Summer’s Here

Memorial Day in New England means a season change. It signals the beginning of summer, the season of outdoor celebration that promptly ends on Labor Day. Since it is such a short and pleasurable time of year people make the most of it.

After the long winter, it is always wonderful to see people outside using bikes, boats, pools, beaches, and local parks. Grills are lit, picnics packed, and sunscreen slathered on extra thick for summer protection.

In New England people head north to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, south to the Cape, east to the beaches, and west to the Berkshires. It doesn’t matter which direction you head in, you will find summer fun wherever you go. Folks stuck in Boston hop on ferries to visit the Harbor Islands or head over to Castle Island.

Summer is garden season as well. Time to plant, tend, and harvest. At Treehouse our Community Garden is undergoing a transition And we are all delighted with the changes. Thanks to the support of some visionary funders, Treehouse community members of all ages have begun to dig, plant, sow, and water. Guided by our good friend and teacher, Hope Guardenier, our collective vision is becoming reality.

Newly built raised beds allow friends and neighbors in wheelchairs to actively participate in all Treehouse gardening activities. Last week a group of kids and adults filled the raised beds with compost and soil and built 2 gourd structures. They look like tipis without fabric. Each day something new and exciting takes place.

The Treehouse Community Garden is a real gift – a place of healing, learning, sharing, and gathering. You can feel its positive energy as you walk across the meadow toward the line of festive scarecrows. Mt. Tom rises in the background making an impressive backdrop. There are folks seated at the garden table chatting. There are community members of all ages participating in today’s garden activity: kids and adults sitting on the grass making garden flags, teens eating watermelon, Hope with her beautiful baby strapped to her chest raking the soil in one of the newly filled raised beds.

We can’t wait for our friends, Mary Beth and Gram, to come back from Florida and join our garden adventure. Mary Beth is known for taking what the garden provides and teaching us how to prepare it in new and exciting ways. Last summer our community kitchen was filled with kids and adults working side by side, preparing delicious samples for everyone to try. Mary Beth moved gracefully from kitchen to table offering us new possibilities – baked sweet potato fries, scrumptious salads, delicious soups.

Our Treehouse garden is a place of growth and possibilities. A space where we can all flourish over the summer and meet up in the fall for our annual Soup Off! Here’s to Memorial Day, summer, and the good people at Treehouse. May we enjoy this season and one another in the best ways possible!

African Drums

Last week we gathered under a big white tent to celebrate my daughter’s college graduation. Friends, family members, faculty, and a student body of smart young women were launched out into the world with the blessings of their own personal communities gathered from around the country. Similar celebrations of academic achievements and life passages were taking place all over the country.

The morning began with African drummers. Their powerful music filled the tent as the students and faculty began their way toward us. People of all ages began swaying in anticipation of the graduates’ arrival. When their caps and gowns became visible, a hush came over the crowd. When the diverse group of young women entered the tent, whoops of joy filled the air. The mood was festive and joyful.

One of my favorite memories was when the first young woman walked across the stage to receive her diploma. As the college president reached out to offer her congratulations, the graduate’s father rose from his seat and exclaimed, “Thank you Lord!” We all laughed, appreciating the sentiment. There was similar laughter when a group of proud brothers stood and proclaimed, “That’s MY sister!” This was a graduation ceremony full of joy, goodwill, family, friends, and lots of love – just the kind of celebration every young person deserves as she/he is heading out into the world.

Afterwards there was a luncheon on the lawn and the opportunity for family and friends to take photographs. As I look at the myriad of photos on my husband’s laptop, I am struck by the profound importance of being surrounded by a community of people who believe in you, support you, and want the best for you; people who stand up and cheer when you walk across the stage of life.

When they are infants, we hold our young babies in our arms and stand in awe of their potential, and all of the possibilities that life holds for them. If they are children of wealth, they are given every possible opportunity to experience, engage, and to savor a rich array of life experiences. If they are children of poverty it’s a different story.

Children of poverty who experience foster care need us to understand that the most important things we can do in this country is look at life in the public foster care system though their eyes. To pay attention, to listen, and then to be compelled to act.. They need us to invest in them. Wouldn’t it be amazing accomplishment if the responsible adults in each region of America figured out better ways to get communities of people to surround each child in their neighborhood so that when they walk across “their stage” we will be there cheering, clapping, and calling out, “That’s OUR child!”