What’s Right In Front Of You
Through slowly progressing amongst my garden projects, I realize how it can be incredibly off-putting for people to want to build habitat for other life in their own yards. We all have busy lives with rigid work schedules, likely with children to raise, families to care for, friendships to maintain, hobbies to practice, self-care routines, and so on. All of these take up our most valuable resource: Time. And this is something I've always struggled with managing. So, I get it!!!
That being said, the way we've degraded so much of our planet's surface, out of convenience and advancing and developing, and simply 'not wanting to deal,' we've created an unfortunate but absolute mess of our lives. And we keep denying this fact in order to perpetuate this illusion of a healthier, safer world...when it is more obvious than ever that we've actually built the opposite!
What I want to create here is a community of individuals who are willing to put in the hard/extra/better work, for the sake of making their futures brighter, more vital and vibrant, more joyful, and regenerative, for a stable foundation for future years and generations... and not resenting the effort!!
I like to laugh about the truth of our circumstance, which helps to not feel hindrance toward the exertion! We can have it both ways: acknowledging the challenges we face and making light of them, AND taking the 'dirty' actions required to turn around our potential for vitality!
When did we lose our inherent urge to get our hands dirty? How'd that get propagated out of us!!?? As far as my theories are concerned, it's been a long-term psyop to control us rather than allowing us to be free creatures of this planet. I believe that there have always been forces at play wanting dominion over other life, and I am simply not in favor of that mentality reigning over this planet any longer.
Life is about creating more, not consumption. This is why I am staunchly committed to assisting more life in simply being, all around me, right where I am, with what I have in front of me (or what I can easily access). Here and now.
I think our modern world is so confused about what really matters, and we resort to killing without questioning the purpose for it or implications of it. This goes for war with other humans, as well as wars we declare with the pests in our yard, be it plants or bugs. I wish for these wars to all end. We are smart and capable enough to figure it out without the use of toxic forces, but rather intimacy.
For example: pull weeds out with your own hands, so you can acknowledge what you're doing. And if we need to fight other countries, let's go back to swords and fists, so that we can fully face the ramifications of our actions.
We've advanced to a species that approaches everything from top-down measures, rather than a well-rounded understanding, and accepting the full scope. The thought, “Just wipe it out!” has led to so much damage, and that is what is still being promoted by corporations and government!! When will we learn that we've been wrong, so that we can course-correct!?
Of course it's not “easy”, but I don't understand how we're so swayed by ease and comfort and convenience. WE ARE CREATURES OF THE EARTH!!! it's never been easy for anyone here, so why should it be for us now?
And IT'S NOT WORKING. Society is crumbling, currency is worthless, illness is exorbitant, 'pests' have not been eradicated, and we are not more peaceful. When are we going to take a stand and repair the damage that's been instilled?
There is no better time than now. Right where we're at.
Ideas to begin the ceasefire against your lawn creatures, that don't cost anything:
1) Stop spraying them with manufactured chemicals. Poisons have a ripple effect on the environment. They harm or kill things beyond your target, and all the way up the food chain. The soil food web is the beginning of life for all of us to be able to keep existing, so we need to stop poisoning ourselves.
2) Allow your lawn to grow longer before trimming it, and then cut it at a higher length when you do. Longer grass allows the roots to gain more depth, which helps to infiltrate more water for better storage capacity, and provides more shade on itself and the soil beneath it.
3) Allow other species to grow in your yard. Whether it's clovers and plantains amongst your grass, or goldenrod, milkweed and catmint in your beds, there is so much biodiversity available, if we just let it! I've documented well over 75 species that have just happened upon my ¼ acre plot in just the last couple years since I started paying closer attention. You could even pull most of your weeds, and still choose to leave some behind. They all produce some kind of flower, eventually!
4) Stand barefoot in your yard, or sit directly on the ground, at least a few times per week. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds, and when you open them again, try to absorb just how many other life forms there are just around you... from the roly-polies to the blades of grass, to the bees and butterflies snacking on flower nectar, to the birds and the trees...and everything in between!
These are just a few simple suggestions to get you to know your land a little better. Once we can acknowledge that life other than us exists, and we witness it in its own natural state, then we can appreciate and respect it, and therefore do our part to assist and protect its cohabitation along with us!
There are complexities, for sure, once you start to get into whether or not things are native, or invasive, etc... and still, it all takes work – labor – to manage and maintain these environments. But it's where we live. It's the source of the air we breathe, and contributes to our water cycles, other systemic functions, and the pollution we emit.
If you can't see the importance of the life right in front of you, especially if you happen to own your piece of land, then I am of no help to you. But if you want a more vital life, I truly believe that the effort required will be worth it down the line, and the results will be produced sooner than you might think! It just starts with getting grounded and forming (or enhancing) a relationship with Mother Earth, right in your own backyard. Even if it's just a few minutes a week!