Wildflowers Saved My Life

The beauty of the borage taught me some about the web of life, startled me into an alertness about the nature that is around me and in me. The borage is us. Connected is how I feel when staring at the borage. There it is, in the soil, in the greenhouse, in the countryside, in our community. We are borage. This family (Boraginaceae) with its bristly hairs is kin to our community of people. We are all starflowers. We are all of us wildflowers.

This past summer, I helped Farmer Kim with the Eat Local Fresh Food CSA. At first I did not fully understand why Farmer Kim was so intent on adding flowers (zinnias, calendulas, borage) to the weekly share, which was of course already packed with (insanely good) organic vegetables and herbs. Then I saw how much joy those flowers brought the share members.

On Fridays the Eat Local Fresh Food CSA pick-up was at the Patagonia store on Newbury Street in Boston. Kim had the members pick out their own flowers. Typically a CSA members would pick up their bag of vegetables, and then carefully select the flowers, one by one. Sometimes, the shirt of a person passing by the CSA table would perfectly match a color of a flower. And, so, along with sharing the harvest, I surmise, our community shares the color of borage.

While CSA\'s aid in the regeneration of local food systems, perhaps, the wildflowers of these communities help to regenerate and sustain our systems of wonder.