I’ve taken to carrying my camera outside when I go play with my daughters. It’s remarkable how many beautiful “weeds” grow in an urban environment. Our human quest for order carries over into our lawns and even into the parks we consider ‘wild’ areas. Grass routinely cut. Sidewalks, driveways, and curbs edged. The verge trimmed meticulously. All of this to the point of killing every plant and insect in the yard and planting an exclusive type of grass so it looks even more manicured. I can’t fault people for that, though I myself find it not only tedious to maintain, but it removes some of the beauty that naturally occurs. As for me, I try to curb the tick population as best I can, mow as infrequently as I can and look for the beauty that naturally springs up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in compliance with city ordinances and I don’t let the grass grow unchecked. We do live close to the swamp and this area is known for copperheads. I won’t expose my children, nor myself, to that risk. I won’t delve into the politics of manicured lawns and homesteading / gardening. Suffice it to say there’s plenty of pros and cons you can read about — ad nauseam — on Facebook, to include the usual colorful ad hominems.
This is about the beauty of the so-called weeds and other plants that grow in my yard and all around this area. These are the plants we routinely walk by without even noticing. Part of not seeing is driven by our busy lives, another part driven by the tiny size of the plants, and yet another is driven by our conditioning to overlook anything other than well manicured lawns and a meticulously trimmed verge. But it’s there in resplendent beauty waiting for us to discover it. That’s not entirely true, I’m sure the plants and weeds are ambivalent about us, so long as we aren’t breaking out the lawn mower, string trimmer, and edger. They’re more interested in the bees and other pollinating insects that help ensure their continued life through their offspring. They’re also more interested in something we seem to take for granted anymore — life.
The ‘Covid Kerfuffle’ has made us all slow down, and given us the time to stop and smell the roses. Unfortunately, the roses aren’t being smelled. Instead people seem caught in existential crisis and ennui. Ironically, smelling the roses, taking time to appreciate flowers, and even pausing to admire the flowering weeds are perfect remedies to existential crisis and ennui.
The pictures I’ve included in this post are a tease of the beauty that hides all around. Hopefully they’ll encourage you to take the time to go outside and enjoy the natural beauty hiding under your feet. Perhaps it will even help overcome ennui.
Perhaps we can take a pointer from the weeds — live life. It doesn’t matter that things are uncertain of late. It doesn’t matter that we have no real concept of when this crisis is going to end. What matters is that we enjoy the life we have, we enjoy the beauty that is around us, and we have hope for the future. I think JRR Tolkien summed up well in The Fellowship of the Ring:
“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’”
Perhaps we should spend some of that time like the Hobbits of the Shire enjoying “things that grow”.
Sauntering Photographer 