When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend
all day..cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body
accepts what it is...
...there is
this happy tongue.
We are what we eat and how we eat. To be so connected to all of life around us, to feel the spirits of the woods enter us and nourish us in such bodily form is such a blessing. No wonder peoples around the world offer thank the gods for the food before them, for when we see how the food comes to us as an offering of interconnecting life, freely, abundantly given, how can we not give thanks? In the hot summer days of August, there is a Blackberry Goddess, and today, out my window, are Tree Spirits. The flowering trees give food for the eyes, and soon, soon, food for the tongues of the many beings that are in this wood's community. I wet my lips with my happy tongue and kiss the sun as she rises, and give thanks
When do you harvest the abundance of nature?
I harvest with my eyes the nature not only in my yard, but as I pass even the things along I-75. The trees are sprouting young green leaves replacing the brown of winter. There is a beautiful tree with pink flowers, perhaps a cherry or redbud, that stands alone along I-75. It is a nice reminder that next to the ugly road that man created there is the beauty of nature.
ReplyDeleteMy strawbwerry plants survived the winter. They may produce more this year. Somehow that one ripe strawberry I savored was better than any one buys in a store. My happy tongue would count the next couple still white in anticipation of another ripe one tomorrow.