The Coronavirus has confined my family to our home and garden. My husband and I have worked in the garden in tandem, slowly becoming aware of Nature and its spiritual dimensions that reveal themselves in the humblest of greenery.
All to our personal benefit and sense of peace.
During the coronavirus quarantine, we have spent time together, listening to birdsong. It is delightful. We have watched a chickadee (our hardy little Massachusetts state bird) set up a nest in a tree on the edge of our property. The male flung out the inner pulp of the tree with his sharp beak, creating a hollow nest for his plain-feathered, swollen-bellied female partner. After tackling a nasty patch of thorny brambles, my husband sat on an upturned bucket, watching the bird create his nest in an afternoon.
(The news on the tv was bad, as usual. We try to watch it in small doses.)
Back in the garden, a week later, the chickadee parents now pop in and out regularly!
We have seen the rare butterfly….
My own version of a song plays in my head….
Where have all the butterflies gone?
Long time passing…
Where have all the butterflies gone?
Long time ago…
We strive to shape our acre into a jewel of a garden; if only the deer don’t ravage our plantings. Yet, they too, deserve a tasty meal. And we humans keep narrowing the boundaries of where they can freely graze.
Nevertheless, ever the optimists, we have been to garden centers, masks over our faces. We want these places to survive financially. Few businesses are more important than those that work in our local agricultural-environmental sector, such as our few remaining dairy farms, our cranberry bogs, commercial vegetable and flower gardens, nurseries, orchards, and so on.
The most we do, is graze our goat on our back yard. Our goat, Bodi, helps keep down the dandelions and the overly-tall patches of grass. We rarely need to mow our back yard. And Bodi lightly fertilizes our back yard in that naturalizer-way. Harmless, odorless little pellets disappear into the roots of the lawn grass.
Down-to-earth musings such as these keep me grounded——pun intended——during these strange and challenging times. Nevertheless, we “Carry on!” as our Cousins Across The Pond say in times of hardship. And I have faith that America shall overcome to victory. To peace. To a healthy world.
To my friends and neighbors——Blessings!
