Writings
Getting Started - Writing About Plants
Plants have called out to me all my life.
My early memories include playing with flowers and winding them into garlands to put in my hair. A few years later, I’d take kids around the local gardens and point out the plants to them, an activity my present friends know well.
When I started becoming more aware of my emotional distress in my teens, I found plants spoke to my inner being and soothed some of the pain in there.
I started exploring what plants can be used for, like the many wild foods growing in the fields and roadsides near my house, and the wonderful colors that plants give to natural fibers.
That was it for me, the plants had a firm hold on me, and though at times I paid less attention to them than at others, they were part of the fabric of who I was and am.
A few years ago I was taking my last college class before getting my Master’s degree.
My teacher, a wonderful man who knows how to truly encourage writing, suggested that I write about something other than my experiences of abuse.
Since he’d read what I wrote about my abuse and acknowledged what I had to say I felt encouraged to widen the scope of my writing. I didn’t know what to write about but decided to write about plants, since I was starting to think about what seeds to plant in a couple more months.
With this opening, plants pushed into my consciousness and by the end of the semester it was exceedingly clear to me that plants are some of my dearest friends.
Now I live with plant books stacked by my bed, I’ve turned half the lawns of our house into gardens, and I can’t seem to stop telling people about what plants do.
Fortunately, some people want to hear what I have to say and come to the classes that I teach on what you can do with plants.
I spend happy time in my gardens admiring and communing with my plants, and when I walk anywhere, there are always plant friends to greet.
March 2002