Thriving and Surviving

Hello Friends,

It’s another rough week here in the US, and in many parts of the world. So here’s a story about Swiss chard:

My gardening partner covered our vegetable beds with the mass of leaves shed by the towering maple tree out front. This would help the beds to rest and keep the soil warm once we edged toward spring.

The only bed they did not cover was the one with kale and rainbow chard in it. Those were still doing fine, and we could eat them further into the cold season.

Then the snows came. Freezing rain. Hail. Long, dark, northern hemisphere nights.

The kale died off. The chard remained, spindly and a little sad.

The soil slowly warmed. My partner uncovered the rest of the vegetable beds.

And lo and behold, the rainbow chard began to change. No longer sad and spindly, its leaves stretched out and opened, plumping up in sun and rain.

The chard not only survived, it is now thriving.

And that is what I wish for all of us: to get through these traumas that batter our bodies, hearts, and communities.

I want us all to thrive.

So today I ask you: what helps you not just survive, but thrive?

Let’s invoke some more of that.

blessings - Thorn