Sowing & Reaping
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
"Oh look at these! Let's try sugar baby watermelon!"
"How about canteloupe?"
We stand at the market with seeds--sunflower
green bean, cucumber, peas--packets
fanned between our fingers like cards
in a winning hand of poker
With fertile imaginations
we introduce our fingers to soil
imitating the back-aching posture
of earth's first farmers
Then, we watch and wait
from windows of a borrowed home
anticipating a picnic feast of fresh--
and wait
still in farmer's prayerful pose
Is earth's economy broken, too?
winning hand for this year
folded
by Cheri Mueller
The day after I wrote this poem, I was sent an article via email: 31 ways to Jump Start the Local Economy. I was most intrigued by the section with suggestions for friends--things we can do TOGETHER!
TOGETHER WITH FRIENDS
Form a dinner club and hold a weekly potluck, or trade off cooking and hosting.
Dip your toe in the barter economy. Check out Craigslist’s “barter” category, and learn what WTT means (Willing To Trade). Even better, ask the guy at work who makes microbrews to trade a sixpack for a dozen of your chickens’ eggs.
Get together with coworkers and start a list of things you can do at work. For example, buy fair trade coffee, change to energy-efficient lighting, or carpool.
Start a Common Security Club in your faith community or neighborhood to help folks cope in the crisis and act together to create the new economy (www.commonsecurityclub.org).
Exchange care of children and elders. Better yet, bring the generations together and support each in offering love and care to the others.
Pool funds with a group of friends for home repairs, greening projects, or emergencies.
Do home work parties. Each month, go to a different household to do major home greening, a garden upgrade, or some deferred maintenance.
Keep more people from becoming homeless by challenging evictions and occupying vacant homes.
Create a space at a farmers market to exchange or sell used clothes, electronics, games, CDs, plants, seeds, compost, and books. Encourage people to swap services, too, like haircuts, photography, or prepared dinners.
Reach out to groups that are organizing people on the frontlines of the crisis, like Jobs with Justice (www.jwj.org) and Right to the City (www.righttothecity.org).
Did any of these ideas intrigue YOU?? My mind is spinning with possibilities that I'd like to explore. Maybe this broken economy will help heal our ability to reach out and relate to each other. Maybe through our difficulties we can find ways to create circles of genuine, interdependent community! To read the entire article, click here: http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3741
"How about canteloupe?"
We stand at the market with seeds--sunflower
green bean, cucumber, peas--packets
fanned between our fingers like cards
in a winning hand of poker
With fertile imaginations
we introduce our fingers to soil
imitating the back-aching posture
of earth's first farmers
Then, we watch and wait
from windows of a borrowed home
anticipating a picnic feast of fresh--
fruit of red, green, pink, orange
tables decked in cloth, blue-checkered
"14 days" the packets promise
but the mystery's always unseen
And so we of muddy hands can hardly wait
can't help but ask, "Where's the promise of green?"
"What's happening?"
Days creep to 21, 24. . . now 273.
Nothing but thistles--stubborn
self-righteous squirrels who dig
and hoard and undo
gathering only for themselves
From windows of a borrowed home we watch"14 days" the packets promise
but the mystery's always unseen
And so we of muddy hands can hardly wait
can't help but ask, "Where's the promise of green?"
"What's happening?"
Days creep to 21, 24. . . now 273.
Nothing but thistles--stubborn
self-righteous squirrels who dig
and hoard and undo
gathering only for themselves
and wait
still in farmer's prayerful pose
Is earth's economy broken, too?
winning hand for this year
folded
by Cheri Mueller
The day after I wrote this poem, I was sent an article via email: 31 ways to Jump Start the Local Economy. I was most intrigued by the section with suggestions for friends--things we can do TOGETHER!
TOGETHER WITH FRIENDS
Form a dinner club and hold a weekly potluck, or trade off cooking and hosting.
Dip your toe in the barter economy. Check out Craigslist’s “barter” category, and learn what WTT means (Willing To Trade). Even better, ask the guy at work who makes microbrews to trade a sixpack for a dozen of your chickens’ eggs.
Get together with coworkers and start a list of things you can do at work. For example, buy fair trade coffee, change to energy-efficient lighting, or carpool.
Start a Common Security Club in your faith community or neighborhood to help folks cope in the crisis and act together to create the new economy (www.commonsecurityclub.org).
Exchange care of children and elders. Better yet, bring the generations together and support each in offering love and care to the others.
Pool funds with a group of friends for home repairs, greening projects, or emergencies.
Do home work parties. Each month, go to a different household to do major home greening, a garden upgrade, or some deferred maintenance.
Keep more people from becoming homeless by challenging evictions and occupying vacant homes.
Create a space at a farmers market to exchange or sell used clothes, electronics, games, CDs, plants, seeds, compost, and books. Encourage people to swap services, too, like haircuts, photography, or prepared dinners.
Reach out to groups that are organizing people on the frontlines of the crisis, like Jobs with Justice (www.jwj.org) and Right to the City (www.righttothecity.org).
Did any of these ideas intrigue YOU?? My mind is spinning with possibilities that I'd like to explore. Maybe this broken economy will help heal our ability to reach out and relate to each other. Maybe through our difficulties we can find ways to create circles of genuine, interdependent community! To read the entire article, click here: http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3741
