Pomegranate Princess
From my own tree – one of several fruit last year,
this small pomegranate showed its broken heart…
Sadly enough, in the last few years, the severe drought has been bringing about massive invasions of gophers. And they have been chewing the roots of some of my fruit trees (fig, persimmon, pomegranate, strawberry fruit trees), and killed them. So I had to learn to live with “underground” wild life – swallowing up the poppies, California and red, nasturtiums. It is eerie to watch the plant being pulled down from beneath, slowly disappearing into earth, like a video of their growth in reverse :) Gopher is a very clever and feisty creature. When gardening I will hear a bit of rustling, move in that direction, and there he with his beady eyes and two little front teeth, staring at me with defiantly. And we start a conversation and a little game of hide and seek. I argue for him to leave my trees alone. Of course there are many gophers, and their massive tunneling system is now everywhere.
This morning I see the truck of Got Gophers parked across the street. The neighbors, two houses over, have hundreds, and this exterminator company traps, kills, gets rid of them – but not really… Our long drought has made the gophers with their underground tunnels and cities too abundant. The hawks too have increased, and owls, foxes, coyotes. Nature is balancing itself often not in the short run, but in the long run….
The pomegranate photo gets an immediate reaction out of me. I've been sobbing scrolling through the recent posts as well as the comments. It was all started by the crinkled flower you posted on November 3, and Alex's comment that "there is space for everything." There are tears so for many reasons, and then you post a pomegranate in the middle of it all and it is so dramatic, I just cannot take it!
ReplyDeleteI watched Phoenix Dance again earlier this evening for the same reason I visit your blog. It is on evenings when I am just too frustrated with the superficiality of the culture here, and my instinct is to overcompensate the other way - lie to my friend to convince her to take my money because she needs it and I don't, move into my car, take on more responsibilities in the world, etc. You especially, and Alex in the comments too, remind me how to move with the entire being rather than just the pieces. "There is space for everything" sounds like another way of telling me to broaden my gaze... to the garden, where the gopher struggle is also the struggle of climate change capitalism, which is also the gopher struggle... (-Aysha)
Thank you for commenting! The crinkled flower and the split-open pomegranate also deeply tuck on my heart strings :) I love that you take away to leave room for everything in life – that is not easy. When we broaden our gaze and stay in the middle (axis), we'll start finding our own place and path. This is our first responsibility. No need to overstep. Your spirit will guide you.
ReplyDeleteThe crown of the fruit is perfect. The crevices are perfect. The seeds are so vivid. It is a difficult time. We're overloaded, which is far beyond abundance. Yet we can witness how the natural world outside ourselves keeps giving. Giving, taking. It makes me smile, joyfully and wistfully, to read/see how this all happens in Karinaland. Thank you, Karina.
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