Yesterday I learned how to spot garlic mustard to help remove it from an area during a land conservation day. It took a while to be able to recognize it amongst a lot of little green plants. I had an amazing feeling of satisfaction and happiness after a few hours and imagined what it must have been like to grow up finding plants a long time ago. At another point I felt like I was weeding the forest. It felt wonderful to give back to this small forest in the company of friends. Have you ever learned something about yourself or the earth while volunteering that surprised you?
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The dandelion flower opens to greet the morning and closes in the evening. Every part of the dandelion is useful: root, leaves, flower. It can be used for food, medicine, and dye for coloring. Up until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their yards to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds” like chickweed, malva, and chamomile.
April 23, 2009 at 12:08 am
I love this Tamara. What a cool thing you’re doing. I loved working with everyone else who was volunteering yesterday in the gardens, the delightful combination of play, work, sharing, bonding, joking, learning. It amazed me to see how much a band of 30 people could accomplish in a few hours. I had a great time with everyone and even made a new friend.
April 23, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Weeding is something that was a chore growing up. My mom had weeding on our caper chart. I enjoy weeding now as an adult and realize that it slows me down. I have a neighbor who weeds her lawn. At first I thought whoa that must be an endless job. So i asked her one day about it. She said that she loves to pass the time this way. She finds it a relaxing way to be outside with the breeze and the grass…doing something peaceful and by herself. One day she was met by an iguana eating hibiscus flowers and now we know what the iguanas enjoy eating.
April 23, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Today we had about fifteen high school student volunteering at one of our parks; the ranger told them to use the “rods and cones” in their eyes to discern the subtle differences in the shapes and colors of the mass of green plants–to learn to differentiate between the native plants and the non-natives we were removing. He explained that this kind of seeing is completely different experience than sitting in front of a computer screen…and it is!
April 26, 2009 at 9:07 am
In our busy lives we tend to lose connection with nature as is the case with me these past years since I am unable to retire at this point. It is when I retire that nature and I will once again having a meeting of our essences!! IN the meantime one opportunity that I do have available to me in a voluntary capacity is our annual clean-up weekend at our Unitarian fellowship which in fact happens to be this weekend. So yesterday I was out in the woods behind our fellowship cleaning up the debris and weeding the poetry path. Yes we have a poetry path in the woods on which one can casually progress and at certain trees stop and explore the poetic experessions that have been posted for our perusal and pondering. The poems are changed once a quarter to entice you to visit repeatedly. What I learn about myself is that the caring and pondering activity associated with this wooded area feeds the mutual and beneficial connection that I need and find so healing!!