It’s sugar time here. Or was for a weekend. And won’t be again for a while, if, as is threatened, another Polar Vortex comes rushing through.

It’s the thing about living where you live. In New York City or the Bay Area, if I talked about sugaring, it was all a metaphor. It didn’t happen there.

But here, where I live, weather conditions change and people I know go out into the woods and stick a spigot in their trees and hang a bucket on it. And then they boil. One woman boils in her house. My buddy in MN boils over an open fire. He wrote this morning saying it’ll be the Equinox before they have the first syrup over ice cream… It’s hard work that relaxes, makes memories and deepens the sweetness of the syrup.

Another guy I know is talking about becoming a beekeeper. Lots of people I know garden and then make amazing meals from their take. Since I still tend to eat ingredients rather than a meal, (although whew! can this girl chop veggies for a salad!)

When you live close to the land, the land is part of the local life… whether you work the land or admire it from afar.

Sugaring, bringing a little slow Peace and Sweetness into everyone’s life.