A series of essays....
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| PASSING THROUGH THE EVERGREEN CANOPY THAT GENTLY FRAMES AND SEPARATES THE FIELD FROM THE FENNVILLE CEMETERY |
....as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E Hughes
While I was speaking with my sister, not blood related, rather heart and soul infused, during our weekly walk together, I mentioned how my posts (essays) published each Thursday tend to sink back into the dark hallways of Washington D.C. and the acute negativity of the current administration. This subject matter used to be among my ‘go to’ topics when I was at a loss for other ideas. It is now, as for many of us, the foremost topic of conversation and concern. So, from various angles, I have broached this subject almost every week. I attribute some of this to my year of studies at Indiana University South Bend (IUSB) and the journalism classes I had taken while there.
After transferring to Michigan State University my sophomore year, my preferred style of writing slid into the prose category and was occasionally accompanied by a serious dollop of my love of photography which often served to compliment my stories.
Writing poetry was my original love and my first published piece happened while in high school when the local newspaper printed my poem about the ‘meaning of time’ I’d written for English class. It helped to clarify for me that I was headed in the right direction.
Having moved to Orlando, Florida in 1997 to follow my husband and his employment in the construction world, I wrote several pieces for the Orlando Sentinel that were published in the travel section. I continued to work on a fiction novel that began as my third child but was already morphing into adolescence, a teenager, if not young adulthood, by this time. Once again, I contemplate the subject of ‘time.’ It always has a way of pushing, pushing forward whether you want it to or not.
In September of 2013 I began writing my current Blog, Moving On...2020, which ceremoniously (with a few clicks on my iPad keys) changes to accommodate each passing year. I am now in my seventh year and Moving On...2020, originally a travel blog, currently pulls so much more from my inner sanctum and allows me to go on wild excursions between the dark depths of my being to posting a poem or two that lovingly hover around my heart and soul.
Following along my journey which includes my writing, travel, and photography, it was always in the stars that we would return to Michigan one day. In August of 2018, we did just that and settled in a pretty little house in Kalamazoo. Constant renovation seems to be the current theme of our lives at this point. It keeps us active and looking forward to what awaits us around each corner.
When I heard the story about John Van Voorhees and Joan Donaldson of Pleasant Hill Organic Blueberry Farm in Fennville, Michigan, and saw how so many people were making pilgrimages there recently, I had to follow my journalistic nose, camera in hand, and check this story out for myself.
Honoring their son, Mateo Donaldson, who had completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan, this loving, hardworking couple chose a four-acre field on their farm and filled it to the brim with dramatic blue cornflowers, rich shades of red and pink poppies, and dainty white daisies that tend to dance at the feet of their taller blooming counterparts.
Sadly, after Mateo returned home he suffered from PTSD and, eventually, took his own life...
Mateo and his brother had been the dedicated bee keepers on this quaint yet flourishing organic farm since their high school days, and to remember their son they decided to feed the pollinators by planting bee and butterfly friendly plants of red, white, and blue.
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| FENNVILLE CEMETERY WITH VIEW OF POPPY FIELD IN THE DISTANCE |
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| MATEO’S GRAVESITE |
Mateo is buried in the Fennville Cemetery and Is just two-hundred feet away from this stunning memorial field on the Pleasant Hill Blueberry Farm next door. I’m almost certain he sneaks a peak at the patriotic waves of flowering color that his parents lovingly share with us each season and smiles down on everyone who has found solace and comfort through their unselfish efforts.
Besides the natural beauty of this enormous project, I immediately experienced inner peace, extreme joy, and comforting hope upon entering through the evergreen canopy that gently frames and separates the field from the cemetery. The first glimpse was such a ‘mindfulness’ moment for me where nothing else existed but this sprawling carpet of love that seemed to stretch out to the horizon.
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| HELPING TO FEED THE POLLINATORS |
And then I began swaying with the brightly colored flowers as the breeze touched my face, my hair. Its soft, gentle notes created an ethereal rhythm and melody that complimented our dance that felt almost too perfect for this imperfect world we live in; so heavenly and spiritual compared to everything that is happening within our socially deprived pandemic routines.
That’s when the camera was unsheathed and everything impossible became possible in the eye of the lens. Snapping away, I was only inches from the bee drinking its cornflower fill, trying hard to find the perfect poppy to shoot in portrait mode when each poppy was born perfect, and drifting along the designated path sandwiched between the blue sky and heaven on earth!
I want to thank John and Joan for so many things! Thank you for providing organic farming to the public for over forty years; thank you for loving your son with all of your heart; thank you for sharing that love with those of us who feel so nurtured by it; thank you for helping to comfort other soldiers living with PTSD who are trying to find their own inner peace, and thank you for giving the bees and butterflies a home, even temporarily, to buzz and drink and flit through the air like earthbound fairies protecting their domain.
I am sharing with you, my readers, some of the many photos taken at the Pleasant Hill Blueberry Farm this week. I hope they provide you with as much joy by seeing them as I felt while taking them. Life can be such a beautiful adventure; a marvelous journey!
Stay safe and stay healthy. Please wear a mask while out in public.
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| NATURE’S OWN FIREWORKS! AN EXPLOSION OF RED, WHITE, & BLUE... HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY. |
Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
All Photos Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
