Redtree Times

Fleurs du Soleil– Now at the West End Gallery

Anthropocentric as [the gardener] may be, he recognizes that he is dependent for his health and survival on many other forms of life, so he is careful to take their interests into account in whatever he does. He is in fact a wilderness advocate of a certain kind. It is when he respects and nurtures the wilderness of his soil and his plants that his garden seems to flourish most. Wildness, he has found, resides not only out there, but right here: in his soil, in his plants, even in himself…
But wildness is more a quality than a place, and though humans can’t manufacture it, they can nourish and husband it…
The gardener cultivates wildness, but he does so carefully and respectfully, in full recognition of its mystery.

― Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education

We live a world, one that is often virtual rather than real, that is increasingly far removed from wildness and blinded to its revelations and mysteries. We don’t notice the wildness hidden in the grasses and trees around us. We pay little attention to the movement of the stars in the night sky or the sounds of a trickling stream or the creaking of the trees in the wind.

And that is a great loss for us. I don’t think we can know ourselves until we clearly see the wildness of the natural world around us.

We may not fully understand it and maybe that’s the point. Maybe being aware of that bit of mystery keeps our sense of wonder alive.

And isn’t it a sense of wonder that makes life worth living?