I sometimes call it the Season Of Rage, technology and popular media seems sometimes to have disconnected us from one another, we seem to say less and less to each other, in louder and angrier voices. Those of us who seek a better way than appears before us are compelled to seek community on our own, and to become our own leaders. Since the people who pledged to guide and inspire us have broken their contract with us, we must find our own path to peace of mind, fulfillment and inspiration.

So many of us are heartsick at the anger and cruelty that have infected our political and media and culture and spread like a new and dread virus, there seems as yet to be no antidote

I chose  not to be angry, and I will not join the howling mobs that seem to be gathering in a darkening storm. I am not dire about the fire or pessimistic about the present, I believe the best of us will emerge. I imagine I will have to work at it.

Today, in the spirit of connection and humanity, in a misty rain, Maria and I are dedicated our Three Sisters Garden, planting squash, corn and beans. This is enough for us to survive on, as so many people have learned, and the three seeds have come to be known as the Three Sisters, they have been planted in community gardens together for thousands of years.

There are many stories of how these gardens came to be, but they all share an understanding of these seeds as women and sisters, come together to guide us and save us from hunger and spiritual deprivation.

“The Three Sisters offer us a new metaphor for an emerging relationship between indigenous knowledge and Western science, both of which are rooted in the earth,” writes Robin Wall Kimmerer in her beautiful book, “Braiding Sweetgrass.” Her book inspired our new garden, planted behind the farmhouse by the side of the pasture fence.

Alone, she writes, a bean is just a vine, squash an oversize leaf. Only when standing together with corn does a whole emerge which transcends the individual, Kimmerer writes. “The gifts of each are more fully expressed when they are nurtured together than alone. In ripe ears and swelling fruit, they counsel us that all gifts are multiplied in relationship. This is how the world keeps going.”

The inspiration and the lessons for us are clear enough. We can stand together or wither in spirit by ourselves. Anger is a poison, it solves nothing and heals no one. Our gifts are more fully expressed when they are nurtured together than alone. This is how the world keeps going, if it is to keep going.

We are planting our new garden in that spirit, we will fence it in from the chickens, water it every day, read and contemplate over it, it is a powerful little garden, I think. In the Season Of Rage, we all have our own choices to make, our own decisions about what we wish for one another, for our children and lovers, for the future of the earth. The garden will remind Maria and me of who we are and who we wish to be.