A Butterfly’s Meditation
A new friend I met this little guy on a walk down the little gravel farm road.
The air is heavy outside, making it hard to get proper air into your lungs. But it smells of freshly cut grass and flowers, and even in some places in the yard a little bit of honey. The gardens are doing their thing. They are not in it alone. The wildflowers are just beautiful this year.
Wildflowers
On my walk to visit with flowers growing up at the edge of our wood, I happened upon the beautiful butterfly pictured above. It made me think. It made me wonder. What happens when butterflies meditate? You see my walks to see the flowers are often a meditation of sorts for me. It is hard to live in a place like this, so closely with nature without being in a kind of awe of the surroundings and the mechanisms by which nature does what it does. How must other living creatures experience it? For example, my new butterfly friend? Or the moose a neighbor photographed early yesterday morning in his yard? Or the deer? Coyotes? Foxes? Or even the bees in their hive?
The Bees in their Hive
I can smell the growing things…. The ripening berries….
Welcome to the start of mulberry season! It is early this year.
Tomatoes growing in the garden.
I find it difficult to believe that any form of life can walk through this world without a sense of awe, admiration, and even some curiosity experiencing the passing moments, living it’s own experience of our shared world in each moment…. People have sought to understand their world and all that is in it for thousands of years. And so I was inspired and sat down for a moment in the Flower Grotto, to write a passing poem as it breezed through my mind, inspired by the beautiful visitor hanging out along my gravel road.
Butterfly Bush making friends with the wildflowers.
A Butterfly’s Meditation
The wind blows past.
The joys and sorrows of life ride on it’s back.
Flowers bloom.
Petals fall to earth,
As the wind carries time on it’s back.
Grass bows to the higher forces of nature.
Even while we sleep unaware of nature’s example.
The wind, knows nought what it carries in it’s wake.
Flowers bloom only when it is their time.
The grass recognizes the vastness of the universe as it bows and yet reaches for the sun.
We are blind to the lessons they teach, aware only of our desire to bloom always.
Of wanting to live only in the good times battling against our suffering and our unique nature.
No one, can stop the wind.
Like the grass, all we may do is bow as it passes.
For one fleeting moment it is all so clear.
Only until the wind carries it off.
Thank you little butterfly for the great teaching.
And thank you everyone for reading my poor quality poetry.
I write only when inspired to do so. So it isn’t that frequent that you will find my poor quality work of this nature posted here. But from time to time, you may.
I hope I have not frightened you off, reader.
Thank you for reading
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm
Tags: artist, artist retreat, B&B, close to nature, creative, DIY, farm, farm blog, farm stay, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, housewife, housewife blog, inn keeper, inn keeper's blog, inn keeping, inspiration, inspired life, inspired poetry, inspired writing, New England homesteader, new england homesteading, poetry, self sufficiency, self sufficient, self sufficient homestead, simple living, simpler way of life, stay home wife, travel, wildflower farm, word art, writing project
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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