The apples are slowly growing larger in our orchards. The vegetables are slowly maturing in our gardens. The bees in our hives calmly work each-and-every day collecting nectar and pollen. The sunflowers in the meadow quietly turn their heads toward the sun from morning to evening. And I patiently tend to my orchard and farm chores as June melts into July.
All the many lives – plant and animal - that share my modest farm and orchards, grow at their own gentle pace. I have little influence over how slowly and carefully they grow from Spring to Winter.
To the casual observer, it can sometimes look like the abundant life of Spring leaps into being overnight! But that is not the case. Life on the farm gradually unfolds moment to moment. What may seem like a sudden flood of insects in June actually requires a long, secret evolution in the soil from March to May.
I am grateful for the opportunity to nurture the abundant life on our Homestead. The rituals of life and death that unfold all around me during the seasons teach me to be patient. I learn to slow down and join the measured rhythms of the natural world. Only by cultivating patience can I truly know how to nurture the plants and animals I care so much about.
My task as an organic farmer and orchardist is to become as patient as Mother Nature.