Gather every man
Gather every woman
Celebrate your lives
Give thanks for your children
Gather everyone
Gather all together
Overlooking none
Hoping life gets better for the world
Harvest for the World, The Isley Brothers
The Wheel of the Year is turning, my friends. This week we have had Lammas, or Lughnasadh; the first harvest, usually a harvest of grain. A time to give thanks for all the abundance around us, also a time for thought and consideration, to evaluate where things haven’t gone so well and where we can do better for next year.
On August 1st, I drove straight past the allotment on my way home from work, so sure was I of rain. By the time I got home, I decided it was only a little drizzle and worried my poor squashes would not get enough water. They are so thirsty right now. I headed off on foot back to the allotment, getting soaked in a downpour, but appreciating the cooler damp air after a few days of intense heat. On reaching the plot I sheltered under my neighbour’s plum tree where it dawned on me, I have had this little patch of land less than a year. Last Lammas it was overgrown barren patch of land with brittle straw grass and thistle. This week we have been harvesting beans, courgette, peas, potatoes and beetroot. From the garden back here we are picking apples, plums and these most adorable tiny strawberries grown from seed last year. I call them fairy strawberries and leave one as an offering at the fairy door every time I harvest them. I have everything to be grateful for. Everything.
In Ireland, Lughnasadh is also about celebrating the sun god Lugh with fun and games. I thought of that yesterday evening at the Weston-Super-Mare Sea Shanty and Folk Music Festival where we travelled from venue to venue listening to some great music. Most of the songs are hilarious, many are bawdy, some are sad, a lot of them deal with tragedy and fear with a gush of humour. So, we sang along, did the actions, had foamy body parts thrown at us (you had to be there) and generally giggled around tables with strangers, while white gulls drifted against a darkening sky.
And yet I catch myself tiptoeing around my garden picking fruit, laughing at a funny song and having the privilege of gratitude because somewhere deep down guilt nags. The news in the UK this week, what happened last Monday and is happening still, words I can hardly type, let alone process. It happens and continues to happen. I can’t even read the news and yet I feel guilty for being able to turn away to go outside and pick beans instead. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that Lammas is about saving seed to help us do better next time. And in so many ways we need to do better.
I’m not about to dismiss what happened last Monday with a pithy soundbite or a three-and-a-half-minute pop song. It deserves so much more than that. But there must be a reason Harvest for the World has been in my head all week. I know somehow the word gather is important, gathering the harvest and putting back into the world where we have too much. I know it is also about gathering together, with neighbours, with strangers, with friends and perhaps even more importantly those we don’t see as friends. I don’t claim to have the answer but deep down I know that meeting violence with violence is going to help no one.
I know it is also so much more than this too. I suppose if it was that easy, we would have done it by now. Perhaps we can go away and have a think and meet back here this time next year with more solutions.
Love to you all.
Soundtrack to This Post
Harvest for the World – The Isley Brothers
If you would like to see some more of the shanty festival then my husband has been posting videos on YouTube
