07/02/2026
7/2/2026
It’s easy to think that the world pauses when we sleep, that just as we rest, everything around us rests, and things will be as we left them when we wake. Yet this morning before dawn, there are bear tracks in the grain I spilled yesterday, and raccoon tracks on the stock trailer. The clouds and mist embrace in a manner that makes it impossible to tell where the sky ends and the earth begins - a love story that will cease with a jealous sun. Birds sing their hearts out before he rises, and dew falls on the snares of thousands of spiders busy while even those birds were sleeping. Fireflies have built their families and crickets have played their sonatas. Milkweed has pushed out blooms, coyotes have circled the hen yard, new Brown Eyed Susans peek from the bushes, daisies born in the night beg the longing question, yarrow has readied for harvest, and while his children slept, a farmer quietly packed his truck for another long weekend away from home. Jars of honey, bottles of amber colored syrup - his liquid gold - are loaded up to share with others, carefully arranged next to boxes of charcuterie and bars of beeswax soap. It’s not an easy endeavor, but as the farm raises its sleepy head to greet another beautiful summer day, it’s easy to see that it’s worth it.