Composted Thoughts

Compost is a gardeners friend, but it takes time. Various scraps of organic material has to undergo various stages of decomposition which generates heat, not to mention a smell. It is later added to the garden to amend the soil for healthier growing, which in turn attracts various flora and fauna. When I first built a perennial garden, it was on a site that was used by my dogs- dying, patchy grass and pockets of dry dirt. Upon digging in the ground to plant, there were no worms and the rocks and heavy clay made digging difficult. I needed compost. Once I added this to the soil, I knew the plants, once established, would do the rest. Since then, the garden has grown into a prolific ecosystem with multiple species of bees, birds, worms, butterflies and moths, bats, and an occasional gopher. The herbaceous perennials die back above the soil where I leave this dead matter to compost back into the ground which has become a rich soil.

I chose the title of my blog to be ‘Composted Thoughts’ because I liked the idea of taking time to think and to write. Some of my thoughts have been composting for years- the fallout from surviving cancer in 2009, for example. Others are more recent, like the implications of my PhD research. And so, I wanted a place to write these composted thoughts in a non-academic setting. It is a chance for me to practice the embodiment that I research and show that sometimes time is needed for things in life to compost a bit in and turn into something special. I don’t know how often I will post here; but I will create as much connection as I can between my own experiences and learnings.