This speaks of the time I also grew up in and all my days as a young boy living on a farm trouncing through the woods and along the banks of streams and farm lakes.
Taken from the beautiful book Planthropology by Ken Druse
"I was fortunate enough to grow up in a time when children still wandered outdoors; when turning over a rock to see what lived beneath it was not done with fear but out of curiosity. Hundreds of years ago, it was curiosity and quest for undiscovered riches that lead explorers to comb the Earth in search of new plants that might promise cures for diseases, an end to hunger, or unfathomable beauty---a pursuit modern plant hunters still undertake. I learned as a child, and know today, that the most remarkable discoveries can be made everywhere and every day---just beyond the gate that leads to the garden."
As I read this today it brought back to me many rich memories. I remembered the fallen rotted tree trunks that myself and friends over turned in order to catch the salamanders that lived underneath. I remembered all the times of jumping on our motorcycles (or bicycles) early in the morning and riding all day long through the woods and fields until nightfall and often sleeping in the tent that we sometimes kept up for days during spring, summer and fall and would return to it when we wanted to sleep under the stars..out in the wide open spaces...just being kids.
The memories and the fun and the discoveries are too many to mention here. It's an experience that I so cherish and that I wish my three daughter were able to repeat...but times have changed and such activities are difficult to recreate for those that live in more developed spaces. But this doesn't mean that the life of discovery is impossible. Not by a long shot. But I'm not talking about shopping.
My experience tells me that most people miss most of the things that are right in front of them. We have been shaped into frantic multitaskers by the machine we live in and have become so focused on just surviving we can't see the big picture anymore and we also miss the unique simple beauty that we are surrounded by...even in the busy concrete jungle of the city in their parks and public and private gardens. In the frantic scramble to survive we no longer live well.
19 years ago Julie and I bought our first home in the inner city of St. Louis. It was in Soulard that I returned to some of my roots by taking up the hobby of gardening. You can see an example of what our home looked like here and read about the neighborhood. The Historic Soulard Farmer's Market allowed me once again to enjoy the rich home grown produce I had grown up with. We lived there for 6 years before moving to the home we now live in out in the western suburbs of St. Louis.
My dad taught me to farm and work the soil and I learned to garden with my mom. I wish I had enjoyed all of that during that time as much as I enjoyed exploring the woods and streams that were plentiful and waiting to be explored, but hey...somethings never change. When we are made to do things they just don't feel as exciting as free exploration always feels. Necessity is something we are forced to learn as we grow up and move out on our own and it is this space people are forced into that often now stands in the way of the excitement we once felt when we are younger. But we don't have to let necessity rob us of the most precious things of life.
"There is a Wind… that wraps itself around the edges of necessity, tugging and pulling until those boundaries become torn and begin to move to the motion of that which is not visible." Paul Young
That quote speaks to me about the life of the Spirit and it speaks of the freeing effect it has on us as we learn to let it move in us. It is a Spirit thing but it has tremendous effect on our lives in this realm of necessity that we live. That's actually a big part of the plan. Maybe the biggest part of the plan. Eternal Life is about quality. Whether we are aware of it or not, the way we live does have much to do with our choices. I got sick of the frantic multitasking life and decided I didn't want to live that way anymore. Gardening played a part in that transition but it even took 18 years of gardening frantically before I was able to experience gardening as I experience it today. As the insane grown-up world began to lose it's grip on me I began to hear once again the voice of the child that had been screaming inside me all along for it's release. I'm thrilled to say...it has been finding release.
Taken from the beautiful book Planthropology by Ken Druse
"I was fortunate enough to grow up in a time when children still wandered outdoors; when turning over a rock to see what lived beneath it was not done with fear but out of curiosity. Hundreds of years ago, it was curiosity and quest for undiscovered riches that lead explorers to comb the Earth in search of new plants that might promise cures for diseases, an end to hunger, or unfathomable beauty---a pursuit modern plant hunters still undertake. I learned as a child, and know today, that the most remarkable discoveries can be made everywhere and every day---just beyond the gate that leads to the garden."
As I read this today it brought back to me many rich memories. I remembered the fallen rotted tree trunks that myself and friends over turned in order to catch the salamanders that lived underneath. I remembered all the times of jumping on our motorcycles (or bicycles) early in the morning and riding all day long through the woods and fields until nightfall and often sleeping in the tent that we sometimes kept up for days during spring, summer and fall and would return to it when we wanted to sleep under the stars..out in the wide open spaces...just being kids.
The memories and the fun and the discoveries are too many to mention here. It's an experience that I so cherish and that I wish my three daughter were able to repeat...but times have changed and such activities are difficult to recreate for those that live in more developed spaces. But this doesn't mean that the life of discovery is impossible. Not by a long shot. But I'm not talking about shopping.
My experience tells me that most people miss most of the things that are right in front of them. We have been shaped into frantic multitaskers by the machine we live in and have become so focused on just surviving we can't see the big picture anymore and we also miss the unique simple beauty that we are surrounded by...even in the busy concrete jungle of the city in their parks and public and private gardens. In the frantic scramble to survive we no longer live well.
19 years ago Julie and I bought our first home in the inner city of St. Louis. It was in Soulard that I returned to some of my roots by taking up the hobby of gardening. You can see an example of what our home looked like here and read about the neighborhood. The Historic Soulard Farmer's Market allowed me once again to enjoy the rich home grown produce I had grown up with. We lived there for 6 years before moving to the home we now live in out in the western suburbs of St. Louis.
My dad taught me to farm and work the soil and I learned to garden with my mom. I wish I had enjoyed all of that during that time as much as I enjoyed exploring the woods and streams that were plentiful and waiting to be explored, but hey...somethings never change. When we are made to do things they just don't feel as exciting as free exploration always feels. Necessity is something we are forced to learn as we grow up and move out on our own and it is this space people are forced into that often now stands in the way of the excitement we once felt when we are younger. But we don't have to let necessity rob us of the most precious things of life.
"There is a Wind… that wraps itself around the edges of necessity, tugging and pulling until those boundaries become torn and begin to move to the motion of that which is not visible." Paul Young
That quote speaks to me about the life of the Spirit and it speaks of the freeing effect it has on us as we learn to let it move in us. It is a Spirit thing but it has tremendous effect on our lives in this realm of necessity that we live. That's actually a big part of the plan. Maybe the biggest part of the plan. Eternal Life is about quality. Whether we are aware of it or not, the way we live does have much to do with our choices. I got sick of the frantic multitasking life and decided I didn't want to live that way anymore. Gardening played a part in that transition but it even took 18 years of gardening frantically before I was able to experience gardening as I experience it today. As the insane grown-up world began to lose it's grip on me I began to hear once again the voice of the child that had been screaming inside me all along for it's release. I'm thrilled to say...it has been finding release.
2 comments:
"... I began to hear once again the voice of the child that had been screaming inside me all along for it's release. I'm thrilled to say...it has been finding release"
Ahhh. Yeah. Now you're talkin' :)
I agree. We have no conception of how much it is in our power to have command over our lives. Isn't it weird how people can total control freaks in one way, the way that just kills anything around them, and yet in other ways can't see for the life of them how their crap thoughts are keeping them in some sort of crap prison? It's weird. It's like this psycho double-sided coin of crap :)
Haha :) Anyway, I love this post. Your house in Soulard looks like it was amazing!!!
Sue, there was much about living in that historic neighborhood that was wonderful. The culture was so diverse and I loved that part of it. The eating establishments/clubs/live music/gardens and so forth was all within walking distance. The crime became more than we wanted to deal with having young daughters to raise.
I'm glad you enjoyed this post. I enjoyed thinking back on some of these things today. I just love this book I am reading. Ken Druse does it to me with each new book he releases.
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