Agriculture

“You don’t go into farming for the money. You must have something in your heart and keep at it. You have to love the land.”
Shorter, Alabama farmer Al Hooks, after being fucked by the United States Government

These are tough times for the poor and the marginalized. For the unrepresented and the down-trodden. For those who are alone or abandoned. But dreams die hard.
The robins are back. I moved some landscape fabric the other day and then watched the night crawlers and the rolly pollys that had been exposed underneath. The trees are starting to bud, ever so slightly. I walked the deer fence up on the ridge yesterday, and thought about the bloodroot that grows on that hillside in summer. Seeds are ordered and plastic trays are organized. I'm about to fire this thing up once again, and there's nothing that can stop me. The sight of the robins on the field in February is enough to make me put up with everything else that falls upon me through the course of a year. Communion with the bloodroot offsets the poverty and the hardship. The promise in the green of a newly sprouted seed is enough to get me to spend twelve straight hours in a cold greenhouse.
... a leaf of grass in no less than the journey-work of the stars. Whitman
I get hit and hit hard by no dearth of tribulations. But I continue. I am sustained by the sight of rows of trays in a greenhouse, or the feel of a hoe underneath ragweed, or the smell of diesel, or the stick and the grit of tomato sap, and I know not why. This is what I do, and I'm doing it again. I fix things that are broken and I pick up things that fall down. It's hard. I don't have it as hard as some. I keep at it.