A Return to Balance

It was a week for the emotional highs and lows record book.  Aaron finished the stone patio outside our screened-in porch, and we had our first guests and first fire in the fire ring.  A new marriage began.  Cancer took a life.  Progress was made to honor my Dad’s life and passing.  There was a fight using old wounds as swords inflicting new wounds.  A baby was born.

It was a week of highs and lows in Nature’s world also.  The pinnacle month of summer brings a great abundance of flowers fit for wedding bouquets, table decorations, or just panoramic beauty.  But the weather was dry—the grass was turning brown, the rains were missing us, and Chris was busy running the sprinklers.  

Last summer our sun garden was dominated by Rudbeckia, but this year is the Year of the Purple Coneflower!

Fragrant Lavender flowers attracted butterflies and bees.  Hummingbirds are also seen almost every day when the Hostas are in bloom.

The top leaf of the Ligularia, a plant that suffers here without plenty of water, is enveloped with a spider’s web and nest for the young ones.  New birth on a tiny, yet prolific scale.

Daddy Longlegs was resting on a leaf hammock, renewing his energy for the continued search for food.

Aaron made a balanced rock sculpture by the path at the edge of the yard.  This will be the location of a new bed of Eastern Blue Star after Chris dug out an invasive white-flowering plant that served us well for a while.  

The heat and dryness has taken a toll on some of the ferns, with parts of fronds or whole fronds drying up and turning brown—Nature’s self-pruning.

The Daylilies are in their full glory; this one is providing a rest stop for a Grasshopper.

The mulched path through our woods is a favorite trail for the turkeys as they browse for food.  We don’t usually see them, but this time one left behind a part of herself.

With all the watering in the dry and sunshine, every once in a while, there’s a rainbow.

Mother Nature has a way of providing balance, of bringing things back to homeostasis, of allowing rest and renewal, then energy and growth.  We are made the same way.  Every moment of every day our bodies are regulating temperature, minerals, hormones, water, and blood sugar to bring us back to homeostasis.  It truly is a miracle.  So what happens after days, weeks, or months of being enveloped in a web of worry or suffering from lack of love or realizing that an invasive presence that once served us well no longer does?  The answer is sometimes harsh in the process of saving the whole.  Parts of ourselves dry up, a sort of self-pruning in order to make way for eventual new growth.  We lose parts of ourselves along the journey, often without us knowing but other times with hard, intentional work.  And hopefully the parts we lose are the old wounds that persist in hurting ourselves and others.  Then we add rest, creativity, good food and fun, self-care and self-love so we’re no longer beating ourselves up and running on empty.  And ever-so-gradually, we return to homeostasis, to balance, to ourselves, and to Love.