Wow, it’s been a long time since my last post. I apologize for that, friends.
We’ve missed your company out on the farm, and missed showing you all the amazing, heart-filling stuff that’s been going on over the past few weeks while SPRING has finally descended on us up here in the North Country!
It was a bit of a mad coincidence that my last post talked about being scared, and how at some point when you’re doing anything you love to the bones, you have to decide what you’re going to push past and what you’re going to let stop you. Out at the farm, there’s not a heck of a lot of time for sweating the small stuff because the big stuff can feel so…darn…big.
I’ve been away and offline for health reasons. Gonna spare you the details, but along with so many of you out there, friends, we’ve got plenty we can’t control, and stuff that we’ll have to live with in our bodies for the rest of our lives. For many of us, it’s stuff that will get worse as we get older, and some days, that’s just hard. I dunno about you, but when I have down days (or weeks) health-wise and they impact my farming, teaching, and writing (the three things I love most on this earth to do), I get pretty blue. So I spent a few weeks resting, putting in a lot of time near windows where green was beginning to pop outside, and cuddling our medicine cats. They are good energy, those cats. And I was lucky as all get-out that I have a wonderful ally and partner in Thomas, and he spent every moment that he wasn’t in the classroom by my side, helping me get through. Man oh man, allies are the best thing ever. You know who I mean, friends; you’ve got someone like that, or maybe several someones if you’re super lucky, in your own life. We oughtta hug them while we can – we owe them big thanks!
BUT, while I was flat on my butt and recovering, something incredible was happening outside – SPRING. Yeah, I keep capitalizing it, sorry. I’m excited. I’m a farmer. Spring means that all those plans and drafts and seeds and dreams finally get to be planted out in the good earth. And spring means the birds come back and there’s more light in the days, which, after our long old winter in the North Country, is a sight to behold.
We planted over 200 narcissus bulbs out in the road verges in the cold of last October, and now this is happening on the farm:
And this will be as well, soon (wolf willow flowers, which smell like heaven):
You can see why I’m so excited! It feels as though, after a low-light winter, all of our senses are suddenly awake and have kicked into high gear again. The sight of cranes circling over. The scent of early grass after rain brings the dust down. The sound of the first wood frogs in the pond. Everything is amazing and hyper-sensory.
This song got me through the past few weeks (it’s my go-to song when my body knocks me flat and I can’t do anything about it). It tells me to carry on, to push past pain and discouragement. Some times are harder than others, but this time, I knew there would be spring at the end of the tunnel to meet me. It’s a great song. If you’ve had a tricky winter too, friends, I’d like to pass this tune along to you.