Book a Child & Youth Workshop

At this time of year, we get a lot of signals from nature to slow down. Days are shorter, temperatures are cooler, and plant growth has slowed. I put my garden plot to “bed” by adding leaf mulch. We’re lucky to live someplace where you can do winter gardening (and Kayla directed me towards some gorgeous parsley, broccoli, and cauliflower at our August Plant Sale that I popped into my plot), but I’m also feeling grateful to have one less thing to do over the next few months.

I had a great time gardening this spring and summer, but I also didn’t quite give my garden the attention it deserved. I added the gardening without taking something away, and as the summer got busy with activities, maintaining my plot became another item on my to-do list. I wanted to be productive, and I wanted the space to be successful. But I didn’t carve out the time necessary to be present and to get to know what my small patch of green needed from me to thrive. I grew a surprising number of tomatoes and made numerous batches of pesto, but I can only thank the plants for thriving under my benign neglect. As often is the case, I could have done more by doing less.

I’m trying to hold on to that lesson – do more by doing less – even though I’m getting a lot of signals to pick things up. There’s Halloween candy to eat, Black Friday goods to purchase, and holiday shopping to do. ‘Tis the season of over consumption! What can you and I do in this moment to reconnect to the signals from nature?

Rest

I invite you to slow down! Daydream. Take a nap. Heck, make it possible for someone else to take a nap. Tricia Hersey, the brilliant mind behind the Nap Ministry, has shared that rest has an ecological component: when we rest, the Earth rests. How lovely is that!? So: cozy up, folks.

Donate

Consider donating to the causes you love. We’re so grateful to have been chosen by the volunteers of the Seedy Saturday organizing committee to be the backbone organization of the 2025 event. In parallel to the leaf mulch on my garden plot that’s recharging nutrients for a productive growing season next year, the volunteers are putting in time and energy over the winter to make the spring 2025 event a success.

The folks on the committee are giving their time to organize this event, and I invite the rest of us to do what we can to make the event happen. The committee would appreciate donations as small as $5, which will go to ensuring that this community event can happen in February 2025! Make a tax-deductible charitable donation to Seedy Saturday through our fundraising page.

Low-Impact Gifting

If you are a gift giver, think about items that are low impact e.g. locally sourced, secondhand, fair trade, etc. If you can, give the gift of time.  In a world where there’s so much STUFF, think about giving someone an experience or quality time spent together. If you’re like one of my brilliant colleagues who spends this quiet season knitting, carving, weaving, and shaping clay, think about taking on a craft. As part of our site shift (which you may have seen or even heard), we said goodbye to a gorgeous eucalyptus tree. We were able to chip a lot of the eucalyptus tree, and we’ve spread those chips around the site where they will continue their life as they decompose and build soil. We’re also selling larger milled pieces as a fundraiser for our Child and Youth Education Program. Consider buying some mementos of this tree for your next carpentry project.

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Let me know what you think! Do you have other ideas for how to reconnect to nature at this time of the year? I’d love to hear them.

Love,
Claire