I am thinking this morning of the people who will read this, perhaps sitting in some city office, perhaps looking out at a small backyard garden they tend after long days of what we call work but which too often separates us from the work that matters most: the patient tending of the earth and the communities that depend upon it.
Your weekend plans have fallen through, you say. Summer's gatherings are ending, and perhaps you have waited too long. But I would suggest that the timing may be exactly right, for the best lessons often come to us when we have given up our careful planning and allowed ourselves to be surprised by what the land and its people have to offer.
There is still time to join what promises to be Wisconsin's finest Permaculture Convergence in memory. It is affordable in the way that good things ought to be affordable—not cheapened, but accessible to those who would do the work. Holiday Acres offers both the comfort of a roof and the honesty of sleeping on the ground, as you choose.
You may arrive on Friday when you can, and begin immediately the work of seeing and understanding. Sam Thayer will speak Saturday morning—a man who knows something about living from the land's abundance rather than its impoverishment. The workshops continue through Sunday afternoon, giving both days their proper weight.
This gathering asks nothing of you but your presence and your willingness to learn. In return, it offers what we most need: practical knowledge joined to a love of place, and the company of others who understand that caring for the earth and caring for each other are not two kinds of work, but one.
The invitation stands. The work waits. Come if you can.