Dear Humble Human

Grow wild. Why? There is victory in the willingness to grow wild. Throughout history, societies have had a nasty habit of cutting away the wild within; cutting away the wild to have power over the majority.  I don’t know why we have the need to break what was once wild; perhaps to make life more convenient? All of us, myself included, have created a world of convenience. I believe convenience. controls. 

The point is without the wild, we experience pain far greater than a life without conveniences. Either way I want to be more like the butterfly, the sparrow, and the alligator. Fierce and free.

Joyous signs of spring. Butterflies twirl around long tendrils of tall grasses, to mate with one another. Sparrows land on weed seeds at the top of the stalk. What a thrill to witness!

But by summer most lawns have been cut down to the bare bones of dirt. Nothing left but dust.  Patches of brown dirt bake in the summer heat like concrete. When we cut so low, we cut our own wild nature.

Perhaps we can find victory in the willingness to grow wild.

I am reminded of the clip from The Princess Bride. To the Pain! Because I have observed, only when we feel cut down do we cut down others, to include grass, animals, and nature. So, the phrase cut To the Pain becomes relevant because we are quite literally cutting to the pain of losing our nature wildness.

When that happens, we no longer recognize our worth, or value. We lose motivation and purpose in life.

I think about how a long time ago, the earth had a vast amount of vegetation. Humans and animals coexisted and each made their own habitats out of trees, bones, caves, brush, tall prairie grasses.  Grasses as tall as a stallion stood. Under the hooves of those horses lay a thick fudgy brown soil full of nutrients that lasted for hundreds of years until the buffalo were culled by force. A harmonious coexistence shattered. 

What if we allowed the wild grass to remain wild? What if we let it grow tall and long? Let’s say a whole four inches to a foot high!

Consider. How would tall grass change our landscapes?  What about the ecosystem? We know what happens when we cut to the dirt. Plums of dust bowls! How would it help our climate? How would it change for the better?

The solution is under our feet in the willingness to grow wild.  How do we get the ground to grow back so we have soft earth to walk upon?

Did you notice that when the grasses die-off they leave behind organic matter to decay into the soil Then new blades form out of the decay and regenerate topsoil. The minerals and nutrients plants need in order to protect themselves from disease and pests are mostly made available through the organisms in the soil and other chemical exudates too.

Hooray, another chemical mystery solved by biology; plants don’t eat soil, they feed it. In the spring we won’t need to buy soil in a bag, because we learned how to grow soil in our yard.

A few other things we can do to help regenerate the soil so butterflies, bees, and sparrows thrive. In yards where tall grasses remained and left over food scraps were buried in the soil we find rich vegetation and a return of nature. Wouldn’t you like to save extra money at the garden store each spring?

This is how we create a harmonious coexistence with nature regenerated and revered.

Thank you for reading musings from this master composter and author. If the topic interests you, please share on your social media. Have a look at the Compost Coach Patreon Page to learn more, or feel inspired to act.

Spread conversations like the weeds spread their seeds. Be willing to be surprised. 

Planet people prosper!