May 25, 2020. It’s ten weeks into Shelter-in-Place, and this time of slowing down has allowed me to get my website up and running after several years of not tending to it. It’s been a time for reflection, and a time to feel inspired by the phenomenal interest people in our area and all over are taking in their gardens, whether they be pots on an apartment windowsill or a large property. I have picked up my very old copy of Wendell Berry’s Farming: A Handbook, and am reminded of why I chose this path so many years ago. Here’s one that fits our moment:

A STANDING GROUND

However just and anxious I have been,

I will stop and step back

from the crowd of those who may agree

with what I say, and be apart.

There is no earthly promise of life or peace

but where the roots branch and weave

their patient silent passages in the dark;

uprooted, I have been furious without an aim.

I am not bound for any public place,

but for ground of my own

where I have planted vines and orchard trees,

and in the heat of the day climbed up

into the healing shadow of the woods.

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn

and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.