State of the Garden (Very Rainy Day)


We cannot say we did not know. United States Supreme Court, January 29, 2020. Have you called your Senators (for those that have them)? Please.

Live Green has put together a short and simple list of suggestions for a greener holiday party. Not throwing the party yourself and know your hosts will be using disposable cutlery, napkins, and cups? I’ve been bringing my own napkin and carry cup to parties for years, just as I bring them on trips and around town. Some people think it’s weird, but a surprising number comment that they think it is a great idea. And people are always grateful when I bring a healthy, vegan or vegetarian food item as my offering for a potluck.
I have in my library books in which just one phrase or just the very beginning is most resonant. It is this time of summer, when the light seems endless, and the heat just setting in as if on a permanent basis, that my thoughts turn to watermelon in food, and again in literature. I think of watermelon differently each summer from the perspective of having lived another year, and the same in having experienced the taste and the thoughts of the taste so many times before. When it comes the time of year when thoughts of watermelon spontaneously arise, I revisit these words:
“In watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar. I’ll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant. Wherever you are, we must do the best we can. It is so far to travel, and we have nothing here to travel, except watermelon sugar.” (R. Brautigan, In Watermelon Sugar).
Refreshed, I put the book back on the shelf, look forward to eating watermelon from the fresh farm market, and set the intention to start each day with open, receptive, and unjaundiced eyes, ready to learn and experience the same old things as glorious new ones, and to do the best I can.