{"id":21460,"date":"2013-07-28T20:49:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T02:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=21460"},"modified":"2013-07-28T20:51:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T02:51:34","slug":"flower-and-leaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=21460","title":{"rendered":"Flower and Leaf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Moon of the First Harvests<\/p>\n

A torpor always follows completion of a manuscript and it set in today. \u00a0It’s a sort of \"\"<\/a>aimlessness, a nothing to do so what could I possibly do sort of feeling. \u00a0Yes there is a tension between doing and not doing and yes sometimes I fear that the doing is only a way to shove aside the great fear, the dread of dying. \u00a0And, further yes, sometimes I fear that I lean too far toward the doing and away from acceptance and that the torpor I describe only underscores it.<\/p>\n

And it may be so. \u00a0It may be that I write, garden, learn Latin, get involved in politics and family only to push back the confrontation with my own non-being. \u00a0It may be so.<\/p>\n

Or it may be that I do these things because they are my flower and leaf, that they are the what I am. \u00a0That is my belief. \u00a0In doing these things I do what a lily does when it pushes up from its corm, strikes a thick green blade through the earth, gets to sunlight and puts on leaves and flowers. \u00a0I am this variety of human. \u00a0In this sense those things I do are not avoidance, but completion.<\/p>\n

This time between creative efforts becomes a fallow time like the fall and winter months, a time to gather in energy and prepare for the next growing season. \u00a0Perhaps lilies, after the flower has bloomed, the seeds are made and leaf and stalk have died back wonder, too, what is my purpose now? I am not what I can be, so am I avoiding my end? \u00a0No says the older, wiser lily. \u00a0Not at all. \u00a0Now is when you become stronger, able to support more flowering. \u00a0We do not end, this older lily might say, but develop in such a way that others follow after us. \u00a0May it be so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Moon of the First Harvests A torpor always follows completion of a manuscript and it set in today. \u00a0It’s a sort of aimlessness, … Continue reading Flower and Leaf<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,9,197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garden","category-great-work","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21460"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21464,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21460\/revisions\/21464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}