Year

When a person decides they want to commit themselves to paganism as a religion, they begin a process known as the “year and a day.” The individual studies, ask questions, keeps a journal, and pays close attention to thoughts and feelings along the spiritual journey during this time, as well as what is happening in the natural world around them. Plugging into the rhythms of the earth, such as the passing of seasons throughout the calendar year, is one of the most important aspects of the religion.

I thought of that today when I made the first entry into the garden journal that Paty just donated to the Spirit Gardens. This will be my first full year tending a garden. Have I paid attention to the changing seasons? Have I attended to the hours of daylight, the texture of the soil, the smell of the leaves? What have I learned? What have I changed?

It is almost impossible to not be in the moment in a garden. You are just there, in the garden, as the sun is changing your skin and the plants, as the blossoms fade and fall, as the new leaves unfurl in yellow-greens, as the wind sweeps past the back of your neck with what can almost be called a chill, and as the soil parts for hungry earth worms. And so sometimes the cycle itself is hard to see.

For that reason, it is good to write, record, and reflect on what is happening. I am thankful to Paty for giving us the journal. We will now know what we see and feel, but also where we’ve been, and what we might see and do when the world turns this way again.