I have witnessed several gentle blessings this week. One being these beautiful wild tiger lilies along our road. They are breathtaking to witness, just a fleeting splash of color and then they fade. It been rather quiet on the farm this week. My family has been on a camping adventure to the Southwest, and so I have been enjoying a reflective retreat on the farm. I haven’t had this type of solitude at home since motherhood; 8 + years. It has been a gentle blessing in so many ways, allowing me to recharge and refill my inner well amidst all the creative energy that the farm brings. I have been connecting deeper to this land, and have had the time and space to work on some creative projects that have been on the back-burner. I have had time to work on my forthcoming book, and also time to catch up on crafty projects and books. It has been a potent gift for Summer Solstice, which is a wonderful time to set intention.
As I write, there is a gentle blessing falling onto the land, in the form of gentle warm rain. A rare treat in late June to feel the rain, as it usually is absent from May until October here in the Sierra Nevada foothills. In many ways this cleansing rain echoes my inner landscape. Washing away the dust and pollen to reveal the treasure of growth and potential underneath. I feel as though this solitude on the farm has granted me the same opportunity, to breathe deeply into those things in my life that are deeply nourishing, and to deeply exhale and release those cobwebs of thought patterns and actions that no longer are serving me along this path.
As I have been reflecting and writing on my manuscript, I am reminded of why I am on this Seed Keeper journey. Like many of us, I am sensitive to all the global issues facing our planet; every day we are bombarded with the despairing news of another death, another tragedy, another scheme of corporate greed.
Planting seeds is my anecdote and my inner medicine for all the wounds afflicted by this industrial storm. These seeds, this path, this sacred dance we engage with these plants gives me hope. A hope that cannot be stifled; hope that will endure as a legacy to my children, and to the seven generations after us. For each seed planted, each song sung to the garden, each quiet or noisy walk on this land carries a blessing. And the children will carry these peaceful ways on into their lives, and the blessings will continue to multiply. That is my prayer.
Let us not forget our amazing power to make positive change. With every seed we plant, there is a tiny prayer, a reflection of what we want to see in the world. This can be sending prayers and blessings into the physical seeds we sow, or we can also see our actions and words as powerful seeds, and we can imagine our life a garden. What seeds are you sowing?
Recently I had the chance to talk about this and other ideas with the amazing ladies at Seed Broadcast. They travel the land in their inspiring mobile Seed Story Van, and gather the stories of the seeds. Here is a clip from their interview.
Rowen Shares Her Seed Stories! on Soundcloud
On the farm front, the latest plant ally we have been exploring is Desert Chia. We got these seeds from the Native Seed/SEARCH collection. It sprouted really fast, and they are now tucked away into a garden bed. We planted about a dozen of them to see how they would grow, and are hoping to plant enough for a large seed crop next spring. We always like to “test” out new varieties before planting on a larger scale, to make sure we have time to learn more about it’s growing habits. We are in the midst of sowing seeds for fall and winter harvesting. We will touch on this in our next blog post.
Tomatoes are setting fruit, and tiny cucumbers are on the vine.
We have also brought in the garlic harvest. We are teaming up with some local farms to bring locally grown Garlic seed for planting to the Sierra Seed offerings. This year we grew 6 different varieties.
I will leave you with a sweet picture of our Mama Hen, serving as an umbrella for her chicks, who were frightened by the first sprinkles of rain!!! It’s hard to believe there six little ones under her!!
Wishing you all many gentle blessings in the week to come!!