Autumn Days

LAKE MACBRIDE— As cleanup from the Sept. 19 storm continues, the weather has been almost perfect for outdoors work. The plants in the yard have come alive, and the garden generated a burst of food (collards, Swiss chard, turnip greens, arugula, herbs, tomatoes and peppers) as the first frost approaches. Days like these are as good as it gets.

Slowly… systematically, evidence of the storm diminishes. Yesterday I cut up the locust tree and spread the branches in the back yard for easier final cutting. Today a construction worker comes to repair the corner of the house. All that’s left is to finish with the locust tree and replace one of the downspouts damaged during the storm. Then to glean the garden, mow the lawn, and collect the clippings for mulching the garden over winter.

What then?

Much as we relish our moments of sunshine in brilliant autumn days, there is work to do before the final curtain falls and we join the choir invisible.

My writing will continue. It has become subsistence, a part of me, like blood production in the marrow, a way to breathe life sustaining oxygen in an unsettling and turbulent world. It is not expected to contribute much financially.

Farm work and gardening, participation in our local food system will continue at a subsistence level. There is inadequate income to be generated in working for someone else, and farm work will always be lowly paid.

There is family life, but little role for that in the blogosphere. We depend on our families, and little more need be said here.

Mostly, life will be living as best we can during moments of brilliance and trouble. Like these days in early October, when worry seems far away, and life so abundant.