As you share this garden bounty, will you encourage us to dig our hands into the soil, savoring its texture and inhaling its layered scents? And as the sun warms our backs and chocolate-colored clods crumble between our fingers, will you remind us that dirt beneath our fingernails is a joy that needn’t be lost to childhood?

When we’ve rediscovered the delight of dirt, will you suggest we go in search of the poetry that lives among the trees? Will you warn us that it’s the kind you can only hear if you stay long enough to draw it out? For tree poetry is shy and can only be caught by an attentive audience—present and distraction-free, happy to simply sit with a tree. 

After we’ve marveled at the tree poets’ rhymes, will you tell us to find a spot, any spot, where water flows to rest on the banks for a while? To let its currents carry away whatever we need to release, and watch it gently drift beyond reach.

Then, as we savor the last early strawberry, with dirt beneath our fingernails, the poetry of trees serenading us, and the lightness of an afternoon by the water lifting our steps, we’ll find the day is winding down. Will you ask us not to rush it, as you remind us of the healing beauty of sunsets?

Finally, as we settle in for the night, will you hand us a fragrant cup of peppermint tea and whisper one last thing? That maybe—just maybe—we take care of things better when we connect with them first. 

Happy Earth Month, neighbors! Here’s a favorite quote we’re enjoying this April… 

“The Earth is what we all have in common!”
–Wendell Berry

Let’s take care of her together!

The Isely Family