Gratitude for All Who Nurture

Here in the United States, we celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday and Father’s Day in June. While I am certainly grateful for my parents and for all those who parent their children with love and grace, I use these days to honor all those who faithfully nurture what they have created and are creating in the world, and to examine my own nurturing responsibilities and efforts as well.

My male friends have often taught me much about using my feminine energy with greater compassion, and my women friends have often helped me deepen my masculine energy: it’s all gift, and we’re each a unique blend of these energies, trying to integrate as fully as we can to bless the world with our magic. I am grateful for all my teachers and the opportunities to become a better parent to myself and the world.

Some of the questions I consider on these days include: How am I doing with self-care? Our actions are constant examples: do I actually demonstrate the self-care I preach (and preach, and preach)? How well am I tending my gifts and using them for the good of others? How faithfully am I nourishing my relationships with my loved ones and reaching out to strangers?

Do each of our 4-leggeds feel loved and safe? Are we embracing their unique spirits and feeding them as attentively as we do our own spirits?

And, oh, the land and gardens of Full Moon Cottage and all the visitors passing through…how faithfully and mindfully are we parenting, befriending, and assisting them in this time of uneven and sudden climate shifts? Do we have enough feeders and watering stations? Do we need to transition to more native plants? Are we providing for the healthy insects as we should?

Most importantly, are Phillip and I nurturing our own relationship with creativity and love? I know unequivocally that he is the most precious being in my life while I also know I don’t always see him before me or hear what his heart is saying. Hasn’t this past year emphasized how quickly time passes and how present we must be to our blessings?

The gardens need all of our attention at this time of year. They are rising and growing ahead of the schedule we’re accustomed to, and tonight, we’re facing another frost warning, so we’ll have to cover the infants and tender-leaved plants again before nightfall.

And all of the gardens need spring weeding, edging, and mulching, an enormous, all-at-once job for a few weeks before our gardening lives settle into much more manageable routines. We have the added blessing and bane of living beside a state bike trail/park that, for years now, has not been tended as it once was, and so is overrun with invasives like garlic mustard and jewelweed, as well as Japanese beetles. We try to maintain a “line” with the invasives, but it’s ongoing and frustrating. The beetles go into traps or cups of vinegar and soap. I loathe killing anything, so it’s a dispiriting job, but necessary to protect our trees, shrubs, flowers, fruit and veggies without using chemicals that would harm anything.

How does one nurture the Earth justly and compassionately? I think it’s a fair and eternal question, but certainly, this weekend is one when I ponder it and examine my choices.

Last year, because of the extraordinary circumstances of having a poem go viral, and all the invitations that ensued, I was glued to my computer for the entire spring and into the summer, leaving Phillip to complete all of these early tasks and the subsequent watering during the long torrid drought days that now seem an annual occurrence.

This year, I want to be a better partner to my dear one and a more-present mother to the gardens, so I’ll be taking a couple weeks off from blogging and other pursuits to get the gardens prepped and squared away for their summer thriving…provided we get through tonight’s frost.

I know we’re all stepping out of lockdowns as we feel called and safe enough to do so, and into re-engagement with more varied social activities and the many invitations warmer weather sets before us. I hope when I return to blogging, you’ll have time to check in and offer a comment or two. Please be well and safe. Tend your spirits, minds, and bodies as a good parent would, and so tend the world.

Gentle Peace.

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