It was a hard week, wasn't it? I've written something in response to Dallas, but have submitted it to a publication first. If they don't take it tomorrow, I'll put it up here.
In the meantime, sewing and drawing have helped, and I also got out my flute and did some practicing for the first time in a long while, mostly Bach sonatas. Today there was a work bee at my community garden, but being a drizzly day, few people showed up. One person spread mulch on the paths, another weeded the perennials along the chain-link fence that divides the garden from the community swimming pool, where a lone swimmer swam laps in the rain.
I spent an hour working mostly by myself at the compost bins, a different scale of salad, cutting up discarded weeds and stems into short lengths, and turning the pile with a pitchfork to aerate it and incorporate some soil and partially-decomposed organic material. It was exactly the right task for today: meditative but practical - the sort of work, it occurred to me, that a monk might do in a monastery garden, wordlessly praying all the while for the world outside the walls. And then I stowed my muddy gloves in my backpack, unlocked the gate, and rode my bike through the deserted Sunday morning streets of this peaceful city where very few people have guns, pondering my only weapon, a pen.
Yes, practical, focused work helps, especially in a garden, especially in a communal one, I would imagine. And there's something about compost, particularly, that I've always found so reassuring (I'm so glad that condo-composting was regulated into effect here last year. I don't think I could bear to live somewhere that required me to throw that organic material into the regular wastestream, and I'm not sure I'm ready to vermi-compost inside!)
I'll look forward to your words on last week's tragic events (ongoing, really, much as we would love to consign them to history). If you don't post them here, will you let us know where they're being published?
Posted by: Frances/Materfamilias | July 11, 2016 at 01:07 PM
I've been doing some transplanting of orchids and cactus and in general just enjoying my peaceful, quiet home.
Posted by: Hattie | July 11, 2016 at 03:21 PM
I am thankful for work that heals, and was captivated by the image of the lone swimmer in the rain. Like Frances, I am hoping to read your piece whether here or in the publication.
Posted by: Duchesse | July 13, 2016 at 11:41 AM
Thank you, Frances, and Duchesse, and Hattie, I'm glad your home is a refuge -- gardeining has helped me too.
The link to the opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette is now up, along with a new post about it on the blog.
Posted by: Beth | July 13, 2016 at 01:13 PM