The book club rattles on.

Unfortunately it is impossible for me to share any photos on this site at this point. It never works and whole posts seem to just be disappearing into the ether… But all the same the goings on at Wildflower, continue. Including our book club. We have read several books since last I updated… I am having so much trouble with this site lately…. And no point really with everything disappearing… And no ability to share pictures…. Rather disheartening.

But anyway, we have continued on. The Book Club, is now up a comfortable 6 people strong nearly always. So we are gradually growing. We have met monthly now for the better part of 2 years. Sometimes more than monthly. We also on occasion enjoy a good movie night. Among other activities.We have also started an off shoot of the book club, a much smaller group that meets monthly as well to write. Each of us has our own project. But we like to start our meeting off with a good what if, and then explore it for a paragraph or two before moving on to our projects. This way we grow as creative thinkers.

We recently finished a book called See No Stranger, by a Sikh woman named Valarie Kaur. it was very interesting for me to read given my history in a Buddhist commune. This book was full of faith and more importantly practicality. How we can talk to each other. How we can unify society. How we can change ourselves so that we can change our world. I found it transformative. Absolutely brilliant. I have the deepest respect for the author, who also made a film about hate crimes following 9/11. We did as a club take the time to watch it. It was, as someone not of color, one of the hardest things I think I have ever done… Maybe second only to being forced to watch videos in school of Buddhist monks, during Nam, sitting down in Lotus position and setting themselves on fire. What the school failed to realize, is that these protesters were by default of where I was born and where I grew up, people I viewed as family. So they literally made me watch my family burn themselves alive. Then people wonder why I hated school so much… They just assumed because of my skin color what my background was. In my case, unusual as it might be, they were dead wrong. I still have nightmares about those monks burning all these years later at the ripe old age of 42. Valarie Kaur, traveled this country, collecting the stories of people who were abused after 9/11 for looking the wrong way, having the wrong skin color. Like me watching monks burn, she saw these people who looked like her people being mistreated and even killed for something they had nothing to do with. It started her on a journey of understanding that took her through law school and beyond… She worked in human rights in some pretty scary places where human rights don’t even exist according to the US government. She makes us look at ourselves and consider how we discuss things and how we support people and who we support and why. Brilliantly done Valarie Kaur. If it were up to me, this book would be mandatory reading in every high-school. Every politician would have to read it and write a book report on it and then stand up and present that report to the american people before being allowed to represent anyone. I would make it necessary for every person in any position of power to read this book, if it were up to me. This may be the most important book of our age. I truly believe that.

We have followed See No Stranger up, with another really incredible book. I don’t want to say too much about it though. I am only a little more than a hundred pages in. It is called, The Last Green Valley. I love the story. It is at times hard to read. It is about a small family in Ukraine, in the 40s, the last time Russia invaded and starved everyone and made life as hellish as it is presently due to the illegal russian war of aggression. This family, the Martels, flee following the Nazis, because their heritage is German. They don’t seem to like the Nazis anymore than they like the Russians. But the Nazis, offer them a protection for their escape from the invading Russian army. So they follow behind them. What Americans, don’t always seem to grasp, is that there were no good choices for many small nations in the baltics and surrounding Russia at this time. Just crappy ones. Some chose for reasons of safety, like the Martels, to escape Ukraine with the evacuating German army. The Martels had two small sons. What could they do? Stay and have Emil the father killed the children left homeless and alone and the wife raped and starved, turned out of her home onto the streets? So, to protect his family, Emil, made the only choice he really could. He followed along with the German army who he hated. He did it to protect his wife and children. They went on a long track, through Romania, and a number of other nations, into Poland, and finally into Germany, and possibly even further, I don’t know. I haven’t finished the book yet. Right now, we are in Romania. This family, of wheat farmers, in the 40s, traveled across nations in nothing more than a covered wagon while the Germans in front of them battled with the Russians behind them. They were caught in the middle… Just trying to survive. This story is beautiful. it is about perseverence and the human drive to survive and succeed. The imagery is great. The discussion of the war well researched. My only little criticism is the heaviness of religion. It is in my opinion anyway, a bit overloaded with concern about God and faith. For me it is too much. Someone else might love that aspect of this book. it’s not that I want to sanitize it. I just wish instead of hearing about God at least twice in most chapters we could hear mention maybe once every hundred pages or so. But that is my only pet peave and it really doesn’t matter much because the story is just so incredible, as is the telling of the story beyond and outside of this issue. I have no idea how this story will end or how things will go beyond the point that I am at, presently stuck in Romania, shortly after entering the nation. My voice in my brain is still talking at me in a ukrainian accent even though I put the book away a couple hours ago. This is one of those stories that stays with you. I am in love with the characters already… I thought when it was suggested that it is too long…. Now I think, maybe not long enough. Everyone should read this story to understand the history of what is happening now. Why it is so important that we do everything we can short of starting world war 3, to help the Ukrainian people.

We have books chosen to take us through beyond the second birthday of the book club. Kind of hard to believe this little club is nearing 2 years old. Most book clubs die within the first 6 months. Here we are heading towards 2 years going strong, as a sisterhood of women grows stronger together with every meeting. Starting this book club, might be one of the greatest things I have ever done. It is wonderful to have some community again. I didn’t realize for a long time how much I missed it. Oh initially I felt strange not having community when we really left the commune for real beyond a few blocks away… Then I dunno when it happened… It was like I mourned and was not right for so long and finally I just got used to that empty space where once community had been… Then came years of international travel… Only to settle along with my spouse to create a homestead farm and live fairly removed from others… Finally I had this place ready enough that I could host but all my friends had disappeared while I was traveling the world for the better part of ten years… So starting this group, has really begun to fill a void I had forgotten was there… I am so grateful to everyone who participates in our reading adventures. It is a very special thing, and I just am so happy to be part of it. I don’t know if this group could just cease to meet even if we wanted to, we have all become so bound up in our adventures together and in our relationship with one another. So much more to come.

Thank you for reading
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm

Tags: Book club

About wildflowerfarm

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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The book club rattles on.

The book club rattles on.

About wildflowerfarm

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