundant rain and intermittent sunshine has made this springtime particularly lush - the most vibrant of any that I can remember.

Not too far from us,  a pileated woodpecker calls out as he flies through the trees with a slow, deliberate wing beat - dodging obstacles with grace as he forages for insects and larvae.

The dogs trot through the woods, following their noses - seeing more with their sense of smell than we can imagine.  I find it fascinating to learn how different animals sense the world around them - much differently than we do.  Our brains are adept at filtering out all of the incoming information that is not needed, and yet all that we do perceive is an amazing smorgasbord of sensorial beauty.  I wonder, as I walk through this heavenly green, of all the things that I cannot see or smell or hear... of all the tiny worlds beneath my feet inhabited by the smallest of creatures.   How do they perceive the world?  Is this feeling of awe and gratitude a human thing?  Or does all of life have a sense of the beauty that surrounds them?

We continue walking, deeper into the woods - grateful for the skeletal support of bones, muscles, and nerves that allows us to navigate this land.  Our bodies, themselves, are a miraculous network of tissues that house our essence through this life on earth - giving us the ability to experience, express, and communicate on so many levels.

As humans, we have a tendency to focus on our human world, our man-made accomplishments.  We have spent far too long trying to bring this planet under our control, under our "dominion" - and in doing so have lost touch with its essence - its splendor.  We travel to far-away places seeking awe, and forget that it lives in our back yards.  And, sadly, we have spent too much time trying to bring those back yards under control.   

In elevating ourselves to the top rung, we forget that our world, itself, is a living organism and that we are but one small part of it.  What a world this might be if humanity had a cooperative mindset rather than a competitive one!

The irony of my own words does not escape me.  Because, although we allow our woods to "grow in" along the edges - shrinking the amount of grassy areas we have, I do love to control things a bit by planting gardens!  Wild is wonderful - but I do love a little domesticated flower gardening!

Now blossoming in Maven Haven (perennial garden)

I have created a new garden in front of Maven Haven's small cottage garden.  This wooden structure is a leftover from the wedding we had here on the farm 8 years ago.  I had unsuccessfully tried to grow climbing roses on it.

  This weekend, we moved it to a new location - the front of my shed -  and I have planted vining flowers at its base. 

Beneath it, we dug out the sod, and laid a walkway of sand and brick.

This is just step one in the re-do of Maven Haven.  Hubbs has made new wooden window boxes for the side windows which will be installed when I start step two - the "facelift" in which I will be adding some Victorian bargeboard and changing the color of the exterior.  Stay tuned!!