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From The Innkeepers

June 2023

 

June 2023 Blog
On living in a draught

This month the well of my mind where I am always looking for words to share with you is as dry as the soil under my feet. We have had less than one inch of precipitation in the entire month of May.

Normally a healthy amount of rainfall for the area is about four times as much as we have received. So much of our past month I have spent dragging the hoses through various gardens in the hopes of preventing the annuals and perennials, shrubs and trees from withering and drying up. We have no shortage of weeds though. Persistent as can be, they shoot up through the hard dirt and dust. Their roots do not easily give way to my attempts pull them out. They win by leaving themselves that last little bit of root stalk by which they can regenerate. They will ultimately win the war of survival in spite of this environment and my best efforts to purge them.

Normally I take much solace in being in the garden as it is usually a soul enriching experience for me. Not this year. It has become an overwhelming chore. I look around and there is so much to do, but my will to accomplish anything fizzles with the rising temperatures and the lack of rain. I seem to be fighting the elements, not working with them.

Sometimes our lives feel like that. They become dry. Nothing voluntarily grows except for the weeds. This is one of those periods for me. Dry as dust. Overwhelmed it sends me back into the air conditioning of the house to recover and lick my woundedness. That is when I just have to give myself a pep talk. Who am I to complain? I have so much to be grateful for. The consequences of the draught are so much worse for others, like our neighboring Amish farmers who don’t have large irrigation systems, and are trying to feed their families and the local community with what they grow. In other parts of the world a draught can mean the difference between life and death. So, I have no reason to whine, really. My greatest personal impact is it creates much more work trying to keep up with the watering so that none of the plants die off. So, I will quit whining and do a positive action for someone else, to move the needle on my personal draught, by looking towards others.

In that vein, towards the of the month June, on June 21st, we will celebrate the Summer Solstice- a celebration of the peaking of the maximum amount of light. So, let us give thanks for morning light, for noon light, for twilight, for moonlight, for inner light, for guiding lights. There is a song by India Arie called “I am Light.” The Lyric Video version can be found online on YouTube. Take the time on more than one occasion this month and just listen and listen again. It can illuminate you to be the light that you are for yourself and for one another.

In the meantime, I promise to stop whining, keep watering, and shine my light where I can.
Blessings to all,
Marcia
Keeper of the Rustic Gate