Height of Summer
A farming friend once shared a theory with me that humans get busy and perhaps a bit anxious at the height of summer, as we’re in tune with the earth, which is telling us to tend, weed and harvest our gardens while the sun shines.
I like that idea, and certainly find summer to be full rather than lazy. My gardens are metaphorical (except for the ones of bellflower and thistles in my back yard, but I don’t think weeds count) but there’s still a lot of tending, wedding and harvesting to be done even though not literal.
July 15th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Interesting. I always figured it was stressful because as Minnesotans, we’re trying to cram in so much outdoor time.
July 16th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Even our education system has this built in: children need a rest period (summer) or their minds will get over-cooked. I saw something about this aspect of American/European/Western farming styles as compared to Asian farming - specifically rice farming. There are no seasons for rice farmers: they need to tend to their paddies constantly, or there will be no food on the table. Thus, they don’t have similar seasonal ebb-and-flow in their lives.