Last week, we considered gratitude for the everyday things we sometimes take for granted. This week, I'd like us to think about the people who make our homes and daily lives what they are. A house provides shelter, but it is the people and relationships within it that give us a sense of belonging. Whether we live with family, share a home with others, or live alone, there are people whose kindness, encouragement, and willingness to help make a difference in our lives. Think about how much goes into keeping a household running. Someone prepares a meal, washes the dishes, tends the garden, or takes care of repairs. Much of this work becomes so routine that we hardly notice the person doing it. Sometimes we notice their contribution most when it doesn't get done. Not every contribution is something we can see. A listening ear after a difficult day, a word of encouragement, or simply spending time together can mean just as much. People contribute in different ways, depending on their time, abilities, and circumstances. Gratitude gives us an opportunity to recognize those efforts and let people know they are appreciated. Sometimes a simple thank you or offering to lend a hand can make a real difference. It also gives us a reason to consider our own contributions. Are we noticing what others do, or have we come to expect it without much thought? As we continue our November reflections on gratitude, perhaps we can take a little time this week to recognize someone whose everyday contributions make our lives better. Who is someone you are grateful for, and what is something they do that you especially appreciate? If you're comfortable sharing, I'd enjoy hearing about that person or a small act of kindness that makes a difference in your life.

When hay leaves a field on a wagon, some of the nutrients that helped grow it leave with it. If the hay feeds cattle on the same farm, some of those nutrients can return to the fields in manure. Where the hay goes makes a difference to where those nutrients may go next. Rudolf Steiner took up this relationship in his second agricultural lecture at Koberwitz in June 1924. He asked his listeners to think of the farm as an “individuality,” capable of supplying much of what it needed from within. He pictured land growing feed for animals and animals providing manure for the land. He acknowledged that a farm could only approach this ideal and described bringing in manure as a remedy for an ailing farm. That ideal raises a fair question. Can a farm really regenerate itself? No farm creates nutrients from nothing or runs like a perpetual motion machine. Sunlight supplies energy, while nutrients enter through sources such as rainfall, nitrogen fixation, weathering minerals, and materials brought onto the farm. Nutrients also leave in crops, animals, runoff, and other losses. Steiner explained his ideal through a spiritual worldview. We can also examine the movement of materials directly. When a farm feeds its own hay to cattle, some nutrients return in manure. When cattle eat purchased feed, some nutrients in that manure came from elsewhere. Manure can move nutrients around, but it does not make them appear from nowhere. What matters is what enters, what leaves, and where materials end up. I see a smaller version of this in my garden. I move some fallen leaves from the lawn to a bed where I want cover. Excess leaves go to a low spot to decay. I add chicken scratch, and the chickens mix the leaves through winter while leaving manure as they forage around the homestead. These practices move and recycle materials. These cycles still depend on sunlight for energy and on nutrients entering the garden from sources such as rain, soil minerals, and materials brought in from elsewhere. What materials do you move from one part of your garden or farm to another, and what changes where they end up?

When the Berlin Wall opened on November 9, 1989, East Germans crossed into West Berlin. Over the following days, many visited grocery stores, buying bananas and other goods that had been difficult to obtain at home. How did something so ordinary become so meaningful? After World War II, Germany was divided between the Western Allies (US, Europe and France) and the Soviet Union. By 1949, West Germany had become a parliamentary democracy with a market economy, while East Germany became a Socialist state, governed by a Communist Party with a centrally planned economy (sound familiar NY?). West Germans enjoyed greater political freedom and consumer choice. East Germans faced restricted travel, limited political freedoms, and shortages of many goods. In 1961, East Germany built the Berlin Wall to stop its citizens from leaving for the West. Peaceful protests and growing demands for change helped bring about the Wall's opening in 1989. Germany reunited the following year. People weren't risking their lives simply for bananas. They wanted the freedom to travel, speak, and make choices about their own lives. As we observe Veterans Day in the US, this history reminds me that the end of World War II did not end the struggle over freedom. We honor all those who served, including the veterans of World War II and the Cold War, whose service helped shape the world in which these events unfolded. And that an ordinary banana can remind us that the decisions governments make eventually reach into the everyday lives of families. Sometimes history is easier to understand through a grocery bag than through a political speech.

I totally cleaned out these 2 garden beds full of tomatoes and in the process, seeds dropped everywhere. A couple months later and they are COVERED in hundreds of tomato plants! And we are getting snow this weekend. I feel bad that they are all going to die!

When we moved to S.E. Ohio from Oregon, we saw all these gorgeous pictures of the Wayne National Forest and thought we were moving to paradise. We were used to living with old growth forests around us (Oregon) and things staying green. After traveling about 3,000 miles to get here (in February) we were shocked when we pulled into the place we bought and it was just sticks everywhere. 🤣 We learned that it doesn't get really beautiful here until about April, then it really does turn into paradise... Now that we've been here for almost 5 years, if people come to visit, we always tell them to between April and October! Eventually, we'll plant more evergreens here...