Symmetry

"It's not weird. It's...symmetrical."

-Pushing Daisies

Today was milder at Falster Farm than it has been. The sun a little dimmer and the air cooler. This surprised me at first until Nancy and I remembered that it is November after all. Despite this there are three fully bloomed yellow irises in the garden out front and Nancy just pickled the last pick of baby cucumbers.

Life here has been full and busy thus the lack of updates. Karl is a retired United States Marine and this week we went to the Marines Birthday Ball. Nancy had a dress for me to wear and we all dressed up and had a good evening amidst the old Marines and their wives. I was even rescued by a young Marine. My table company dissipated homeward and dance floor bound, and he asked me to dance. Karl and Nancy danced more than any one and they looked fabulous.

We also took a trip to Tyler and I went to the Rose Garden while Nancy and Karl ran an errand. It was simply lovely. I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of roses and I felt quite like Alice wandering about Wonderland or Looking Glass World.
That morning I received a text from my dear friend Scott whom I haven't heard from in a long time. Busy school semesters. Unfortunately his text wasn't actually text and I wasn't sure I could open it. Scott and I used to take walks to smell the roses in Belhaven gardens. I missed him and those walks as I meandered among the roses in Scott's home state. When I texted to tell him so he wrote back ' That's what I sent you this morning! ' He'd sent a picture of a rose that very morning. I do love friendly serendipity.

Serendipity and symmetry. The last time I visited Falster Farm two years ago I told Bonnie and Kaelen that I had decided it was my last semester at Belhaven. That night at Bonnie asked Karl to get champagne and she toasted to my immediate future and our friendship. Arriving at the Farm last week I told Nancy about seeking out my next steps, short and long term. She poured us glasses of homemade chocolate orange wine and toasted my Farm visit. "May it be revealing."

Seeking mayn't look exactly as I thought it would but I am learning and growing and finding. A long walk today helped me see that. I'm learning through conversations with Nancy and Karl, watching life around me, helping with housework. My Mom taught us that some of the best learning goes initially unrealized. That's how this is. I'm learning without even realizing it. It's amazing what God can use to teach us. 'The earth is filled with His glory.'

This week I read that the word 'antibiotic' means 'against life'. Antibiotics have been overused in the medical industry and destroy more life in out bodies than the illness they are intended for. 'Kamazotz' was an antibiotic. Sterile sameness. Everything clean and together and to what purpose? Life is stifled.

Falster Farm is a 'probiotic' (with life). There is manure and dirt and mud and LIFE. The refrigerator looks like a science project because Nancy knows the benefits of fermented foods. The fermentation in the sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, etc. is literally full of life that is good for your body. There is very little waste and the scraps that there are go to feed the chickens which provide more food. The kitchen doesn't stay tidy because it is in constant use providing, sustaining, nurturing life.

From dirt, manure and scraps come grass and milk and eggs.

And yellow irises.