In the microcosm of the Green Hope garden, it’s been a tough season. First we had too much rain. Plants grew too fast with spindly and weak stems. Then we had three months with virtually no rain. The plants were confused. The Lilacs lost their leaves, then bloomed this week. The humans felt the same level of head scratching climate confusion.

While rain was lacking, visitors to the garden were not. The abundant deer and groundhog population nightly dined on any produce that survived the drought and any Flower I had not sprayed with garlic spray. I planted things in strange inaccessible spots to try to outsmart the guests, but they found everything and dined like Top Chef guest judges.

To Reginald, our fearless groundhog leader’s delight, the fence that is supposed to keep the critters out is still a half baked reality. In any case, Reginald remains confident that no fence can keep him out no matter his girth.

Yet, in spite of all the deer and groundhog food fests, today I made an apple cake with apples from our trees . Somehow the deer missed a few. I also made soup with potatoes, onions and thyme that Reginald and his gang didn’t care to eat. What’s the old lyric? “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you’ll find you get what you need. ”

While the poem in this illustration speak to Reginald’s seasonal weight gain, the Rolling Stones song lyric considers the equilibrium of effort and grace. That old chestnut. We have to keep trying, and yes, we don’t get what we want, but the grace of it is that we get what we need. Which to me right now seems to be a combination of divine support to get ourselves physically across these light thresholds ( thank you Flower Essences), divine reassurance about the big picture situation and divine nudges to keep laughing.

There have been days when I have felt like blowing the whole groundhog colony to kingdom come. The depredations of Reginald and gang REALLY ANNOY ME. However, Reginald and his motley crew have also given me a way to not take myself so seriously. And that is priceless.

PS Please don’t tell Reginald I said this.