Spring Evening in the Burn

April 2006

Today was a good day. The first relaxing into the presence of being here-now on the land, burnt though it is. I was tilling the garden when the sense came over me of the moment--the tilled earth awaiting seed, the sun’s energy filling the air, warming the soil, and me, this person moving with the tiller,determiningg where the vegetables will go. Later, I mowed. The lawn was thick and green. I have beaten the weeds back to the edges of the garden and the soil there is now soft clods not hard dry ones. I am sore. My hand and shoulder wrenched somehow from exertion; my fact slightly sensitive from the sun.

I went for a walk later in the afternoon, looking for a place to plant the trees I have. It is way too late, so they will have to go by the creeks. The whole place is covered in a carpet of green. The miner’s lettuce is everywhere with it’s pink flowers. There were some purple columbine looking flowers and pussy’s ears and a very pale pink one I picked to re-remember its name. All the trees were charred and very few oaks were coming back. Every once in a while I could see new fresh leaves on one which looked no different that its charred neighbors. The Big Oak has one whole huge branch which no longer has green leaves. The sun underneath it hits the ground for the first time in a century. The Big Fir is alive only on one side and the top is dead. They are the guardians of the sacred grove, one of those places in nature where you stop and stare, feeling humbled. I walked around the pond and discovered a mass of violets, white petals with purple center, and slowly drank from the stream before starting my walk back up the hill. Small firs are everywhere amid the lush cover of grasses and wildflowers, except in the steep rocky slope to the southeast. It is bare.

I am grateful now for the wild plum which some bird must have planted in the meadow. I wanted to pull it out and leave the meadow to the oak, but now I am happy with anything alive and green.

Evening was so peaceful. The cats came and sat on the window sill. Just keeping company. No need to pet them or talk. The dog sits outside also, enjoying the warm evening while I fix soup and eat. I am grateful for these animal companions. I feel we are equal inhabiters of the place and they ease my life here and keep me from loneliness. And we understand each other and how there is no where else to be right now.

Another day is ending. We are fed, and we are content with what has happened and what has not. There is nothing we would change as life courses through us and everything around us, this spring evening in the burn.