July 7th, 2020

What’s in your share?

• Sugar Snap Peas

• Lacinato or Curly Russian Kale

• Butter or Romaine Lettuce

• Summer Squash

• Bunching Onions

• Garlic Scapes

• Carrots

Surrendering to senses’ revelation

I lost the drive of my own being,

And dreamlike thinking seemed

To daze and rob me of my self.

Yet quickening there draws near

In sense appearance cosmic thinking.
~from Rudolf Steiner’s The Calendar of the Soul

This time of year, the earth is exhaling in flowers. Sugar peas, summer squash and the very first tomatoes begin to ripen. The energy of the natural world is being reflected outward, as shown in the abundance of the season. In contrast, during the winter months, the earth inhales, bringing its energy inward beneath the soil. Many plants go dormant, drawing their energy deep into their roots.

In the same way, this natural rhythm is reflected in our own lives. In summer, we are more outside ourselves, emotionally, as well as physically. When the days are longer and warmer, we move more freely. Our thoughts are directed outward, and are less internalized. Whereas during the shorter, colder days of winter, we are often physically less active and more solitary. Those days are quieter, allowing for more inward reflection and thought.

Even though it often seems that our lives are currently more and more disconnected from the natural world, this natural rhythm still occurs within us, even without our knowing. We still exhale with the earth in the summer and breath in during the winter.

This is one of the many ideas expressed in Biodynamic Agriculture, where the farm is also seen as a microcosm within the wider universe. Separate and self contained, while always influenced by the greater rhythms. Seeds, fertility, diversity is grown within the context of the farm ecosystem, yet always guided by those cosmic forces beyond, the moon, sun, the tides. The farm, like ourselves, encapsulating those qualities of the world beyond itself.