It is said that, "We reap what we sow", this is the time of year that most of our pagan ancestors looked back on their harvest and asked, "Did we plant enough peas this year?, Should we replace a row of potatoes with kale? or Why didn't I plant more Brussels sprouts?" In my experience, I have been hearing these sorts of conversations from more and more people each year. I am both happy and proud to know that more and more individuals are taking responsibility for providing at least some of their own food supply. It gives me great hope to hear and see that more and more people are "discovering", that each decision we make has ramifications, not just in the here and now, but that continue to shape the future long after our minds are made up.
For decades I have been telling people that anyone with a truck and a trailer can start a lawn care service and that using fly by night operations has allowed a proliferation of both low quality care and really bad management techniques in our yards. I continue to see weed and feed applied by commercial lawn "care" services in spite of the fact that the two applications, to be effective, need to be made at different times of the year. Because nearly anyone can start a lawn care service, that industry has suffered greatly and many companies are just terrible at their work. Corporate farms, providing our food supply have destabilized (and often sterilized) more acres than our yards will ever harm. However, the faraway damage that is done to provide non-food products (ie: high fructose corn syrup, soya lecithin and "enriched" four) that many consume is considered to be "someone else's problem". In point of fact, these problems belong to all of us because not only does consuming this trash harm our bodies, but the land itself is being desecrated by their production. The bitter harvest of pollution, deforestation, degradation of the environment, social disorder and chaos wreaked on public heath and our bodies by mega-farms is slowly being seen as a direct assault on our future. This Harvest Moon, I want to speak in a little more detail about the management of more than just the land, but our lives generally.
For instance, embedded in our current world view are fears about ebola. Rightly so, this virus has been killing half the people that it infects. There is a window, as with all viruses, that allows it to be living in us before we manifest symptoms, and therefore any carrier looks "normal" at first and only after two to twenty-one days do they have any idea, or warning signs that they may have been exposed. Confounding this issue is the fact that to many, especially during the cold and flu season, when the onset of symptoms does occur, it can look like cold or flu, something that is completely "normal" in our experience. How can this possibly relate to reaping what we sow? Well, the seasonal "cycle" may not be in terms of or annual trip around the Sun, but we are "harvesting" what we have sown. Our ancestors enslaved millions of Africans, ripping them from their native soil, disrupting their cultural patterns, eliminating their ties to their homeland and then, in an act designed to placate the conscience of the slave masters decades later, "we" created a "country" that was called Liberia. Oddly enough, this land of "liberation", created exclusively from scratch by and for people dislocated from their homeland generations earlier, that were released from servitude in our land, is putting the entire planet into the throes of fear and enslaving the rest of us with the shackles of ignorance and fear. Sometimes we do not reap what we sow for generations.
Just a quick aside: I have written at length about how Ronald Reagan has been propped up as a great leader by not only folks on the right, politically, but by many left-leaning folks as well. He waited until twenty thousand were dead from AIDS before doing anything about it. now, people are blaming President Obama for the ebola infections of three people and the death of one. (one who was infected in Liberia) At this moment, only one American has died of the disease. Obama is mobilizing massive amounts of resources to go to Africa to try to stop this epidemic at the source. I recently learned that the military efforts alone are preparing to build seventeen "ebola hospitals", withing just a few months, that will each be capable of treating one hundred patients at a time. With a lot of intelligent and focused effort, he is hoping to stem the tide of this disease, before it becomes a world-wide issue.
We can do better in the future than we have done in the past. human beings have the power to make changes based on facts and existing conditions. This season is often referred to as the Pagan New Year. The dying of the plant community encourages us to honor the spirits of the dead, loosen the ties that bind us to what has been alive in the past and allows us to make new commitments, resolutions and to embrace new ideas, step out in new directions and use the momentum of growth to guide us to fulfilling our highest dreams and aspirations. One thing that I have learned during my more than half a century on this planet is that implementing any new habit takes nearly two moons. That is why the Harvest Moon is such a great time for new beginnings. If we take the time to think critically about where we have come from, what "crops" we have sown and what we want to plant in the future now, we can let the things that we desire to eliminate go back to the Earth, "composting" old materials, old ideas and old ways, that can help create vital "soil" upon which life can thrive. The energy of the season allows us to redouble our efforts and informs our baby steps toward a rebirth of sorts that gains power and that will be reinforced by the influence that comes from the returning sun in just a couple of moons. Honoring the dead is about more than just our ancestors, even things that had been alive in us must be let go from time to time and the changing season shows us that when things are no longer necessary in our lives, letting them return to the Earth is often the best way to bury them forever.
As much as we fill our larders during this time of the year, we also clear out the old growth that will no longer sustain life. As busy as we may be, taking time to prepare for the winter's long sleep is also necessary at this time. In closing, I am reminded of another parable that we are often admonished with, "You made your bed, now lie in it." We truly do reap what we sow, that is why I work so hard writing these words. They are infused with love, for my readers, civilization generally and the planet. I love each and everyone alive on planet Earth at this time. I want us all to have a vibrant and abundant future and the ways that I have learned serve us best can be replicated anywhere on the planet. That is why I write. I intend these words to be a vehicle for transmission of ideas and concepts that operate like a virus, they may "infect" those who read and understand them in ways that do not destroy life, but that affirm it. The supporting and informing of future generations depends on our understanding of what serves us well, what we want more of in the future and what "crops" we have grown too much of in the past.
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| In point of fact, Ronald Reagan was not clear on most issues. |
For instance, embedded in our current world view are fears about ebola. Rightly so, this virus has been killing half the people that it infects. There is a window, as with all viruses, that allows it to be living in us before we manifest symptoms, and therefore any carrier looks "normal" at first and only after two to twenty-one days do they have any idea, or warning signs that they may have been exposed. Confounding this issue is the fact that to many, especially during the cold and flu season, when the onset of symptoms does occur, it can look like cold or flu, something that is completely "normal" in our experience. How can this possibly relate to reaping what we sow? Well, the seasonal "cycle" may not be in terms of or annual trip around the Sun, but we are "harvesting" what we have sown. Our ancestors enslaved millions of Africans, ripping them from their native soil, disrupting their cultural patterns, eliminating their ties to their homeland and then, in an act designed to placate the conscience of the slave masters decades later, "we" created a "country" that was called Liberia. Oddly enough, this land of "liberation", created exclusively from scratch by and for people dislocated from their homeland generations earlier, that were released from servitude in our land, is putting the entire planet into the throes of fear and enslaving the rest of us with the shackles of ignorance and fear. Sometimes we do not reap what we sow for generations.
Just a quick aside: I have written at length about how Ronald Reagan has been propped up as a great leader by not only folks on the right, politically, but by many left-leaning folks as well. He waited until twenty thousand were dead from AIDS before doing anything about it. now, people are blaming President Obama for the ebola infections of three people and the death of one. (one who was infected in Liberia) At this moment, only one American has died of the disease. Obama is mobilizing massive amounts of resources to go to Africa to try to stop this epidemic at the source. I recently learned that the military efforts alone are preparing to build seventeen "ebola hospitals", withing just a few months, that will each be capable of treating one hundred patients at a time. With a lot of intelligent and focused effort, he is hoping to stem the tide of this disease, before it becomes a world-wide issue.
We can do better in the future than we have done in the past. human beings have the power to make changes based on facts and existing conditions. This season is often referred to as the Pagan New Year. The dying of the plant community encourages us to honor the spirits of the dead, loosen the ties that bind us to what has been alive in the past and allows us to make new commitments, resolutions and to embrace new ideas, step out in new directions and use the momentum of growth to guide us to fulfilling our highest dreams and aspirations. One thing that I have learned during my more than half a century on this planet is that implementing any new habit takes nearly two moons. That is why the Harvest Moon is such a great time for new beginnings. If we take the time to think critically about where we have come from, what "crops" we have sown and what we want to plant in the future now, we can let the things that we desire to eliminate go back to the Earth, "composting" old materials, old ideas and old ways, that can help create vital "soil" upon which life can thrive. The energy of the season allows us to redouble our efforts and informs our baby steps toward a rebirth of sorts that gains power and that will be reinforced by the influence that comes from the returning sun in just a couple of moons. Honoring the dead is about more than just our ancestors, even things that had been alive in us must be let go from time to time and the changing season shows us that when things are no longer necessary in our lives, letting them return to the Earth is often the best way to bury them forever.
As much as we fill our larders during this time of the year, we also clear out the old growth that will no longer sustain life. As busy as we may be, taking time to prepare for the winter's long sleep is also necessary at this time. In closing, I am reminded of another parable that we are often admonished with, "You made your bed, now lie in it." We truly do reap what we sow, that is why I work so hard writing these words. They are infused with love, for my readers, civilization generally and the planet. I love each and everyone alive on planet Earth at this time. I want us all to have a vibrant and abundant future and the ways that I have learned serve us best can be replicated anywhere on the planet. That is why I write. I intend these words to be a vehicle for transmission of ideas and concepts that operate like a virus, they may "infect" those who read and understand them in ways that do not destroy life, but that affirm it. The supporting and informing of future generations depends on our understanding of what serves us well, what we want more of in the future and what "crops" we have grown too much of in the past.
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