“ It’s not that we are bad people for withholding food from our moneyless neighbors; we are modern people staggering under the weight of an utterly incoherent set of social instructions.”. This sentence brought up so much grief that I’ve obviously been pushing down for years. Your words never fails to move deep within me…perhaps you are a rain maker, and the tears you elicit in others is the precursor to the rains of redemption which will arrive when our hearts open wide. Deep wells of gratitude for you Adam!♥️
We don't often just say it plain. When we do, perhaps it becomes more clear that these aren't the conditions within which the human heart remains open. Thank you, Heather.
"I experiment with various forms of rain prayers and songs; I’ll admit that it feels like an uphill climb."
This sentence is deeply relatable and I am grateful for it.
The past few days have been challenging for me, and I, too, experimented with various forms of prayers and songs, different gulps of breath, sounds. Putting myself around people, then moving back into solitude. Saying thank you, no, to my thoughts, which wanted me to only see that uphill until the end of my days.
With gentleness and sleep, I feel things shifting, despite the claw of panic that wants to swoop down and trick my heart.
Thanks for this, thanks for Jane, for your clarity, and for the tears, again..I extend them as a prayer for rain...
This is very moving, and very true. Without money, prayer recovers a dimension it has lost in our age of unbridled wanting and easy satiation. I have said a prayer for Rain for you, Adam, and for all your neighbors, plant animal and human alike. And that this work you are doing will work in people's hearts as it does in mine.
I am convinced that making a request of another human to share a bit of what they have in their hands is one of the most basic ways we can remember how to pray. A re-humbling.
I love your work, Adam, and I'm so glad you're in the world doing what you're doing. Please keep being the doing, so that these new-old ways can keep on keeping on. Thank you.
Hey Adam, it would be cool to speak with you sometime, when stressors are a bit relieved (I know they will be) about my time volunteering for an organization and how it relates to upstate NY (volunteering: being an unpaid employee in yet another business hierarchy/transactional model with the goal of helping the leader achieve business success) and mine and your devotion to the land and life here, in responding to collapse in wise ways rather than American solutions-driven, business as usual. And maybe I could offer some insight re: relationships with water spirits, those in our lineages (some needing tending can come through mother’s lineage and this can go very far back, although thousands of years is a tiny drop in the great story, lineage not always being the same as culture of origin, but the connection needing tending in the ways that are required, this can mean for example a white American person needing to do repair and strengthening work that aligns with the culture of the lineage Ancestor who is needing tending) Always awkward trying to communicate stuff like this via social media comments but I’ve got some courage, it’s a good muscle to strengthen these days. Sorry for not-good writing, sleep interrupted again by rage/disgust/anxiety about flying for the first time in 25 years (I don’t remember much about it, shit seems cray these days)
Driving south from ICE protest at Burlington airport last night through puddles and rain squalls, I thought of your farm and wished it rain. I hope the squalls gathered strength and made it across Pitawbagw to you.
Your words about thankfulness resonated with my immediate life. This year on the Isle of Wight ( UK) we had a very dry and cold spring. The Easterly winds chilled us day after day and as the blossom came and went on the fruit trees and hedgerows I was sure that there wasn’t a pollinator in sight. I wondered if I should walk about with a paint brush as our previous year had been really poor for fruit and we were hoping for a little more this year. I never did get round to taking on the ‘job of pollinator’…. I would have been very bad at it I am sure… and it was just as well as it feels like a miracle the fruit harvest is crazily abundant. The apples, plums, pears and damsons are weighed down with abundant fruit. We have a greengage tree that we had forgotten about (no fruit last year) and my grandchildren found it and reminded us. The delicately scented fruits were ripe to perfection and we hurried to pick them last evening. As I stayed up into the night sorting, freezing and stewing for jam I was overwhelmed with thankfulness. We had done absolutely nothing to ‘make this fruit grow’ all we had done was honour the gift by accepting it and cherishing it. There was a time when I preached and prayed thankfulness to God for the harvest. I don’t deny the benefit of this orientation of the self as a thankful creature but last night I needed no God language, I was thankful directly to the tree. My gratitude, love and awe was for that little tree. I have spoken thankfulness before as I harvest but now I think I am beginning to feel it Adam, deep in my bones. Thank you for sharing and putting your beautiful thoughts so eloquently. May God bless and soothe your care worn heart. Ali x
I’ve found myself bringing up in conversation to those I know who draw stark lines in the sand when it comes to belief that those we would be going through drought, floods, tornadoes, other catastrophes with would be our neighbors…and likely not a group of people who “check all of our boxes” of what we may search for in camaraderie. The way you talk about our neighbors who go without food…and the worsening of the crisis of people unhoused, cracks my heart open until I feel as though I can’t bear to hold the information. And yet I must. And I still don’t know what good to do other than donate money and resources to the local organizations that help.
Well-observed. The 'can't bear to hold it all' doesn't go away, it's more of of cyclical visitation with breaks in between. At least from what I've found.
I've been thinking about "give away," and I am wondering if there is a need for any word to follow "give" or "gift." When giving or gifting, one need not add the word "away." It seems that suffering and hardship make people appreciate the easier times and strengthen them. This also seems to be true for the land and everything else. Therefore, since I know not what is best, I will not hope for rain, per se, but for that which you, the land, and everything around you need to ultimately thrive and be well. 🧡
“ It’s not that we are bad people for withholding food from our moneyless neighbors; we are modern people staggering under the weight of an utterly incoherent set of social instructions.”. This sentence brought up so much grief that I’ve obviously been pushing down for years. Your words never fails to move deep within me…perhaps you are a rain maker, and the tears you elicit in others is the precursor to the rains of redemption which will arrive when our hearts open wide. Deep wells of gratitude for you Adam!♥️
We don't often just say it plain. When we do, perhaps it becomes more clear that these aren't the conditions within which the human heart remains open. Thank you, Heather.
"I experiment with various forms of rain prayers and songs; I’ll admit that it feels like an uphill climb."
This sentence is deeply relatable and I am grateful for it.
The past few days have been challenging for me, and I, too, experimented with various forms of prayers and songs, different gulps of breath, sounds. Putting myself around people, then moving back into solitude. Saying thank you, no, to my thoughts, which wanted me to only see that uphill until the end of my days.
With gentleness and sleep, I feel things shifting, despite the claw of panic that wants to swoop down and trick my heart.
Thanks for this, thanks for Jane, for your clarity, and for the tears, again..I extend them as a prayer for rain...
Beautiful. There's some sort of tentative surrender in your reflections. Thank you, Amy.
This is very moving, and very true. Without money, prayer recovers a dimension it has lost in our age of unbridled wanting and easy satiation. I have said a prayer for Rain for you, Adam, and for all your neighbors, plant animal and human alike. And that this work you are doing will work in people's hearts as it does in mine.
I am convinced that making a request of another human to share a bit of what they have in their hands is one of the most basic ways we can remember how to pray. A re-humbling.
I love your work, Adam, and I'm so glad you're in the world doing what you're doing. Please keep being the doing, so that these new-old ways can keep on keeping on. Thank you.
This means a lot, Em. I send my best to you over the pond. Thank you.
Hey Adam, it would be cool to speak with you sometime, when stressors are a bit relieved (I know they will be) about my time volunteering for an organization and how it relates to upstate NY (volunteering: being an unpaid employee in yet another business hierarchy/transactional model with the goal of helping the leader achieve business success) and mine and your devotion to the land and life here, in responding to collapse in wise ways rather than American solutions-driven, business as usual. And maybe I could offer some insight re: relationships with water spirits, those in our lineages (some needing tending can come through mother’s lineage and this can go very far back, although thousands of years is a tiny drop in the great story, lineage not always being the same as culture of origin, but the connection needing tending in the ways that are required, this can mean for example a white American person needing to do repair and strengthening work that aligns with the culture of the lineage Ancestor who is needing tending) Always awkward trying to communicate stuff like this via social media comments but I’ve got some courage, it’s a good muscle to strengthen these days. Sorry for not-good writing, sleep interrupted again by rage/disgust/anxiety about flying for the first time in 25 years (I don’t remember much about it, shit seems cray these days)
Likewise. May that we be so blessed. Thank you, Corrie.
More prayers for rain for your critters and you. Have had just enough here…a blessing each time. Blowing the clouds toward you…💨🎐🌬️
Thank you, Sally.
Driving south from ICE protest at Burlington airport last night through puddles and rain squalls, I thought of your farm and wished it rain. I hope the squalls gathered strength and made it across Pitawbagw to you.
Your words about thankfulness resonated with my immediate life. This year on the Isle of Wight ( UK) we had a very dry and cold spring. The Easterly winds chilled us day after day and as the blossom came and went on the fruit trees and hedgerows I was sure that there wasn’t a pollinator in sight. I wondered if I should walk about with a paint brush as our previous year had been really poor for fruit and we were hoping for a little more this year. I never did get round to taking on the ‘job of pollinator’…. I would have been very bad at it I am sure… and it was just as well as it feels like a miracle the fruit harvest is crazily abundant. The apples, plums, pears and damsons are weighed down with abundant fruit. We have a greengage tree that we had forgotten about (no fruit last year) and my grandchildren found it and reminded us. The delicately scented fruits were ripe to perfection and we hurried to pick them last evening. As I stayed up into the night sorting, freezing and stewing for jam I was overwhelmed with thankfulness. We had done absolutely nothing to ‘make this fruit grow’ all we had done was honour the gift by accepting it and cherishing it. There was a time when I preached and prayed thankfulness to God for the harvest. I don’t deny the benefit of this orientation of the self as a thankful creature but last night I needed no God language, I was thankful directly to the tree. My gratitude, love and awe was for that little tree. I have spoken thankfulness before as I harvest but now I think I am beginning to feel it Adam, deep in my bones. Thank you for sharing and putting your beautiful thoughts so eloquently. May God bless and soothe your care worn heart. Ali x
This story is a balm, Ali. Thank you.
such a beautiful piece in so many ways.
Received. Thank you.
sending the essence of the rain and that fell here overnight on the west coast of Canada and prayers that some will grace you soon.
I’ve found myself bringing up in conversation to those I know who draw stark lines in the sand when it comes to belief that those we would be going through drought, floods, tornadoes, other catastrophes with would be our neighbors…and likely not a group of people who “check all of our boxes” of what we may search for in camaraderie. The way you talk about our neighbors who go without food…and the worsening of the crisis of people unhoused, cracks my heart open until I feel as though I can’t bear to hold the information. And yet I must. And I still don’t know what good to do other than donate money and resources to the local organizations that help.
Well-observed. The 'can't bear to hold it all' doesn't go away, it's more of of cyclical visitation with breaks in between. At least from what I've found.
I've been thinking about "give away," and I am wondering if there is a need for any word to follow "give" or "gift." When giving or gifting, one need not add the word "away." It seems that suffering and hardship make people appreciate the easier times and strengthen them. This also seems to be true for the land and everything else. Therefore, since I know not what is best, I will not hope for rain, per se, but for that which you, the land, and everything around you need to ultimately thrive and be well. 🧡