Autumn is peeping around the corner, here in Rotterdam.
Interesting to see how we all deal with the lack of.. first and then the abundance of water.
image: Saskia de Feijter
In our block there is a bit of everything covering our gardens. Dirt, completely paved, fake grass, real grass (with or without extra watering), local plants, plants from far and away.
Not everyone has saving the environment on their top priority list or even seem to know anything about it. But what every single person that lives here has experienced in the last couple of days is the enormous resilience of the grass.
Our block is build around a communal garden. We each have our own gardens and in the middle there's a field, a (tiny) food forest with fruit trees, berries and herbs and some vegetable plots. It's awesome to live here and have this plethora available to us.
The summer being dryer than ever, however, had turned our field into a savanna. The neighborhood cats slowly moving through the grass could easily be mistaken for miniature lions, shacking their behind prepping to pounce a zebra. Or a bug.
I was feeling glad and sad. We chose not to water the communal field to preserve water. But the field that is used for playing soccer, where teens sit in circles discussing the latest memes or god knows what… was now turning into a big sand box.
And then a thunderstorm. And another one.
After only one day, the geen was emerging and after two days, the grass was green again. Completely! How the holy god of green and lusciousness can this be? How can grass grow this fast? I have been walking past it with my jaw dropped and a little fire inside started burning.
When the weather, economics, social situations and basically the whole world seems like it’s upside down and inside out, we can remember to be resilient and hopeful and keep taking action. When you do nothing, nothing will change. You can surprise and inspire yourself and the people around you of the power of bouncing back.
When you mend your socks and jeans and don’t buy new ones quite yet. When you do a stash dive and knit your next project with yarn you already own. You can decide what grass to water and what grass to leave. You can decide what action you will take in your home. How you show your kids some strong decision making. And you don’t have to be perfect.
Just don’t pave your garden completely, leaving absolutely no space for water to reach the ground and flooding your neighbor’s garden in the process.
Ps
In our community we now are talking about Stash Management. If you want to take control of your stash and have wanted to try out the community, this month is a great moment to join! Just click HERE.