August 1, 2014: Dancing at the Midnight Hop
All of a sudden we are approaching the back-end of the summer when the work of the spring and early summer begins to reap results.
I think of the cold spring and planting the final hops into the hopyard. I think of the worry over the young apple trees and wondering if the winter damage from the voles would be overcome.
The spring time was a time of work to string the wires and then hang the cordage in the hopyard. Ben unfolded his poultry pasturing experiment. Des’ amazing irrigation schematic for both orchard and hopyard was put into motion.
Patrick, Ben and Lacy trenched the irrigation piping and laid out the plant emitters.
Lacy mowed the orchard to perfection.
Catherine’s vision for the Windhover Orchard entry gate was activated.
Pat’s practical nature focused on the pump platform.
Aoife’s hop dance at midnight was worthy of a YouTube.
This ‘certain work’ is the backdrop for Windhover’s accomplishments. The hops have stretched and followed the sun to reach the top wire to now branch with modest blossoms.
The gate into the orchard has been installed.
The orchard chickens have been processed and are in the freezer. Trellis wire and posts in the orchard is almost completed. The drip irrigation system has proven successful and essential.
Hauling buckets of water to thirsty orchard trees almost seems a distant memory.
Weeding, mowing and tending are ongoing.
We have many things to learn about how to honour and recognize these achievements which are sometimes individual efforts and sometimes are the efforts held by the community of family and friends.
The ancient Sufi poet, Rumi, recognizes that each person has a desire for a specific kind work or motion that supports love within each of us.
I am amazed how much we need each other and yet are such strong individuals shifting in the wind.
Love for Certain Work
Traveling is as refreshing for some
As staying at home is for others.
Solitude in a mountain place
Fills with companionship for this one,
And weariness for that one.
This person loves being in charge
of the workings of a community.
This other one loves the ways
heated iron can be shaped with a hammer.
Each has been given a strong desire
for certain work, a love for those motions,
and all motion is love.
The way stick and pieces of dead grass
and leaves shift about in the wind
and with the direction of rain
and puddle-water on the ground,
those motions are all following
the love they have been given.
