I didn’t know I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up until I was 45 years old.
Pomeranian Puppy - Ten Days Old
It’s irresistible: all these living, growing things popping into life around you, and you get to play a part in the process, too.
There is a saying in the Talmud that every blade of grass has its angel which leans over it and says “Grow! Grow!” It is exhilarating to be that angel.
My family and I are starting a small farming business, and the planet has gotten much bigger and a lot more interesting. We have conversations about good dirt and watch Youtube videos on how to shear sheep.
I never had such a visceral sense of all the plant life being around me being alive – as actual living beings – until this spring. Somehow I never noticed that I was surrounded by aliveness, even though this area is like a jungle in the summer.
There is a saying in the Talmud that every blade of grass has its angel which leans over it and says “Grow! Grow!” It is exhilarating to be that angel.
My family and I are starting a small farming business, and the planet has gotten much bigger and a lot more interesting. We have conversations about good dirt and watch Youtube videos on how to shear sheep.
I never had such a visceral sense of all the plant life being around me being alive – as actual living beings – until this spring. Somehow I never noticed that I was surrounded by aliveness, even though this area is like a jungle in the summer.
Tomatillo Seedling: I Hear Salsa in the Distance
Maybe I finally grew new senses because this winter was particularly deadening and full of death. Now it seems that the planet is bursting at the seams with life and potential, stretching and growing in a leaping, bounding, exuberant way.
A goat smiled at me (they do, you know), and it opened my eyes. To use a metaphor that feels like an archaic expression from a dead language, I awakened immersed in a live green world which previously I had scanned but never downloaded.
I guess I’ve been doing this all along, because art-making is a lot like farming; they both involve growing things. It’s just that the materials are different. In fact, I think I had been farming art for so long that I had lost some of the excitement of creation. I had forgotten how cool it is to make new forms out of raw materials.
Farming is more custodial, though. While all art projects have a life of their own (and some of them are bloody willful pigheaded little brats), there’s not quite the same sense of responsibility for new life. That’s a different feeling altogether.
A goat smiled at me (they do, you know), and it opened my eyes. To use a metaphor that feels like an archaic expression from a dead language, I awakened immersed in a live green world which previously I had scanned but never downloaded.
I guess I’ve been doing this all along, because art-making is a lot like farming; they both involve growing things. It’s just that the materials are different. In fact, I think I had been farming art for so long that I had lost some of the excitement of creation. I had forgotten how cool it is to make new forms out of raw materials.
Farming is more custodial, though. While all art projects have a life of their own (and some of them are bloody willful pigheaded little brats), there’s not quite the same sense of responsibility for new life. That’s a different feeling altogether.
Dandelion Hope
R. W. Emerson said that the earth laughs in flowers, and I need to laugh more. So we’ll see what grows and develops in the coming months.
Watch this space.
Watch this space.
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