Midsummer continues to be hot, but the daylight is slipping more and more into night and the woods around us have begun the preparation for the long season of cold darkness and Earthly sleep. The fertility of the season is evident in long rows of produce at the auction and food stands laden with vegetables, fruits, and much more at the Farmer’s Market. Muskmelon and watermelon, along with corn and tomatoes, have been staples in the last month in our shares from the food club. Our last share included three small watermelons and a couple of small muskmelons, providing cold, moist food to offset the heat of the days.

The abundance of rabbits—a new feature of the natural community in our neighborhood—has resulted in young rabbits making a home in our yard, providing delight to the toddlers that my wife cares for. The young human children feel a wondrous kinship with these young rabbit lives and are excited to see the innocent, beautiful creatures so closely. The rabbits, for their part, hop under the leaves of our perennials that we have left to complete their cycle of life.

Pink, red, white and orange zinnias that my wife sowed in the spring are now coming into bloom, aside the seed pods of hollyhocks and coneflowers that are fulfilling these plants cycle of life and rebirth. As years before, bright yellow and black Goldfinches are coming to our yard to feed on the coneflower seed and fulfill their partnership with the flowers by carrying away the seed to new locations.

In the hollow, Swamp Milkweed I planted in the waterway a year and a half ago are opening their seed pods while providing food for the yellow, white and black Monarch Caterpillars that they attract. As always, simply by sowing a few plants and allowing the natural community come to fruition, I am able to help our natural community become more sustainable and diverse. My effort and contribution is small, but the robustness of the natural community needs not great human effort to help it; most of all, it requires great human effort not to harm it. Industrial society, in its short-sightedness, foolishly acts with the belief that the Earth—that is so greater than we are—is our servant. Humanity’s egoistic self-worship lies at the heart of our modern errors.

A few years ago I read the Tao Te Ching—a very short book of adages that is at the root of Taoist philosophy. I thought it’s succinctness was helpful, but I realized immediately that children, the family and the smaller, private world where the traditional women’s culture has been sequestered into was ignored. For whatever value it had, this omission made it somewhat meaningless to me. I thought I would like to summarize some of what I have learned from women and the Earth in similar way. This spring, I wrote down a quick summary:

The Essential
The children must be cared for.
The community must help the parents in their work.
The community must live in lasting harmony with other communities.
The communities must live in sustainable harmony with the natural communities around them.

I also noted three important additions to The Essential:

Acting in daily life in harmony with The Essential brings joy.
Failing to act in harmony with The Essential or harming The Essential brings suffering.
Lives are free to do as they wish provided they do not neglect or harm The Essential.

Life is more than survival, so The Essential need not be the only aspect of life; however, neglecting or harming it is at the heart of most of our modern problems, both in the personal and the larger world. For all importance of family values, political leaders often give lip-service to The Essential way of life while using it as an excuse to oppress those they wish to scapegoat for our problems.

Being able to take part in the good works of life of The Essential—whether as a family member, a community volunteer, an activist, a healer or numerous other actions can bring great joy and fulfillment. That is why, for many, babies and young lives are magnets of attention and love—they are the sun of our lives, providing us the joy of their love of life.

For others, the deeply important acts of supporting communities, peace, justice, and moving towards sustainability with the natural world that determines our fate is a profoundly meaningful, if spiritually challenging way of life. It is ironic and significant that in patriarchy, our isolated, egoistic approach to life has estranged many of us from The Essential and filled our lives with lifeless things, meaningless accomplishments and little actual contribution to it.

In this culture, the magnificent work of life is set aside by many as “women’s work” and “domestic life” and activists seeking peace, justice and sustainable harmony with other communities and the natural world are condemned as “extremists” and “unpatriotic.” These are the ideas that will be tossed into the dust bin of history as the consequences from The Essential core of life catches up to the unsustainable patriarchy.

I was shown the humility of people practicing the essential tasks of life during midsummer.
During the week, I watched my wife valiantly come to the aid of both our family and the family of a dear friend. At the start of her week, she babysat for twelve hours in one day, followed by another full day of babysitting. On the third day, the mother of the young toddler in our family called before my wife had breakfast—she had injured her neck and upper back and was unable to lift her dear baby—could my wife come to help?

For the next three days, my wife was indispensable, caring for the young baby and the Mom, making food, arranging a massage and medical care, while the baby’s uncle and I did some secondary help as well and the father helped when he was off work. My wife’s week was spent deeply in The Essential life, a joyful but exhausting endeavor.

By Saturday, the young Mom was on the mend and the father was home from work, providing relief and support. My wife babysat for only a couple of hours and spent the most of the day resting, remarking how tired she was.

“How many hours did you babysit this week?” I asked her.

My wife made some quick calculations. “Forty-nine and a half,” she replied.

“You worked a fifty hour week, naturally you’re tired,” I said. Using a term I rarely use, I asked, “Aren’t you proud of how indispensable you’ve been to your family and friend’s family this week?”

“No,” replied my wife.

“How do you feel about your crucial work this week?” I asked.

“Mainly tired,” my practical, straightforward wife replied.

I cannot say how many times I’ve heard men crow about their accomplishments—many of which did nothing of real value to The Essential core of bringing forth life, some of which actually harmed this core. How important it seems to me that our culture truly values the accomplishments of families, community volunteers, activists and many others who directly better The Essential core of life through their good works. The vainglory accomplishments of leaders of patriarchy will quickly pass, often falling to ruin because the acts are out of harmony with The Essential core that will determine our individual and collective future.

Meanwhile, the quiet work of those in harmony with The Essential will foster deep, meaningful relationships and will, in the long run, stand the test of time. This belief is at the core of both my faith and my observations in the personal and natural world.