A Taste of the Sun

Greetings all,

Another week gone by and another blog post to pen.  The summer has finally brought its bounty in tomatoes to my garden.  The sound of the summer wind is heard in the chorus of cicadas and other insects.   The long warm days and golden twilight remind me of years past.

You really can't get good store bought tomatoes.  They have to harvest them green and spray them with a gas to force ripen them on the way.  Otherwise they are too fragile to transport.  So if you want really good tomatoes you have to goto a local farmers market or you have to grow them yourself.  These cherry tomatoes have a vibrance and sweetness to them that they won't have at the tail end of the season.  They'll still be hands down better than any ones you could get at the supermarket, but right now they have the sweetness of the sun in them.

When it comes down to it all life is a bit of captured starlight specifically our star, the sun.  Nature has found a way of taking that light and infusing us with it via the food we eat, the fuels we use, and even the very vitamins in our body.  When we are children we tend to personalize nature.  That's why you see happy faces in crayon drawings of the sun.  As we grow older we seem to pay less attention to these stalwart celestial objects.  The sun and the moon become more abstract concepts as we lose our relationship to them.  As we move through a human centric world we can if we're not careful succumb to the feeling of separation and isolation, even as we engage in 'social' media.  We have lost connection to the land, sun, moon, rain, and winds.  A vast majority of us eat food so processed that our ancestors wouldn't consider it real food.  We live in highly inefficient climate controlled boxes (not that I don't like AC believe me with the weather we've had I am grateful) and we barely interact with each other.

Why am I telling you this?  Well I think so many of us, myself included,  have forgotten the real elements of life.  We are bombarded by empty entertainments and instant communication, but we are drowning in isolation.  In short. we have forgotten what matters.  Not just in the human world, but in the world of our animal cousins and plant neighbors.  I have watched as neighbors and friends have put their heads in the sand as atrocities committed in our names are perpetrated against people and the health of the planet.  Fouled waterways are someone else's problem, mass incarceration is not their fault, and children ripped from their families and put in cages are part of a political slogan.  I can't imagine that there is much sweetness in the lives of those that would choose to harm others they have never met.

So how about you?  Are you aware of your roots?  Can you taste the sweetness of the sun in your fruits?  Is the world of men leaving a foul taste in your spirit?  There are other relationships we can cultivate beyond our human neighbors.  We can be friend to the sun and streams.  We can be lovers to the moon.  We can delight in the song of the wind.  My hope is that as we reconnect to those relationships that we'll act in a way that honors them.  The echo of our soul is to be found in nature, for we too are part of nature.  Remember that as you enjoy the fruits of the seasons.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle