TAMMUZ MORE THAN HUMAN WORLD

EARLY SUMMER

The weather is getting hot; the occasional day when I don’t wear shorts all day long feels oddly cool; socks are a think of the past unless I am walking in the woods or walking the dog.  This always feels like an easy time of the year for me.  It is slow like winter, but there’s no bundling up against the cold. I used to be really heat tolerant, but in the last few years I’ve lost some it.  75 is the new 90 and I make the concession of sitting in the woods or in the shade, rather than in the sun when I sit outside and read. The days are long which is a true pleasure.

I’ve seen a fawn the last few days; the deer in general seem scarcer with the arrival of a coyote family in the neighborhood. I still see only one chipmunk at a time, and there seem to be maybe only two squirrels.  On the one hand, the neighborhood seems a little depopulated; on the other hand, all that food is of course going to call into presence the predators such as the foxes and coyotes.  It is a restoration of balance.  It is a good thing that the more than human world still has the power to restore that balance, given how much damage we humans have done.  Predators play a necessary role, even if my heart is all on the side of the prey animals.

In the garden, the cucumbers are producing, the tomatoes are green, the peppers are growing and I’m harvesting green beans.  We’ve converted from spring into summer crops.  The ceremonial corn I am growing has tassled and I ought to look at the ears that are growing. I harvested my first wineberries, the invasive Japanese raspberry plant that grows on all the edges of our fields and lawns.

My one Zucchini plant is enormous and my winter squash is spreading all over the garden.  Right now almost everything is contained in the bed where it is supposed to be, but pretty soon the cucumber will be entangled with the Zucchini, the winter squash with everything. 

We’ve been suffering from a mini drought, which is the common problem of summer, but maybe it was broken by the rain we had from the thunderstorms last night.  My lawn basically stayed greener than the neighbors; it’s what happens when you don’t use fertilizers or pesticides and don’t cut the lawn too tight. It’s cool today, but the heat will soon return as it should.

I haven’t yet heard any noise from cicadas, which surprises me a bit.  This is something I will monitor.  The noise of the cicadas comes at the height of the summer, so maybe it is too early or hasn’t been hot enough.

QUESTIONS

What is burning inside me?

What is being suppressed from burning that will bite me like fire suppression bites the forest?

What is ready to explode into growth?

What is being harvested?

THE GOD TAMMUZ