We had our usual cold snap this past weekend–the one we call dogwood winter. Experienced gardeners in the area know which plants can reasonably be expected to survive temperatures in the 20s for a couple of days. My potatoes got “bitten” but the things you’d expect to be tender (pea shoots, germinated spinach and radish seeds) are tough and the tough brassicas (broccoli, cabbage) can get the tips of their leaves singed a little but are generally ok.
These Plague Years have illustrated the same thing about systems and people. Some of the people who are always tough have been singed a bit by these hard and weird times. And some of the most emotionally delicate people have showed what they are truly made of. This has been interesting to watch and also heartening.
Scholar and artist Caitlin Matthews has been keeping a delightful Plague Journal for over a year now. You can find it (and her) on Facebook. Go see for yourself. You’ll enjoy it and be challenged by it, too. She’s one of my favorite writers and I have long considered her a teacher.
I am currently juggling several projects and it’s a familiar feeling after a year of not-so-much juggling. I’m being booked for festivals and conferences, both in person and virtual. I’m designing a divination deck for Wyrd Mtn Gals. The Ragged Wound book is slowly exposing its form to me and when it does, it will be so quickly written that it will surprise me. It will probably be published through Smith Bridge Press though I will send a proposal to the two publishers I’m currently working with, more as a courtesy than anything. This new book isn’t the sort of thing either of them publish.
The garden is an ongoing project, so it doesn’t count. I will be working with a couple of filmmakers in the coming months. One is doing a documentary, the other will be producing short pieces for instruction and promotion purposes. There is a CD of Wyrd Gospel music on the back burner and the front burner is getting turned up on the Wyrd Mtn Gals Porch Food cookbook.
I’m considering a new online course, too, which should be ready late summer. I’ve done three so far and want to do one on making practical magic and its techniques a part of our everyday lives. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Like all of you, I have dozens of smaller but not less important things to d,o like finding a new eye doctor and a new periodontist.
Energy flowing out feels like Summer, Getting some rest feels like Winter. I’m going to use the example of this changeable season as a way to live my life in the next few months. Summer, Winter. Work. Rest.
Repeat.