The Greening

The sky opened and the rain poured out in buckets. It rained and rained. Later the clouds parted and the light of the afternoon sun shone down on friends and family, on the house, on the good green earth, on the straights and gays (Because the good green earth and the golden sunshine don't deem one man or one woman more worthy of the priviledge of their water or warmth than another man or woman based upon such things). The music began and the people gathered in the field around the Maypole, the straight solid poplar pole which was firmly planted in the fertile ground of the garden. Holding their ribbons and poised for the ancient dance round, they gasped in amazement at the emergence of the blue man from the woods, their recognition of him strangely cellular, visceral. He is a man of the ages. He has moved through our human dreams since we started dreaming, snorting and pawing the ground in his power, staking his claim in our psyches, just as the Green stakes its claim in the forest come Spring. He is attended by his daughter, a modern day artemis, blue rings adorning her wise young eyes and nimble fingertips. Together they encircle the dancers, the ribbons, the pole, the rite, simulataneously containing and freeing the dancers with their potent presence. The full moon rose from the mountain as the night fire was lit, fireflies twinkling in tandem with the silent breathing of the forest in the cove. Men drank and ate, marked each other's bodies with paint, sang and rhymed, guarded the fire. Women drank and ate, laughed in communion with each other and with the moon, recited poetry, guarded the young ones, some with strong hands and guiding words, some with the havens of their wombs. Hours of the night typcially safeguarded for dreaming were greeted with bold awakeness, the tedium of daily routine shed briefly for the marking of another winter survived, for the celebration of the Greening.

The dance has been danced. The ribbons have been woven, as have the lives and stories of friends and families. The ancient ancestors have been honored. The man from the woods has been seen and respected. This farm has been consecrated.