Field Day?
Jerry was out of town golfing and I was in the country alone something I enjoy, yet Field Day was enticing. I had met Randy Dodson, the convener of Field Day, the year prior at another area event, Cookeville's "NatureFest." Randy, a teacher at Tech, was offering tours of TN Tech's farm. Despite a cold intermittent drizzle and breeze, Randy's passion for sustainable farming was contagious for me and I sensed others, as eight of us chilled to the bone followed him around the grounds through hoop gardens and green houses. Somewhere in my time there, Randy referenced his ultimate dream for Waters' Farm just down the road in Baxter, TN.
Field Day 2012 provided evidence of the birthing of Randy's dream, a dream shared by his wife Sandy and son Nate. I found my way to the farm that year and felt like I was coming home in a sense as I watched the making of sorghum, met people of all ages and walked among rows of growing things.
When Field Day 2013 rolled around recently, I knew where I'd be.
This time as we arrived, cars overflowed the parking area and I was near-tears. There were (I'm guessing) over two hundred folks, if not more, of all ages. Stations were set up so visitors could watch a blacksmith and potter, listen to music, try their hand at archery, ride through the fields pulled by a tractor, view and touch animal skins (the only thing I didn't check out since I like my animals alive rather than dead.) Children could make veggie people, paint pumpkins, play in hay bales or join in sack races and tug-of-war. And throughout the noon hour, we feasted on foods brought by participants and those prepared by the Dodson's thanks to the land and animals.
Yet the best part for me was what I found near my visit's end. I think of myself as the Noticer in my relationship but Jerry noticed this. He was the first to walk among the bee-covered sunflowers. He made certain I saw them. I was overjoyed, bee-side myself truly.
The dramatic decline of the bees this summer in my yard and along my walks has troubled me greatly. I have been unable to conjure the certainty of which I wrote this spring in a piece about our being bee-keepers. Friends telling me they had bees around their flowers provided some comfort yet seeing the bees at Waters' Farm not just alone but in pairs and trios covering the sunflowers brought me such joy, joy I wanted to share.
Someone once said, "Seeing is believing." More recently this has been turned into "Believing is seeing" something to which I aspire yet have been unable to conjure this summer within myself.
Sometimes I just need to SEE and seeing the bees stirred my bee-lieving again.
Quantum physics refers to the quantum field through which we are all connected. In this moment three weeks since Field Day, I imagine the reverberations of my joy then and now being felt around Mother Earth's energy field. Actually it is more than imagining, it is something I feel in my bee-ing. A Shift to Joy and for me, someone who has felt such sorrow that is a beautiful thing.
I offer this to all and any who need to bee inspired to feel joy, to have hope, to remember there really is a field through which we are connected.
Feel the Joy. Imagine the Shift.
Every day is Field Day around Mother Earth and in our Universe.
-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 4 November 2013
Thank you to all who are part of making Waters' Farm a reality. Field Day video highlights HERE thanks to Andrew Trivette and here's WCTE's 2013 story (public tv) "Live Green TN: Waters' Farm." And check out "Art Prowl" another Cookeville event this Fri/Saturday!
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