Solstice Stew, the Flow and The Service Berry
The longest night of the year approaches. A big pot of vegetable stew bubbles on the burner ... a Solstice Stew.
Our relationship with this place, and all the places we have called home, teach us we are part of the place and not in control of the place.
"The water is seeping in," I hear Pete and his shovel work the chunky gravel over the soggy ground surrounding our safety-pinned life here at Camp Bamboo.
I called to Pete and he said he's done. "I had to go to the source, where the rain moves along the edge of the bamboo." Sediment had collected and clogged the drain.
Along with the delicious stew we eat, I will add a bit of prayer asking the water to flow through without harming place, and these old people living in a wagon on two wheels and a patch of a kitchen off the steps for a form of making-do.
Earlier in the day, I opened up a gift. It was a gift of story. A story of the "Gift Economy", so perfectly timed for this longest night of 2020.
What a time this year has been. What gifts it has offered us. We are grandparents, living apart and across an ocean yet gifted with being connected by the virtual flow of technology.
And, we have a place to be with truly welcoming people -- a community of gift-givers here at Camp Bamboo. The gift I opened this morning was a story written and narrated by one of our favorite storytellers Robin Wall Kimmerer. As we listened to the story of berries, and the sharing of the abundance of those berries, I am reminded of the value of an economy of giving.
Robin Wall Kimmerer's gift was shared with us, and now we pass that gift-story.
On this longest night, here is something to flourish on ...
The Service Berry: An Economy of Abundance -- Robin Wall Kimmerer
Happy Solstice, Good Holy Days, Merry Christmas,
Aloha Kakou,
Mokihana and Pete
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