Winter Meditation
I have a hard time wrapping my head around
winter on the farm. I feel like it should be a time of
hibernation, of catching up on tasks that fell by the wayside during
the growing season, of contemplation.
But I find myself instead turning winter into a long anticipation of
spring. Two weeks until I can prune the apple trees! Four
weeks until I can plant the peas! Two months until the first
spring flowers will peek out of the leaf mould!
I often think that Mark would make a good Zen monk --- he has an
enviable ability to live in the moment. I catch only glimpses of
such a mindset when I empty my head through a half hour of yoga, a long
walk, or a sketch in the outdoors. Strangely enough, I've also
been finding that intensity of focus while browsing the web in search
of images to include in the Lisbeth Longfrock posts. For hours at
a time, I feel like I'm transported to Norway, milking pesky goats into
wooden buckets. I'm sure there are much better uses of my time,
but as we all know, books are my mind-altering drug of choice.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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