Enjoy the Weekend

It's the first Saturday in August, and I'm taking a day to get my mind in order before I continue with posts on agriculture, technology, Steinbeck, and who knows what else. Not necessarily all together, although that would be a feat. My thoughts are turning towards the new school year, and so soon, we'll be wrapped up in autumn. It might not have the same physical attributes down in Florida as it does up north, but I still find myself watching the sunsets on August days as the sky darkens earlier and the air cools off. Really this is just a preface because I want to share one of my favorite poems, and there's only a certain time of year when that works.

August Day

You work with what you are given —
today I am blessed, today I am given luck.

It takes the shape of a dozen ripening fruit trees,
a curtain of pole beans, a thicket of berries.
It takes the shape of a dozen empty hours.

In them is neither love nor love's muster of losses,
in them there is no chance for harm or for good.
Does even my humanness matter?
A bear would be equally happy, this August day,
fat on the simple sweetness plucked between thorns.

There are some who may think, "How pitiful, how lonely."
Other must murmur, "How lazy."
I agree with them all: pitiful, lonely, lazy.
Lost to the earth and to heaven,
thoroughly drunk on its whiskeys, I wander my kingdom.

Jane Hirshfield (Given Sugar, Given Salt)

And we're back to ideas of inhumanism, the outdoors, and living life as you experience it without constantly asking why. Guess this turned into a Steinbeckian philosophy post after all.