Why The Mended Wood
A quick look at any social media post about our garden, chickens or home and you will most likely see the hashtag #themendedwoodfarm. It's even our school name--The Mended Wood Academy. Most people get a rather puzzled look on their faces when they hear the name, so I quickly explain that it's from a book and they are usually happy with that explanation, probably so I don't launch into some five minute narration of how the name came to be.
But if you're reading this, you get the backstory. Lucky you. ;) A few years ago I started reading The Green Ember series by S.D. Smith. I highly enjoyed the books, but ended up pausing so we could finish the adventure as a family, which we're doing now that we have finished Narnia.
In the books, Heather and Pickett, young rabbit siblings, are thrust from their idyllic life into one of loss, enemies and terror, joined together with other rabbits fighting for their lives. Their Great Wood has been overtaken by wolves, and one of their rallying cries is that "it will not be so in the Mended Wood." Each rabbit contributes in a different way. Some by fighting, yes. But others "...work, and play, keeping hedges straight and rooms clean. They make soup so good you could scream...Why?" Heather asks an elder rabbit, Mrs. Weaver, once they have taken refuge in a warren called Cloud Mountain.
"And I will tell you, " Mrs. Weaver said, "Some must bear arms and that is their calling. But this is a place dedicated to the reasons why some must fight. Here we anticipate the Mended Wood, the Great Wood healed...We sing about it. We paint it. We make crutches and soups and have gardens and weddings and babies. This is a place out of time. A window into the past and the future world. We are heralds, you see, my dear, saying what will surely come. And we prepare with all our might, to be ready when once again we are free."
As I was trying to come up with a creative name for our home/homestead/school/life I kept coming back to this imagery of the Mended Wood. That what we do now is but a taste of the promise that will someday be fulfilled. That Creation will be restored and the World healed.
It's been a hard summer, and on a day when we acutely felt the sting of death again, our first chick hatched. And every time I hear its sweet "peep" (now joined by five more) I am reminded of the hope of new life that we have, one day, when the Great Wood is healed and "everything sad has come untrue." (Sally Lloyd Jones/Tolkein)
But if you're reading this, you get the backstory. Lucky you. ;) A few years ago I started reading The Green Ember series by S.D. Smith. I highly enjoyed the books, but ended up pausing so we could finish the adventure as a family, which we're doing now that we have finished Narnia.
In the books, Heather and Pickett, young rabbit siblings, are thrust from their idyllic life into one of loss, enemies and terror, joined together with other rabbits fighting for their lives. Their Great Wood has been overtaken by wolves, and one of their rallying cries is that "it will not be so in the Mended Wood." Each rabbit contributes in a different way. Some by fighting, yes. But others "...work, and play, keeping hedges straight and rooms clean. They make soup so good you could scream...Why?" Heather asks an elder rabbit, Mrs. Weaver, once they have taken refuge in a warren called Cloud Mountain.
"And I will tell you, " Mrs. Weaver said, "Some must bear arms and that is their calling. But this is a place dedicated to the reasons why some must fight. Here we anticipate the Mended Wood, the Great Wood healed...We sing about it. We paint it. We make crutches and soups and have gardens and weddings and babies. This is a place out of time. A window into the past and the future world. We are heralds, you see, my dear, saying what will surely come. And we prepare with all our might, to be ready when once again we are free."
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| You knew I'd work chicks into this post |
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