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In the beginning

I've sometimes wondered how certain plants started growing in our yard. I'm guessing seed dispersal: the wind floats some through the air, sticky burrs caught on a racoon's fur drop as they pass through at night, a nuthatch drops some seeds from its tail-end while searching for bugs on the side of a tree.

The methods of delivery are varied, but the process of growth continues with time and the right conditions - rain, sun, soil -  and the wind, the racoon, the nuthatch are forgotten like the seed itself.

We see goldenrod, sumach, dogwood, and it appears as though nothing preceded this moment, this forest stands inexplicably before our eyes.

This is the way too with social or environmental change. Generations of germination and growth. The fruits may come after the planter has long disappeared. Like a monarch butterfly migrating - it's the generation that begins the journey that makes it possible for the next generation to arrive.

I feel a little of this with the west campus parking lots: I'll explore this idea further in another blog post next week. For now here's a poster of an upcoming event on January 13, 2020:


I hope to attend and hear what folks are thinking. See how the forest is growing.

- Randy

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Unknown said…
I think it was Newton who once said "We stand on the shoulders of giants". Designing Paradise would not be possible without those first visionary believers who swam upstream for many years to ignite this initiative.
Judy Major-Girardin
January 9, 2020 at 10:10 PM
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