I really enjoy connecting with other earthy folks on social media. It's quite fun to see all the new lambs and chicks in spring, and the bountiful harvests in autumn. It makes finding answers and ideas so simple and so quick! It allows us easy access to support when things look rough. My very favorite part though is when someone plants a seed or finds a mushroom for the very first time. I feel genuine joy when someone is inspired to try by supportive individuals and communities that they may never have met otherwise. What a blessing of this time in history!
I do occasionally find myself becoming jealous of my online friends though. Super lush gardens and weighty morel harvests flashing by your eyes as you scroll your social media feed on a good day is full of cheering others on and connecting through shared excitement. On a day where your onion patch is looking weird, your pheasant got his tail pulled out, and you can barely remember the taste of a wild oyster mushroom it's been so long those same images can suddenly become well...less than helpful.
But bitterness is only attractive to me in medicinal mushrooms so I take a break from comparing myself to others and look around. Really look around. Not in a "let's add this and that and the other to the to do list" sort of way, but really taking the time to stop and take it all in. The whole picture: what was, what is, what could be. You see, no one's victory looks the same as anyone else's and the trickiest thing about your own triumphs can often be recognizing them.
One of my favorite tools for getting past moments like these is photography. I love to capture images of the little beautiful things on my homestead: the way a dew drop sits on a flower petal, the cascades of flowers from my ever present foe (blackberries, I have blackberry issues), a brief moment between my mother pheasant and her chicks. By slowing down and taking notice of the beautiful and interesting details around me I always very quickly come to the conclusion that hey, I could be doing a heck of a lot worse!
And here's another little secret I can let you in on: my garden is a complete and utter amateur hour mess but you'd never know it based on the pictures I take! For every succulent spinach photo there are tatsoi seedlings falling over limply just out of frame. Always remember: what you see in a beautiful photograph is only the briefest glimmering moment captured to move and inspire the viewer and it is never the whole picture. But it doesn't need to be because that one tiny glimpse added to another and another eventually makes for a pretty glorious bigger picture.
So if you are feeling defeated today I invite you to start photographing your homestead. More than photographing though. Use the light and contrast and color to make each snapshot as brilliant and glamorous as you can. Use these details of success to build a bigger picture. A picture of beauty, awe, and gratitude.
(Seriously, I wasn't kidding about the pheasant tail! He's fine, it'll grow back)
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