​Want to read this email on the web? Click here.​

ideas are not “out there” waiting to be discovered, but are tools—like forks and knives and microchips—that people devise to cope with the world in which they find themselves.

~Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club, A Story of Ideas in America

Dear Reader

When it’s Thursday afternoon, and I don’t have a throughline for my weekly missive, I know I’ve likely been looking in all the wrong places, missing the obvious storyline right before me. And so, keeping that in mind, I brew a cup of lemon balm tea to quiet my thoughts and begin to record my thoughts on the day. Gazing out at our back garden, I catch a glimpse of red fur and am treated to a view of the adolescent fox trotting along the garden fence. The hens, safe in their Ft Knox of a home, sing along with the Robin perched on the gate. Contentment washes over me, and the words flow with ease.

Moving from morning ritual to garden chores, I looked ahead with anticipation to meeting Katia from Keene’s Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurs. She, along with her colleagues, will be facilitating a community Idea Jam next month. A few weeks back, she reached out to me as a graduate of their Farm Business Lab to see if I might have an idea to share. An idea, I thought, are you kidding? It’s not a matter of one but rather which one I told her and invited her out for a tour and tea.

Arriving during my most glamorous moment of the day, plucking leaves with gooey larvae from my potato plants, we took some moments to get acquainted in our front gardens.

A curious beginning gardener, she peppered me with questions that fed my passion for sharing. It's not every day I get to share my love of Borage with another human. Deep into a discussion of companion plants for potatoes, a pickup truck whipped into our driveway. With motor running a young man hopped out. Half expecting a delivery or to offer directions, I made my way to the drive, Katia behind me.

Almost breathless, he shares, I’ve driven by your place every day this week, taking my boys to camp, and I just had to stop and say how crazy excited I am to see what you're doing. It’s amazing. I love to garden, but this is something else - I want to know how to do this! I introduce myself and learn he has a young family and is passionate about growing their food, but it's a lot of work, he tells me. That’s true, I say, but there are ways to make it easier. I offered to have him come next week and bring his sons along, as I am sure they would enjoy meeting the hens and exploring the Gemmo Forest. He accepted the invitation with delight and in a moment was gone. I turned to Katia, shrugging, and said, " This happens all the time. It is the gift of our location and to think I thought it was a drawback when we first arrived.

We continued our tour, the conversation weaving through personal histories, what brought each of us to Keene, and our shared curiosity about the future. It is the future that Katia and the Hannah Grimes administrative team are most interested in. Monitoring the pulse of the region, assessing needs, and shaping programs to best support them is their superpower. At a new juncture, they are inspired by the innovative ideas emerging locally, and the July event is intended to showcase a few and begin initial conversations to gauge what resonates.

My dilemma, I tell Katia after the tour is complete and we sit down to tea, is gauging what action this community is truly ready to take. At any given time, between the Gemmo Forest and our Well-Seeded Gardens, we are testing over a dozen ideas. There is the More Food Less Lawn campaign, our evolving apprenticeship program, various forms of polyculture plantings, and the cultivation of Gemmo plants and medicinal herbs, yet these can only expand if they intersect with others' readiness to try something new. Judging that readiness, where this gets tricky. Folks like this enthused young man are always stopping, and yes, it’s thrilling to experience their energy, but I don’t yet know where it goes from there. Ideas and offerings I have, but they are only valuable if timed well with our neighbors' and the community's motivation and capacity to make personal changes. And the folks who could benefit the most have the least capacity to do something different because in these difficult times, they are just trying to stay afloat.

So what did I tell lovely Katia in the end? I am 100% in to participate, but this simple invitation has set off a current that needs deeper contemplation. I’m going to allow this stewing of mine to continue with the support of the Universe and heed to my own teaching that force doesn’t bring lasting results. Let’s check back in next week to see where I am led.

Energies I will be noting in the week ahead:

Through Tuesday the 30th, I will be following that of Gate 52, the gate of Inaction, extending the invitation to be still and contemplate rather than act. The IChing Hexagram is Keeping Still and asks us to consider the question, what if there were nothing for us to do now?

Within that same time frame is the Full Moon in Capricorn on Monday, the 29th. Illuminating traditional structures, systems, and beliefs that are still in place and need reviewing. The timing is perfect, given the Sun Transit invitation for stillness.

And then on Tuesday, the 30th, Mercury turns retrograde in Cancer, drawing us further inward to examine our emotions and reactions. Focusing on a personal project is well-supported. I already have one in mind. How about you?

On Wednesday, 1 July, the Sun Transits through Gate 39, The Porvocateur, with the tension and drive to make change bumping up against obstacles. The corresponding IChing hexagram oracle indicates that moving forward will be blocked and asks us to consider how we might view the obstacles differently.

Until next week,

Follow the Sun June 19th-30th

​

Copyright @2025 Gemmos with Lauren Hubele
​You are receiving this email because you have shown interest in
​Lauren's work
​
​Our mailing address is:​
Gemmotherapy with Lauren Hubele
180 Hurricane Road
Keene, New Hampshire 03431

​GEMMO BOOKS | GEMMO STORE | GEMMO SCHOOL​

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.