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The most important distinction anyone can ever make in their life is between who they are as an individual and their connection with others.

~Anné Linden

Dear Reader

I so enjoy the mama deer who has year after year raised her young in the Gemmo Forest. Well camouflaged, I often don’t spot her until she is in retreat and I catch a glimpse of her white tail over the shrubs. This year, however, the abundance in the forest didn’t quite meet her expectations, or maybe she was simply ready for new adventures. For whatever reason, she’s been pushing the limits, or shall I say my limits.

To begin, she’d simply cruise the back fence of the garden each evening, craning her graceful neck over the fence for just a nibble off a young sunflower plant or a rhubarb leaf. I could go along with this, although I wasn’t thrilled. Then one rainy night while I slumbered, she discovered the precise angle at which to leap the fence. Hoof prints in the soft soil were my first clue, and then I spotted the focus of her grazing. An entire 15-foot bed of runner beans, just beginning their climb up the trellis, was sheared to a precise 2 inches above ground. I couldn’t have snipped them more perfectly myself. Up went higher fence posts strung with rows of taut wire along the back edges of the garden perimeter. The beans shockingly recovered in record time, because that’s what beans are good at. It was just when I began feeling quite smug having solved my deer challenge when I spotted her cruising the aisles of my high tunnel like a happy Costco shopper. Oh deer, I cried, recognizing her name or my plea; she leaped through the rolled-up sides in seconds and fled to the forest. Righteous indignation bubbled up inside, and then I saw myself as I was, struggling with a deer over boundaries. Oh, dear, I said, referring to myself this time, it’s come to that.

Boundaries- what’s a shared resource, what’s mine, and what’s yours is certainly up in the collective. I just wish it hadn’t reached my garden. The lessons on this theme continued later in the week when I began pulling the first row of russet potatoes.

For some reason, this mama also took to liking a nighttime snack of potato plants. For three years, potatoes have graced the front yard without so much as a nibble, and here we are now, a row of plants chomped down to a few straggling nubs. Maybe this all began when I barred her from the back garden?

Knowing the potatoes would not mature without the aerial parts of the plants, I set myself up for a harvest. With the crate nearby, I began tugging at the end of the sad remains of stems. I was quickly rewarded with glorious russets. Tossing them one by one into the crate, I felt redeemed until the last one was missing its end, and possibly some of its middle. A vole; another breach. Once all the plants were pulled and the potatoes tallied, I did better than I expected and so did the voles. Was it a win-win-win between deer, the vole, and me? Maybe it was.

Of course this has me thinking more deeply about boundaries and how to create safe spaces without walling myself in. I pride myself on welcoming wildlife; I don’t mind sharing, but I do have my limits. We all do. I think these themes will come up in multiple ways over the next ten days via the lessons presented in the next sun transits and our big Aquarius full moon. We are emerging from an era not particularly known for sharing resources and moving into a time when we can stand in our individual power and also compassionately see ourselves and others as part of a wider community.

I have no doubt, my deer friend and I will work things out. On the other hand, I am hoping to encourage the voles elsewhere. As for me, I will head inside to prep those lovely potatoes for dinner.

Energies I will be noting in the week ahead:

24 July to 29 July

Gate 31, A time to ask yourself what it's time to cultivate within? Consider what it would mean to be what you want to receive.

29 July

Aquarius Full Moon. Leading us into a new scene, intensifying emotions and evolutionary energy. What do you want to create?

30 July to 4 Aug

Gate 33, A time to pause, retreat and consider your next move. Reflect, pray, grow.

Until next week,

Follow the Sun July 24-August 4

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