A dear friend pointed out the ecological relevance of this passage from World as Lover, World as Self by Joanna Macy:
From the ecological perspective, all open systems-be they cells or organisms, cedars or swamps-are seen as self-organizing. They don’t require any external or superior agency to regulate them, any more than your liver or an apple tree needs direction on how to function. In other words, order, or dynamic self-organizing, is integral to life.
Katherine, thank you for an articulate flow of words, feelings, information.
My eco system is gardens and meadows around our house in Vermont, all with a view of impressive Mt Abe. Beyond that, trails maintained by my husband meander through scrub land, abandoned orchards, and a young forest that has overtaken old pastures. Then into a broad wetland of sedge grass and old beaver dams. At the edge of this the trail crosses a gurgling creek behind which rises a dark moss-carpeted, fairy-like forest. We are blessed - and we continually learn more about how everything works in unison in this magical spot. We have let lawn turn to meadow and increasingly garden with native varieties, encourage snakes to stay, feed birds by the porch. I am learning more - the names of things.
A Raven pair I watch and feel strongly bonded to have staked this as their territory and I marvel at frequent fly-overs, watch their fledglings, write poems about them, listen for their discordant sounds, feel excitement every time I see them. Connections form if you watch and listen and smell. A happy pill, for sure.
This and other connections with a community of eco sages, artists, writers, activists - another part of my eco system. Thank you all.
Carol! I miss your presence in Black Mountain but what a place you found!. Thank you for sharing these beautiful detailed descriptions with us. I hear Wendell Berry.
You know I will continue to nudge you to launch your endeavor. It's time. I can see your watercolors, your poems, your narrative on whatever platform you choose.!
I really appreciate what you, Phil, and Dagny contributed. You enrich this space. Many thanks.🌱
My favorite eco systems are my social communities. I feel so grateful that within any given community I belong to I have individual people leaving the immediate environment, going to find new ideas and nourishment elsewhere, and then bringing them back to their home-base to share and enrich what already exists.
I am in constant awe about what my friends and family are learning beyond me. I feel like I have such a gift to be able to tap deeply into the talents of the others around me and I strive to provide the same nourishment towards the communities and individuals I love deeply.
Lately my favorite vagus nerve stimulator is my mini-trampoline in my office. It's the perfect thing to help me shake out the chunks of writing I'm doing on my thesis to be able to dive back in.
My favorite ecosystem is by back yard. While in many ways it is heavily impacted by my touch, I have some practices that try to minimize that in some spaces. I practice "no mow May" in the sections that are lawn, a small percent of the space overall. In a smaller area surrounding 7 fruit trees I extend that into later months, mowing once in August to 6 inches. The wild flowers that emerge are a reward, and I look forward to how they are the same or different this year. In my 8 8ft x 4ft cedar sided raised beds I practice no-dig veggie gardening, the back yard equivalent of no-till farming. My compost piles are their own mini-ecosystem.
Activities that light me up are a late in life adventure into writing poetry. It teaches.
I will have to think about defining ecosystem. Edward Wilson and you do a better job than anything I can articulate yet. Or maybe I won't think about it and just listen again to your reading, which is like a guided meditation.
Phil, thank you for your thoughtful reply. I think you have defined ecosystems by sharing your backyard, your lived experience. "The wild flowers that emerge..." Yes, I need to do a better job of observing wind, rain, temperature plus insect and animal populations to track what comes up wild.
Poetry Unbound on Substack returns me to poetry in unexpected ways. So good to meet you there. Keep writing!🌱
Gosh Dagny, your comment is such a beautiful expression of living within and between ecosystems. Thank you very much for engaging with this community. I miss you, sister!!❤️
Thanks? And from your intro newsletter, what I got is this:
We are ecosystems (people, watersheds, trees, forests, ocean and air currents, stats and galaxies, future and ancestors) interpenetrating each other. Interpenetrating? I need a better word, a better feeling than that; something more.poetic, in motion. We are rivers fish eggs grass frogs herons sky - we are an estuary, breathing.
i have long been fascinated by estuaries. Have you read the "Burning Cascade Head" chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass? Kimmerer takes us through a gorgeous description of the place where land meet ocean, the abundant biodiversity, the changing room for salmon to ready their gills for the ocean...so much vitality in an estuary. Thanks for that phrasing.🌱
A dear friend pointed out the ecological relevance of this passage from World as Lover, World as Self by Joanna Macy:
From the ecological perspective, all open systems-be they cells or organisms, cedars or swamps-are seen as self-organizing. They don’t require any external or superior agency to regulate them, any more than your liver or an apple tree needs direction on how to function. In other words, order, or dynamic self-organizing, is integral to life.
Katherine, thank you for an articulate flow of words, feelings, information.
My eco system is gardens and meadows around our house in Vermont, all with a view of impressive Mt Abe. Beyond that, trails maintained by my husband meander through scrub land, abandoned orchards, and a young forest that has overtaken old pastures. Then into a broad wetland of sedge grass and old beaver dams. At the edge of this the trail crosses a gurgling creek behind which rises a dark moss-carpeted, fairy-like forest. We are blessed - and we continually learn more about how everything works in unison in this magical spot. We have let lawn turn to meadow and increasingly garden with native varieties, encourage snakes to stay, feed birds by the porch. I am learning more - the names of things.
A Raven pair I watch and feel strongly bonded to have staked this as their territory and I marvel at frequent fly-overs, watch their fledglings, write poems about them, listen for their discordant sounds, feel excitement every time I see them. Connections form if you watch and listen and smell. A happy pill, for sure.
This and other connections with a community of eco sages, artists, writers, activists - another part of my eco system. Thank you all.
Carol! I miss your presence in Black Mountain but what a place you found!. Thank you for sharing these beautiful detailed descriptions with us. I hear Wendell Berry.
You know I will continue to nudge you to launch your endeavor. It's time. I can see your watercolors, your poems, your narrative on whatever platform you choose.!
I really appreciate what you, Phil, and Dagny contributed. You enrich this space. Many thanks.🌱
Beautiful threads Katharine!
My favorite eco systems are my social communities. I feel so grateful that within any given community I belong to I have individual people leaving the immediate environment, going to find new ideas and nourishment elsewhere, and then bringing them back to their home-base to share and enrich what already exists.
I am in constant awe about what my friends and family are learning beyond me. I feel like I have such a gift to be able to tap deeply into the talents of the others around me and I strive to provide the same nourishment towards the communities and individuals I love deeply.
Lately my favorite vagus nerve stimulator is my mini-trampoline in my office. It's the perfect thing to help me shake out the chunks of writing I'm doing on my thesis to be able to dive back in.
<3
Somehow my reply landed under Phil’s comment.🤦🏽♀️
My favorite ecosystem is by back yard. While in many ways it is heavily impacted by my touch, I have some practices that try to minimize that in some spaces. I practice "no mow May" in the sections that are lawn, a small percent of the space overall. In a smaller area surrounding 7 fruit trees I extend that into later months, mowing once in August to 6 inches. The wild flowers that emerge are a reward, and I look forward to how they are the same or different this year. In my 8 8ft x 4ft cedar sided raised beds I practice no-dig veggie gardening, the back yard equivalent of no-till farming. My compost piles are their own mini-ecosystem.
Activities that light me up are a late in life adventure into writing poetry. It teaches.
I will have to think about defining ecosystem. Edward Wilson and you do a better job than anything I can articulate yet. Or maybe I won't think about it and just listen again to your reading, which is like a guided meditation.
Phil, thank you for your thoughtful reply. I think you have defined ecosystems by sharing your backyard, your lived experience. "The wild flowers that emerge..." Yes, I need to do a better job of observing wind, rain, temperature plus insect and animal populations to track what comes up wild.
Poetry Unbound on Substack returns me to poetry in unexpected ways. So good to meet you there. Keep writing!🌱
Gosh Dagny, your comment is such a beautiful expression of living within and between ecosystems. Thank you very much for engaging with this community. I miss you, sister!!❤️
Found it <3
Do you know where the E O Wilson quote is from?
Yes. It was in the forward to another book. I'm sure I can find it in the next day or so. 🌱
Thanks? And from your intro newsletter, what I got is this:
We are ecosystems (people, watersheds, trees, forests, ocean and air currents, stats and galaxies, future and ancestors) interpenetrating each other. Interpenetrating? I need a better word, a better feeling than that; something more.poetic, in motion. We are rivers fish eggs grass frogs herons sky - we are an estuary, breathing.
"...we are an estuary, breathing." I love that.
i have long been fascinated by estuaries. Have you read the "Burning Cascade Head" chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass? Kimmerer takes us through a gorgeous description of the place where land meet ocean, the abundant biodiversity, the changing room for salmon to ready their gills for the ocean...so much vitality in an estuary. Thanks for that phrasing.🌱
I will go back and read it! Thankyou again for this community.
Peter, I can not find the book with the Wilson quote, at least not yet. My apologies! I will do a better job with footnotes.🌱
I found the quote by Edward O. Wilson. It's from the Introduction in Enric Sala's book called The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild.🌱
Thank you. My morning walks connect me with mind, body, and soul creating an ecosystem of its own!
Thank you so much for this...
All thanks to you.
Matters of Kinship exists because you believed it could.❤️
Didn’t know there was an audio version. Favorite community econ dev ecosystem may be greenville sc. will find out next week