More than any other time of year, I find autumn to be a time of reflection and new beginnings, the authentic New Year. For me, it is more Janus-faced than January- a time of looking back and looking ahead, of replaying some of the languid freedoms (or this year, chilly ones!) of summer and imagining the lively productivity of colder months.
Sunday, May 11 is Mother's Day, a day reserved for showing appreciation to the maternal figures in our lives. I would suggest that each of us can find countless ways that we 'mother' and are 'mothered' within our own communities. We provide many forms of care for those we birthed, adopted or raised, those we love, those we know and often those we don't know. We 'mother' each other as well as our non-human companions, our communities and our gardens. We nourish bodies, minds and souls, spaces and sprouts. And in return, we can be 'mothered' in so many ways by so many others.
On December 14th, along with over 30 community members, I had the opportunity to participate in a Walk of Hope and friendships. For the second year in a row, organizers of the event wanted to grow a symbolic garland of lights, streaming together bright landmarks of social justice throughout the city of Peterborough.
Can fruit trees become a symbol of generosity, aesthetics and warmth? That's a question that led a Los Angeles trio of artists and fruit tree enthusiasts to come together and form an art collective. According to them, fruit offers an avenue for re-imagining the world in which we live.
We live on a quiet street in the suburbs. The most beautiful feature of our front yard is the apple tree. In the month of May the tree resembles a gigantic puff ball of white flowers that is so astoundingly beautiful, we sit on the steps in the evening, to smell the fragrance, listen to the bees and drink in the perfection of nature.
Sunflowers... or tournesols as I first came to know them. While I like the idea that the sun seeds its own flowers, I feel more taken by the French name, tournesol (turns-towards-the-sun). With the presence of a verb, the word comes to life. It evokes a deliberate movement in a particular direction. This intention speaks to me. The capacity to oscillate in the direction of the sun is a characteristic that is known as heliotropism. It usually refers to plants. Clearly, however, they are not the only heliotropic species. Humans can fall in that category as well.
Yes, a dandelion
because they are the flower
of wishes. You blow that ball
of seeds and the wind carries them to the one
assigned to grant or reject.
And it's a good thing
that it's the dandelions
who have this power because they are tough
and sometimes you have to be tough
to even remember
that you have any desires left at all,
to believe that even one
could be satisfied, would not turn
to an example of
'be careful what you wish for,
it might come true.'
Maybe that's exactly why
