Janis Joplin sings
One of these mornings
Youre gonna rise, rise up singing,
Youre gonna spread your wings,
Child, and take, take to the sky,
Lord, the sky.
in “Summertime.”
That’s close to how I’ve been feeling lately. Like my sap is rising, or like I’m gathering energy and ready to soar. It’s a good feeling, especially after how tired I was over winter and spring.
And how hectic adjusting to preschool was. Julia took to it like a duck to water, but I was having a hard time dealing with it. I think starting Grade K will be easier. For one thing it lasts longer than three hours so I won’t feel like I have only enough time to get her there, come back to eat breakfast, and then go back to fetch her!
The garden produced well this season. I’m going to extend it over summer so I will have another two beds for September planting. Also getting the paths graded and mulched.
When I did the “Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice” service there was a reading that I really liked.
“Litany of Gratitude”
by Max Coots, Minister Emeritus, UU Church, Canton, NY“The harvest will be an attitude, not a time of year.
And maybe I’ll be wise enough to feel a sort of litany of gratitude:For seeds – that, like memories and minds, keep in themselves the recollection of what they were and the power to become something more than they are. . .
For soil – that accumulation of lives piled up by death that gives new life. . .
For the justice of the earth – that gave me about as many weeds and wilt and scab and bugs as vegetables but, in the end, gave me enough for what I need. . .
For hands – those miracles on the ends of my arms that let me tend my vegetables and pull my weeds, and for mind enough to know the difference between the two. . .
For calluses – life’s defense against that softness that makes survival difficult. . .
For the ability to work and the will to work and the work to do, and the time to do it in. . .
And, finally, for that sense of kinship to it all, that singleness, that unity that is the basis of faith. . . .”
That also reflects some of what I’ve been feeling lately. Even as I harvest the literal fruits of my garden labor, in my head I’m harvesting what I’m grateful for.
