Radiance of the Ordinary: Essays on Life, Death, and the Sinews that Bind
By Tara Couture
Chelsea Green Publishing
A mentor of Tara Couture’s had an Alberta accent that caused him to say words in an odd way. One of those words was “beautiful,” which he would pronounce “beauty-full.” At first, this quirk made Tara chuckle, until she realized that his assessment was absolutely correct. Much of life, most of life, is simply beauty-full.
This is the crux of what Tara communicates in Radiance of the Ordinary. She puts into words the essence of the Weston A. Price Foundation’s heartbeat: food, farming and the healing arts. With unflinching candor, she sheds light on our complex relationships with spouses, children, death, animals, hard work and the land—what hurts, what heals and why most experiences do both.
It’s not often that you come across a book ostensibly about homesteading that makes you tear up, yet this book did so for me. Tara’s reflections on motherhood and how it changes over the years; her commitment to saving her marriage when it was on the brink of falling apart; her profound conviction of the need to embrace the realities of processing animals for life to continue; and the heartbreaking reality of her teen daughter’s death and her parents’ divorce all moved me deeply.
I felt as if I were with Tara through it all and rejoiced in the little reminders of what she calls the radiance of the ordinary—the fact that life has its mysterious purpose, that God is in control and that walking slowly alongside nature and those we love is enough to fulfill us in a way that the superficial vagaries of society and social media can never do.
If I’m making it all sound too good and too deep, this doesn’t do the book justice, because Tara refuses to romanticize homesteading life. Life on Slowdown Farmstead might sound idyllic. . . at first, but the reality is both romantic and hard.
Tara puts it this way: “There’s nothing wrong with romance—I quite like it myself— but to only show that side of things is dishonest, and it’s important to identify that dishonesty wherever it exists, especially in this time, in this world, where we are inundated with images of endless pleasures. Where our culture sells us on the idea that hard work is beneath us or out of reach. Where entertainment is our highest calling. That strife and disappointment are wrong, frustration something to run from, discomfort something to avoid at all costs. None of these things are true and they keep us locked in a perpetual chase with no fulfilling destination.”
Tara opens up her world in this book. She shows us what it takes to become a milkmaid with an ornery cow called Clementine. She watches and participates in the taking of a bison’s life and its processing, getting covered in its blood and guts. We walk with her as she feeds her family with what she produces and harvests on her farm. She shares her recipe for bone broth and for a contented life.
Again, this doesn’t mean that her life is easy. She describes vividly an episode with her newborn baby that was heart-wrenching but led her to stop vaccinating her children. She paints in detail the horror she went through when she learned of her daughter’s death and describes how she and her husband navigated the pain.
I see Tara as a unique blend of farmer, communicator, wordsmith and friend. Like Wendell Berry, Tara brings to life all that makes homesteading, parenting and choices made with conviction worthwhile. If you’d like to hear her articulate why food, farming and the healing arts matter, you might want to listen to her interview on the Wise Traditions podcast. This book and Tara’s heart, in my estimation, are absolutely beauty-full. Two thumbs up.
🖨️ Print post
Leave a Reply