A new name - A new day

How Hal's Substack became Harrowings

When I was very young - before being school aged, I remember traveling to visit my grandparents on the Snell farm in Cresswell, North Carolina which is still in the family today. My great-great-great-great grandfather, Abijah Snell, had been there in the 1790s and my mother grew up by the side of the Moccasin Canal. One of the farm implements my grandfather used was called a harrow - and until the 1950’s when he acquired a John Deere tractor, it was pulled by mules. It scratched up the soil getting it ready for plowing and planting.

This Substack is the equivalent of a harrow for my inner Self as it is carried about in the animal that I inhabit. In writing, I’ll be scratching up the surface and preparing myself for whatever will be planted by the community that grows up around me.

Artificial Intelligence Illustration of the concept behind Harrowings

I hope that all who read this post will consider becoming paid subscribers as we embark on an exploratory adventure together. We never know what good we might do by becoming open and vulnerable to each other as we share this journey from “I” to “otherwise” - a term taken from one of my favorite poets, Theodore Roethke.

Theodore Roethke