Strings of the Heart

 I am grateful, yes I am.

As complicated as my life might seem, should you have read my last post, it isn't quite a sad violin serenade. No...my life is a winding fiddle tune, both slow and sad at times, then unexpectedly upbeat: the joint is definitely jumping.

An ode to celebration, a pub tune and a hearty bardic ballad can be had of my little journey; I can say I've probably found more profound examples of things to be thankful for this year than in recent memory. I've found kindness and generosity in the faces of strangers--and then friends--in different parts of the country. I've traveled more, seen more, and learned about the differences that truly make us the same.

In fact, I plan to journey back again to the place where much of  these observations began..this week, it's back to Iowa to once again teach beekeeping and cooking. The irony is that I'd just returned from my friends' farm in upstate New York to go to yet more farmland....indeed, this is a sweet second helping of a favorite old time tune, long and low, and sounding of forests, fields and old friends....

The truth is, very few things pluck at the heartstrings as true comraderie, and the sense that people truly DO care for you. I have found this amongst the dirt-loving, nature abiding, artisan folk, everywhere. One speaks plainly, knows--and is comfortable--in their own skin, and considers it a duty and privilege to care for others. 

It is a crying shame, how quickly people forget these sorts of things. While the world makes war in the name of it's self-centered commercial interests, there are those who quietly pull up a chair for friends, say a small prayer, and share a meal, and other few luxuries they have. Those are my people. Gypsy hearted dreamers who want no big thing, but who do their best, and are themselves, from dawn to dusk. The kind, imaginative, happy folks. Naive as it may seem, I believe we are here to help each other, to pull the strings of the heart, a fine instrument creating a fine tune, indeed!

I'm looking forward to some serious melody making in Iowa these next few weeks. And then? Who knows, but I suspect that while it might be difficult sometimes, it will definitely be INTERESTING!

Farm, art, craft,  and dream folk, I HEART you!