All of One Brood
Writing Prompt: Blah, Blah, Blah…The year before you were born.
1956 was a very good year for a seed like me. I was just about ready to break ground…
The really big, powerful ones are the most fun to watch: calabazitas, frijoles. They look like they are causing the birth of a miniature mountain, a wee little volcanic eruption, as they uncoil and strengthen their stem to breath in the world above ground, bringing with them the moist, deep secrets of Mother Earth. The sacred spiral unfurling is a beautiful dance to behold.
The climbers, as they reach and grasp, wrapping tender new tendrils around whatever is handy: like baby’s tiny fists finding something steady to hold on to, as their strength increases, day by day. Grasping, climbing, hoisting, their ever expanding bulk, finding the upright position and taking its advantage in moving forward, up and into the world, climbing steadily towards the Father, the Sun.
The sun flower, as it grows from a tender, juicy, vulnerable and very edible young sprout… to a powerful young tree like adult, through the budding out of the earthly face of Father Sun, is an inspiration and a damn good reason to get up in the morning. My beautiful garden is a 5:30 am, rise and shine kind of a blessed sanctuary.
This miraculous holy thing that I participate in, is the single most lustrous pearl of my life. It’s like stepping into a living breathing writhing balmy breathed emerald… stepping right in, being made stronger and more whole just by taking it in, in through the eyeballs and breath, into the soul: letting the vibrant, vibrations of plant medicine heal me to the core.
There is strength not easy for me to miss in all of this, simultaneous, reaching up and digging deep. The power of delicate new roots to break ground: to push deeper and deeper into the mysterious brooding body of Mother Earth to be fed… the brilliance of turning Father Sun’s solar power into one’s own flesh! To seek, in both directions, life and all it has to offer.
Living intimately within the process of seed becoming plant and plant becoming food capable of sustaining other forms of life enhances every aspect of my own. Taking responsibility for growing the food that I eat, the food that becomes my own flesh… feeding my soul and hooking me up fully: engaging my body and spirit as one.
I want to live in my garden. I need to create a garden house. Just like when I went out into the woods to live in Alaska. There I lived like a squirrel in my little house of trees: the earth floor, the log walls, the pole and sod roof… I am going to build myself a home in my garden. I am going to listen and learn from the plants how this is to be done. I know them well enough to know that they will teach me how to live beautifully among them.