The Mirror Crack’d Movie Night… Yeh not so much.
The Mirror Crack’d Movie Night
Last night was the book club’s movie night. It was a very small gathering. It’s difficult to do nice things with lack of reliability. My hope is this is not going to become the standard. And to add to the issues we had, we could not in the end access the Mirror Crack’d. So instead, we decided to watch the movie for our current book The House of Sand and Fog. And it was a beautiful movie. So sad…. No heroes. Just people attached to a house all of them right all of them wrong. All of them, experience tragedy in this book and movie. I like to think that one of several messages is about how while today we duke it out over real estate, we destroy what our children will depend on in the future because we borrow this world from our children. We don’t really own anything. Long after we are gone other will take residence in our structures, and on our planet. We are but…. Passing dreams in these places we inhabit.
The Mirror Crack’d Movie Night
I set out some cookies and some beautiful whole wheat einkorn, earl grey blue berry muffins, with a lemon balm honey glaze, some cookies and lots of popcorn. one of the few to show up for our meeting brought really good brownies while someone else brought chips. We put out a couple bottles of nice wine, and we curled up on the couch and enjoyed watching our current book play out on the screen.
The couch.
It was a small and cozy group gathered on the sofa, with wine and snacks, watching a beautiful movie of our current book. A movie and a book full of lessons, including the lesson that we should appreciate what we have as everything in this life is transient. Even the things that withstand the test of time are passing in our lives… The things we build don’t have to be there for us. The relationships we create can fizzle out…. Attachment leads to suffering not just for ourselves but each other. And the way we treat each other and the dreams we have and share is important. because those are truly the only things that belong to us and that we get to carry with us. That, and the pride we take in how we treat each other. Like our structures and buildings… Our kindness and compassion live on. Our impact on this place we all share will long out live us. We are that impact. We are our effect on others. We are the common sense we exercise as well as the cruelty we visit upon one another. We have been left a gift. We destroy that gift for the future when we turn on each other. We destroy it for the future. We miss what matters so completely as we walk through this world. All of us choosing to see ourselves as victims of the governing bodies we create together, choosing to view each other as the enemy due to the break down or error in the systems we have hast as much of a voice in. Human beings are sad and small. And yet we carry such a capacity for the creation of a better world or a better beach bungalo, that we could choose to leave to those who come after us. Instead, we choose to fight over it and leave a legacy of scorched earth and poison. It is possible for us to all rise above. I hope one day we can do that.
Muffins
This book is about how we need to come together to build each other up. We must take actions to support each other and our communal agencies so that errors don’t happen and people don’t get pitted against eachother and so that a legacy of joy and compassion can be left behind.
In this movie, The House of Sand and Fog, the common sense rolled out and the fog obscured the house atop the shifting sands of the ocean’s strand… Everyone’s vision was compromised, and everyone payed a horrible price and some lost everything. 2 groups rolled in from opposite sides as giant tidal waves breaking against the house…. The waves broke, the house remained it’s future was destroyed as was that of the breaking tidal waves.
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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