What We Need Is Here

Joy

Who could need more proof than honey—

How the bees with such skill and purpose
enter flower after flower
sing their way home
to create and cap the new honey
just to get through the flowerless winter.

And how the bear with intention and cunning
raids the hive
shovels pawful after pawful into his happy mouth
bats away indignant bees
stumbles off in a stupor of satiation and stickiness.

And how we humans can't resist its viscosity
its taste of clover and wind
its metaphorical power:
don't we yearn for a land of milk and honey?
don't we call our loved ones "honey?"

all because bees just do, over and over again, what they were made to do.

Oh, who could need more proof than honey
to know that our world
was meant to be

and

was meant to be
sweet?

"Joy" by Julie Cadwallader Staub

Breaking the rules

During Christmas, I kept a basket of North Carolina apples on our dining table. They were beautiful to look at, and when I bit into one I felt a little like Eve.

We have intentionally limited our consumption of fruits and veggies over the last couple years to things grown locally, and apples don't do well here. Fortunately, in North Florida, we have a nice variety of fruits abundantly available throughout the year: citrus of all kinds, loquats, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries, muscadine grapes, melons, persimmons. . . and mangoes only a little south of here (I admit to extending the boundaries a bit for mangoes). It's not much of a sacrifice. But I miss apples.

Placing the basket on the table at Christmas and eating them sparingly throughout the season felt like an extravagance - like receiving an orange in the toe of one's stocking must have felt like to Northerners back in the day.

Michael Pollan, in his new book Food Rules, lists as the last one: "Break the rules once in a while." Holidays seem the right time to turn an apple (or an orange if you're in apple country) into a gift. 

New Year

Party guest rockin' in the New Year

This is a ride, not a fight… – the Weepies

I discovered the Weepies in 2009. I wish I had known sooner where Deb Talan had disappeared to! Sweet music, sweet lyrics, sweet voice…  Music has always been an inspiration to me – poetry on the go.

These particular lyrics resonated as the sentiment always has – something I have to learn again and again in this life of mine. There are so many things to fight for and against, it’s hard to keep peaceful sometimes. I have constantly fought the tendency to wake up with a rallying cry in the back of my head which quickly becomes an impossible “to do” list.  My better days begin with a thought more like a question: “I wonder what will happen today.” Oh, to stay in that place a little more often this year! Because we never know, do we? Whatever it is, it's likely to be interesting, and it’s more likely to be perceived as interesting - and even good - if one’s mind hasn’t hardened itself into a little steel ball ready to shoot out of a pint-size cannon by 6am.  

We had a nice, restful Christmas break, generously sprinkled with visits with family and friends. It was also mercifully quiet enough to allow some thinking about how we want to move forward into the new year as individuals, as family, as Catholic Workers, and as members of the larger community. 

I always love these chances to start again. A new year, a new decade, a new opportunity to evaluate, dream, and move forward.

Below are some links to people and ideas that have recently inspired us to see the new year unfolding before us with hope and enthusiasm.

Dan Buettner on "How to Live to be 100." I'm not really interested in being 100, but he's got some great thoughts about how to be strong and healthy for however long you got. I especially appreciated the cross-cultural benefit of having long-term friends.

Jon Stewart interviews Michael Pollan.  Humor and real food – something we all can use. Pollan is the author of a new book - Food Rules which sounds interesting too.

And a little song to remind us that it's all moving right along.

Happy  beginnings to you - new year, new decade!