June 2012
The Glory Spot
Dear Friends,
I have spent this past month, intensively involved with gardens,
the ones I am caretaking for other people for my job with Helping
Nature Heal, as well as the ones I am making on the land around
my home.
I am practising welcoming all plant beings as part of this wondrous
creation we live in, as deserving of a place to be themselves.
I am also practising the idea that plants need to respect the
space of the other plants. Each plant has their own glory
spot.
There is a plant I am fond of called creeping charlie or ground ivy.
When I did not see it anywhere on the property of my new home when
I moved here several years ago, I gathered pieces of it from where
ever it was thriving and simply placed these pieces in different
places around the land here. In many of the places, it simply
withered and decomposed. In other places, it became a piece of the
plant picture, interweaving itself among the other ground covers,
adding a subtle presence.
However, this spring it came to my attention in a particular
spot. It had covered the slope of a raised bed beside the entrance to
a wasps nest, in a breathtaking beauty of thriving intense colour,
purple and deep green. It had claimed its glory spot.
Last year, the back of one of my sod piles erupted with an incredible
display of beautiful vibrant green, round leaves in a very regular,
organized pattern. I admired them, but did not know what they
were. The leaves simply stayed, all the growing season, as they had
appeared, making a beautiful backside to my pile.
This year, they came into bloom, making tall stalks with pointy
leaves and little white blossoms on top. The closest description I
could find in a plant identification book gave me the name,
ragwort. It had claimed its glory spot.
However, in conventional thinking about gardens and plants, ragwort
is considered to be a "nuisance" because it is not easy to remove
from places it has formed roots in, intertwining its roots with
those of the other plants. Ragwort continues to put out new leaves
among the other plants, inevitably overshadowing the other plants,
no matter how frequently the leaves get pulled out. They simply
snap off the root which sends out another leaf. Amazing
tenacity.
In fact, having identified the plant, I realized that I spend a fair
bit of time in some of the gardens I am caretaking, "weeding out"
the ragwort.
Gardens are very unique ecosystems, created with human effort of
human envisioned design. Without human engagement and caretaking,
they would very quickly revert to whatever the dominant species are
in the surrounding environments. Perhaps some of the introduced
species would adapt and integrate themselves among the natives, in
which case some people would call them "invasive".
My thought of this season for the plant worlds is: please allow each
other a glory spot, respect the biodiversity. Respect the wonderful
human introduced plant beings coming to enhance the environment,
allow for the gardens to thrive. Conversely, we, as human
caretakers need to make sure there are enough wild or neglected places,
fields and forests, and backs of indulgent gardeners' compost heaps
for each plant to have its glory spot without needing to inhibit
the growth of other plants. There is room enough for all beings on
this planet.
I am very conscious of the fact that energy follows thought. I work
very carefully with my thoughts as I am gardening, considering that
the plant worlds are aware of and responding to my thoughts. When
I remove a plant from a place I do not want it to be growing, I
admire it for what it is and try to envision where it has its place,
its glory spot.
This is still a new practice for me, so I am wary of drawing any
quick conclusions about the results of my efforts. However, this
does not stop me from imagining that the longer I work with a garden,
the more responsive and better behaved it becomes.
May you enjoy the beauty of the season!
Blessings,
Rita
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