A Space by Itself

Molasses Making has its own energy. The Whole Process seems to occupy a space by itself. The Rest of the World mostly just drops away.

Once the Decision is made to make Molasses and that is in process, we move, sometimes together and other times separately. But always, it seems like the whole process is moving like a beautiful and finely tuned Clock. Who would have thought it would be so that 1st year when we made Molasses sometimes a little awkwardly in 2004? This is our 6th Year.

We all have very busy lives with our own Complications, Triumphs and Challenges. Most garden so we are in the Middle of Harvest's High Season. Molasses Making brings us together against a background mosaic of the complexity of our Lives. Mostly, the latter just fades away. We just step outside into the protected Clockwork of Molasses Making.

I am struck by how, in our supposedly advanced Society, we are hung up on Personal Gain. We act as if that last crumb on the plate is ours for the taking; we should take it fast because someone else will get it if we don't. In that altered Ego-Centered Space, People work separately, sometimes against an illusion of community. In those spaces, People are highly competitive. "If you win, I lose." Regardless, we reap from this system what we sow: distrust, alienation, hurt, disconnection. Through it all, we yearn for something more.

When our Family made a commitment to bring back this Tradition, we had no idea how it would re-weave our lives and the lives of others drawn to this practice of reclaiming. Yes, we are making Molasses and it is a physical product. But rather we have personally and as a Family/Community made a commitment toward something that is really important. Those artificial constructions of that outer world just melt away.

I think the Ancestors would be proud. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Boys' Mother's Birth (10/18/2009). I think Ethel May Kirkpatrick Crawford would shed some tears in knowing that we reclaimed something that was important to her. We chose not to let it drop. I think the Tears would pour as she recognized what this has become. Once the Tears slowed, she'd probably kindly offer some suggestions. But mostly, she would smile. And she would gather all of us into one of her beautiful expansive soft Hugs.