In the long days and heat of midsummer the local harvests are flowing into our lives like few other times of year. Tomatoes, sweet corn, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, peaches, early apples and much more appear in long rows at the produce auction, providing variety and abundance for us. This year with our local midsummer meal we will open an IPA brewed a few months ago, its crisp, light flavor especially satisfying in the heat of the day.

For years, I have gone into the woods to meditate in all seasons, allowing me to witness the wisdom of natural communities. One aspect of this is partnerships that foster life, such as in the lives of coneflowers, bees and birds.

At the height of summer, three foot tall orange coneflowers with pale purple petals bloom in our flower garden. As always, we will let them mature, grow seeds and become brown and dry, honoring the full life cycle of the plant. In doing this, we learned about how natural communities practice sustainability with an ease that out-of-balance humans find nearly impossible. During their midsummer blooming, the flowers are pollinated by bees and other insects gathering nectar. I imagine the insects gathering the nectar find it to be sensually delightful, since it is pleasant and sweet. Their bodies have been trained by time to find the sweet nectar and gather it for honey, and just as we find the taste of honey delightful, I imagine the bees find the nectar wonderful. While we use the honey for sensual pleasure, the bees’ sensuality is part of providing for themselves and the children of their hives, making their pleasure part of the sacred re-creation of life.

After the coneflowers mature and turn brown, beautiful yellow and black goldfinches gather on the stands and eat the seeds that the bees’ pollination have created. Like the bees, the goldfinches delight in eating the seeds and strengthen their bodies in doing so. Yet, there is something more in their digestion of the seeds.

Flying away from the coneflower stands, the goldfinches will naturally excrete the remnants of the seeds, including in some cases an intact core containing the beginning of a new coneflower. This new coneflower, delivered to the ground in a fertile packet that we find obnoxious, can start a new life and a new stand of flowers to feed future bees and birds, extending the community of all three. Through the simple and sensually indulgent acts of digestion, these partners in the re-recreation of life increase the sustainability of their species without conscious awareness, simply by seeking out their sensual pleasure—a sensual pleasure that is part of the sacred spiritual quest to re-create life through generations of time. Modern humans, out of balance with each other and nature, cannot match such ease of sacred re-creation of life.

In the woods, there are thick partnerships like these overlapping with each other, creating communities of mutual support that spread themselves outward in simple acts such as squirrels burying nuts in the ground. Life in nature can be difficult; wind can knock down nests with babes falling onto the ground and predators can strike without warning. The wisdom of the woods teaches that we die as individuals and families, but we sustain ourselves as communities of win-win partnerships re-creating ourselves in the river of life.

In the human world, partnerships like these exist through good works extended by people towards our families, friends, neighbors and coworkers. Good works, like the bees pollinating flowers while gathering life-giving nectar and birds spreading seeds while indulging themselves in eating, are the central gravity that connects lasting human communities. In a human and natural world, where what goes around comes around, doing good works that bring forth life sustains our communities, which is essential to sustaining our lives through future generations.

Delighting in caring for children, growing tasty food, sharing a good meal with family and friends, and other daily acts is both a celebration of life and centers us in the river of life flowing in our lives. We build a lasting community around us by our good works, making the future for the children of the community more secure and hopeful. It is by the sacred work to bring forth life that our lives become full while our futures and the future of our children become more secure through the community our work builds for us.