hedge stuff

my liminal Medicine

Hail ‘n’ welcome to February, the longest month of the year.

That’s my relationship with this month, and that’s hedge stuff. Given the year-long verve of January, that also flew by in a flash (hedge stuff), I’m wondering how many years February will take before delivering March (also hedge stuff).

The full moon of this day is in Leo, and I pull the IV of Swords (hedge stuff), so I’m feeling a bit conflicted and comforted by this (more hedge stuff). As linear time rolls from one month to the next, I engage ritual that gives attention to my personal hedge work, to the liminality of/in life as I perceive it. I conjure my list of cognitive dissonances (as I say) that express the hedge for me; so-called opposites. This monthly observance has been mighty Medicine to me for years, and I draw on the wisdom and warnings that are offered from that work in the hedge.

Today the temps might get up to 21℉ which, given the temps of the past week, might feel like a bit of heatwave (hedge stuff).

I’ll be starting Rose Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) seeds today, a lovely reminder of how the seasons and “garden” work are not linear as some seem to insist. My experience knows that planting ‘n’ harvesting hold space and place year ‘round. So today I deliver these seeds to a small flat of soil, place the flat in the unheated greenhouse, and fully tuck it in a blanket of snow; below, above, and all around. Over the coming weeks (a month+) these seeds will experience “cold stratification” which the Rose Milkweed require in order to sprout (hedge stuff).

If you live where winter cold ‘n’ snow are happening and have poppy seeds, now is a nice, easy time to “plant” them. I toss them atop the snow where they experience that “cold stratification” that poppies also need, and as the snow thaws those beloved seeds descend toward the earth where they’ll eventually sprout and take root (hedge stuff, again).

Lots of hedge stuff for me today, and with it I recall the closing line of Desiderata, “With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.” (hedge stuff, indeed).

Peace.