[A beautiful day this fall during a lab of my turf management class.]
On Sunday mornings I’m blessed with a number of favorite blog posts from favorite writers dropping into my inbox. It’s a good way to spend a bit on time on a snowy morning. Yes, it snowed a couple inches overnight! Pádraig Ó Tuama in his Poetry Unbound blog wrote about his fascination with the Long-Tailed Tit with their beautiful soft nests made from a variety of common items both natural and man-made and the birds’ collaborative ways of raising their young. Apparently, uncles of the newly laid eggs and young, that don’t have nests of their own, also help in the rearing. I posted a comment to the blog where Pádraig asked readers response “to what other-than-human living beings do you turn to, in admiration for their governance?” I wrote about the example of axillary buds on the grasses I study after being cut or mowed being stimulated by light. They fill in the areas around the parent plant, making new plants, taking advantage of the newly available light.
In addition to making a thick dense turf or ground cover for us to play on, what does that way the plants respond say to me? Grow in response to light. When cut down, or defeated in some way, to regrow maybe in new ways, responding to the newly available light.
Light is such a rich word because it can mean the dazzling sunlight around us. It can mean a candle flame creating a soft and cozy setting. It can mean new ideas, new realizations, new opportunity, new inspiration. It can also be space to move. What I do with that light is up to me.
However I find myself after this sure to be eventful election week, I’m fascinated this morning by what light I respond to and in what ways.[