bits and bants vol. 27
the ancient instincts to grow something
People are talking about “changing seasons” and I simultaneously want to yell and scream and cry and curl up in the fetal position. There is no change coming, and while our temperatures have been mild this winter, it doesn’t change the season. There is still no growth, there is still frozen ground. There is still snow and impending arctic air.
February is just very lent feeling because of how the days of January have stretched into February in a very long, very the same seeming days. It’s giving lent.
But! What is good and necessary to not just giving up in February is starting seeds. And I’ve started.
Now, is it technically way too early to be starting most seeds because we are 12+ weeks out from our last frost date? Yes, yes it is. I cannot recommend someone living where I live do the same unless they want to suffer some trial and error. But really, what’s so bad about trial and error? Not much! Especially when it comes to seed starting because seed starting only requires a bit of soil and some seeds. Sure, you need some decent lights, but you can prime those suckers in mere hours. And what’s the worst that can happen? The seeds don’t germinate or the little seedlings die. But that’s what more seeds are for! Another way of looking at it; if you start this early and fail a couple times you’ve still got plenty of time to grow great plants!
When you have your handfuls of soil, which you should definitely put into a container with your actual hands because that’s where the magic happens (the magic of not succumbing to depression, that is), you just need the seeds. It still is entirely incomprehensible to think that all that is needed to create a plant that could tower over five feet in less than four months time is all contained in a seed which you can hardly measure. Everything genetic that is needed is packed in there somehow! DNA, the flowers, the leaves, the stems, the scent is all packed into such a small thing. With a little water and light green will spring forth in such a short period of time it seems like magic. And it is magic. How can something so fresh and beautiful come from darkness and dirt?
I don’t pretend to be the first appreciating and marvelling at the power of seeds as most writers and poets and painters centuries over have contemplated them to the heights of art. But contemplating them is not just for the artistic soul, it is, I think, an essential human thing to contemplate. If we don’t sit and ponder the seed, growth, and the primal necessities of life at least once a spring we are missing an experience, a reckoning, a recollection that our humanity requires.
You don’t have to grow anything to ponder these things, but actually growing something yourself should be a requirement at some point in your adult life. I know most all of us do it in our elementary years (who among us hasn’t grown those beans?) but as an adult, growth and its inherent miraculous qualities simply hits different. And I don’t think just on a philosophical level, I think there is a strong instinctual part of our makeup that wants to tap into thousands upon thousands of years of human development that is found in growing something in the earth. I don’t know what that precisely is, maybe it is just a vague sense of return to our history and our dependence on the land and our previous closely held knowledge of how things can and should grow, but maybe there is something more, something personal that can bring about a stronger connection between our selves today and where we have come from.
I have thought of this instinct for the first time this week, and I think it is just as strong a basic human instinct as mothering. It is important for us as humans to experience it full stop. The instinct to grow something, to nurture it, to witness its growth cycle be it a year or longer is something so much richer and stronger than so many inclinations we may have over the course of our lives. Again, I don’t know the depths or possibilities of what this can mean to you or me precisely, but I think they’re probably worth the time to contemplate and more importantly to try.
bits:
life still hasn’t returned to normal around here, and while I’ve got more time in my days than at the beginning of surgery recovery, I’m still recovering. In other words, I don’t think I’m reading much on the internet that you haven’t read.
I know I recommend a House & Garden article every week, but this is just so stunning I can’t help but want to brighten your day. Also, isn’t it funny how magazines used to be poo-pooed for how unattainable and terrible they were? And now reading an entire magazine article with professional photography feels like the equivalent of taking a college course?
reading, watching, what have you:
Omigosh I’m reading The Road. I have not read it intentionally for the past 20 years because of my fear of the end times, but having lived through one “plague” I’ve decided to tell myself that I’ve lived through bizarre enough things I can read hard books. I actually really like Cormac McCarthy. I think his writing is terrific and I want to read more but I always thought The Road too depressing to wade into and that’s why it’s taken me 20 years and Close Reads to do it. Spoiler alert: I can’t stop reading it. I have to read it during daylight, but it has a breathless pace and while completely dark you are entranced by the writing. You’ve probably read it already, why am I telling you this?
Also reading The Everlasting Man again because Word on Fire is coming out with a new edition and they sent me a copy! I believe it’s been almost 20 years since I read this book and I don’t know why, but reading Chesterton feels like spending time with my most delightful friend. Everything he says and how he says it feels completely right but also joy-filled. He is the necessary tonic needed in, *waves arms around like Kermit the Frog*, everything!
Again, not watching anything new. Is there anything new? What is hot on the Netflix currently? I did watch the Coen brothers True Grit last week with the kids and almost all of them declared it one of the best movies they’ve ever seen. Which is objectively true.
And I would love for you to come to Ireland withKatie Marquette and I this coming October! It’s going to be an amazing experience of the culture, faith, and beauty of Ireland.
I wish I had time or thoughts to write more, but I’m just trying to keep up with the normal service of *waves arms around like Kermit the Frog* everything! I do need to write up some quick book reviews, I thought I would get to those this past week but somehow a new thing arose each day that meant I needed to get a kid somewhere, or help a kid with something, or some kind of kid crisis in that free hour I was hoping to use. But next week is another week so we’ll try it again.
having another coffee I don’t care what time it is,
Christy
I'm right there with you reading The Road having also avoided it. I came to it dragging my heels and feeling a degree of dread... and I also can't put it down. Really excited to start listening to the podcast episodes (always an exciting time when Tim is back regardless of the book)!
Plants are magic! What is not is lovingly tending sunflowers all summer only to have deer eat all the heads off right before they opened 😑 So instead of spending February starting seedlings, this year we’re planning what kind of fence to build instead 🙂
I’m not sold on the Coen brothers version of True Grit, mainly because of how they changed the snake pit scene. I thought that sequence was the best writing in the whole book, and they didn’t do it justice at all.