One October evening I wandered through the garden, doing some late season harvesting. As I shifted the leaves on my bean plants, I noticed this little cluster of mushrooms growing next to the edge of the bed. I believe these are yellow stainers which are not edible but can be quite cute in their early stages. I took a few pictures and later did a drawing of them in my journal.
It looked as if they were all clustered together having a meeting, something I have a lot of experience with from my corporate career days. We had so many meetings that an “Effective Meetings” class was required training for all employees. I reminisced a bit and thought about how meetings could run the full spectrum from boring to stressful to inspiring and energizing to laughing until your sides hurt. For all its messiness, spending time with co-workers, friends, and family has always given me life’s greatest moments.
Anyway, I drew the mushrooms looking pretty much as they did in my photo, and next to this I did a second version, imagining what the meeting version might look like. Here is a little story to go with it:
Nestled in the corner of the vegetable bed, hiding beneath the beans, the mushroom family was having a meeting. Smoke from the neighbor’s chimney wafted through the garden making it difficult to see the sky. Mushroom #1 droned on in her know-it-all tone. Mushroom #2 next to her had a pained expression on her face. Mushroom #3 thought “she is so full of beans” (which was appropriate given their location). Mushroom #4’s attention was elsewhere, her brood of laughing, screeching children running chaotically around her. Mushroom #5 did his best to ignore them all and listen attentively. He was the only one in the family that hung on Mushroom # 1’s every word. Mushroom #6 looked up and gasped as a hummingbird appeared to be flying straight toward him. The bird veered off at the last minute and hovered above mushroom number #1 drinking nectar from the bean flowers. When it had finished, it hovered for a moment longer and looked down at mushroom # 1 as if listening. Its little body gave the smallest of movements, leaving a splat on mushroom #1’s forehead. Or perhaps this was just wishful thinking on the part of Mushroom #2.