Hunting and Gathering

Last summer I had the privilege of attending my dear friend Kate's wedding. Among many other things, Kate is a collector of very random things. Rocks.  Pine cones.  Shells.  Make up. Occasionally she will find an exceptional stick or piece of lichen. She is a gatherer. And it just so happens that she ended up marrying Joe, who is a hunter and very skilled fisherman. He hunts wild game, deer, and elk.  Occasionally he'll score an antelope. Do antelope even live on this continent?  Anyway... during the ceremony the officiant commented on how Joe's hunting is complimented by Kate's gathering and I just thought how fitting and truly beautiful that really was.  And it's true.  Kate's wedding shoes were actually accessorized with shoe clips made out of feathers from a duck Joe had shot.  He hunted, she gathered.  And the reception was a feast compiled of food that Joe had killed.  Decorations were an assortment of pine cones that Kate had collected.  He hunted, she gathered.  Then we gathered.  And it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies that I have ever been a part of.  It is always very meaningful to me to see a couple who works together.  I don't just mean working at life in general, I mean laboring and collaborating with an intended outcome in mind.  And then to share it all....first with each other then with their closest friends...as if to say, we have worked hard for this, now let us share it with you. I have a feeling this is what God intended to happen more frequently than it ever does.  I have a feeling this is what the dinner table is meant to be.  Then Joe busted out a dance to Thriller and everybody danced like crazy and I got the hell out.

A few days ago I did some gathering of my own.  I strapped Eliza on my back and we walked the fence lines of the farm collecting wild asparagus that grows beneath the posts.  This gathering has actually quickly become a highly anticipated family affair.  We will finish supper, leave the table a mess, grab a bag and head out.  It's especially fun to hear Isis talk about how the birds drop the seeds which is how the wild asparagus grows.  It's even more fun to hear her yell things like, Oooooohhhh this is the motherload!  One nights worth of gathering easily provides us with three meals worth of asparagus...pastas, quiches, pizzas, frittatas, and a weeks worth of weird smelling pee.

A few weeks ago I helped a host a baby shower for my other very dear friend Karla.  For the centerpieces, Isis and I gathered flowers that were growing in our neighbors beds.  The following day Isis was begging me to call and ask if we could gather more flowers because she really just wanted some flowers in her room.  And back we came with our bounty and Isis named them each...bleeding hearts, lilacs, tulips...There is pride in what we collect and do for ourselves.  Even a four year old can learn that.

I was always kind of dumbfounded as a first grade teacher as to how many kids thought food came from stores and that animals lived solely in zoos. Some of them truly had no concept that food actually grows somewhere other than the store. This is a gap that scares me.  Really.

This past week I was weeding our garden.  I had been out there for two hours.  I was exhausted and ready to come inside when Isis came sprinting down to me begging, Can we please transplant this broccoli?  Please Mommy pleeeeeeease!  I really wanna transplant this broccoli. As much as I did not want to transplant broccoli, I remembered that gap. And I remembered how Isis had displayed all those fresh cut flowers in her room that she had collected herself. So we planted broccoli.  And in a few weeks Isis will once again go gather so that as a family we can come gather.