The Plant Sale

Today I volunteered at the Botanical Garden Plant Sale.  It's a twice a year event that I avoided for years and years because it seemed too crowded.  But now I know better.  WhenI step inside the gate at the Garden, a sense of peace flows over and through me, that draws me in and makes me very happy.  That's why I love volunteering in the propagation section.  I call it my "playing in the dirt" time.  It's a great group of Bay Area lively gardeners.  Some days, we wander the garden to take cuttings from Salvias and other plants growing in the Meso-America section.  Then we prepare them to go into the mist house in perlite filled pots where they stay until they've grown sturdy roots.   We then transplant them into 4 inch pots and nurture them with plenty of TLC and water until the Plant Sale.  There are many other sections that do the same thing.  All our cuttings are of plants you can't buy from nurseries.   Many are rare and endangered.  I love being at the Plant Sale.  Everybody is happy.  There are plenty red wagons filled with plants and folks with their arms filled with plants.  People stop by to chat and to admire and learn about our babies.  To select a plant to buy is an act of vigorous imagination and verdant hope.  It's a win-win event:  all the proceeds go directly to support the Garden's activities.  The good-will of the many many volunteers that come together to make the event work so smoothly warms my heart.  So much hope.  So much love.  So many beautiful plants.   Imagine the gardens!

The March

It was April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, when I led a lagging group of 9th grade girls from Day-Prospect Hill School on a march around the then very polluted port of New Haven.  Who knew nearly 50 years later, I'd be marching to support science?  Who knew Global Warming and Climate Change would be such an issue?  Who knew science would be threatened, disrespected and unsupported by our President, policy makers and many of those who elected them?  It was quiet, an almost somber mood, going in to the City on BART.  But the crowds of people at Justin Herman Plaza pepped me up and gave a sense of something exciting was happening.  Multitudes of folks milled peacefully about admiring each other's signs and tee shirts, everyone taking photos.  A sweet young woman passed out free Cliff Bars.  One man commented to us this wasn't like the 60's because he hadn't smelled a whiff of pot.  We never did smell any.  It was a crowd of smart, serious hard-working people.  I noticed it was also a mostly white crowd, like the Women's March.  We began to move right on schedule at 12:30 and joined the throngs moving into the sluggish flow on Market Street, right behind a large group from the Exploratorium in matching black tee-shirts.  At one point I had tears in my eyes, saddened our country has come to a place where we need to march in support of Science, rational thinking and even evidence and facts.  The march was peaceful and the pace picked up as we moved along, so it took only an hour to get up to Civic Center.  I'm happy people all around the world marched in support of science (our son Erik marched for Science in London), but I'm sad we had to march to support science.  What is our world coming to?

Marching for Science

I am marching in the Science March in San Francisco today on Earth Day because I love our Earth and want it to be inhabitable and rich in diversity for my grandchildren.  "Global warming is real" and "There is No Planet B" are the signs I'll carry.  I love learning about the Earth and her processes.  I want my grandchildren to grow up with awe and wonder and curiosity and to understand how the process of science works bringing us closer with emergent truth to the truth of the natural world.  I want them to respect rational thought.  "Value Knowledge, Science is Truth" and " Science is True, even when Politicians and Corporations deny it" are the signs Bob will be carrying.  I care enough about Science to join the crowds I so dislike to make this statement.  

Humility

I wouldn't say I'm a confident Docent yet.  Yesterday's experience wasn't what I expected or prepared for.  The experienced Docent and I had spoken on the telephone days before and instead of just giving me a 15 minute segment of the hour-long tour to lead (as was suggested by the Big boss), she offered to let me start leading the tour and then we decided we'd switch off, like a tag team.  Well, it didn't work out that way. The 5 Kindergarteners we were assigned were bigger, stronger and more energetic than I had expected.   The lead Docent started out strongly in charge and never gave up tight control of the wiggly group.  The kids' attention span was measured in seconds, not minutes.  They ran in different directions without the slightest apparent provocation.  They all were happy and agreeable, just out of control much of the time.  It was like trying to contain exploding firecrackers.  I tried on two early occasions to offer a teaching, but soon realized it was better for me to round up the wandering boys.  Overall I suffered from the lead Docent's surprisingly difficult experience leading the tour.  My wisest self calls yesterday's first challenging tour, "a learning experience."  I hope I'll get another chance sometime soon.  

A real Docent

For the last 8 months I have been taking the docent training course at the University of California Botanical Garden.  We met each week for 3 hours.  There is a lot to learn, over 11,000 different plants in the garden with plants from all over the world.  The first half of the course was overwhelming: the presentation by the various horticulturists of their different areas followed by walks through their areas with the plants pointed out.  I could never remember all of them.  Then in the second half we began to practice how to lead tours from tours for adults to tours for school children.  The Garden is one of my favorite places on earth.  It is very beautiful in all seasons and as I've grown familiar with all the different paths and nooks and crannies, I've grown to love it even more.  The docents I have discovered are "my tribe", folks who love the garden and love to share it with others.  Yesterday a small group of "new docents" met at the garden to walk around showing each other things we've learned.  As I reflected, I thought that's one of the things I most enjoy doing, walking through nature with people who also enjoy it, looking at different wonders, sharing what we know.  This morning push comes to shove and I'm to help lead my first real tour of kindergarteners.  I'm surprisingly nervous for someone whose taught for so many years.  The day is foggy and drippy and wet.  The flowers will be droopy, the paths soggy, but I'm looking forward tapping into the children's bright enthusiasm and teach them plants are alive!  I love to learn each time I go to the garden and today seems like a big learning opportunity for me.  

Easter

It's Easter week, Holy Week, the week before Easter Sunday, the day the Church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This week for the Christian Church is a really big deal, the biggest happening of the whole year.  Christianity is all about Easter.  I find it sad that Easter for kids is about dyeing Easter eggs, hiding and hunting for them, chocolate bunnies and Easter baskets.  For adults, maybe there's a dinner for all the relatives in town, maybe not.  For me, Easter tells about the possibility of new life.  It's about taking the time for self-reflection to consider what it is in our lives we'd like to see renewed, filled with new life, and usually for that to happen we have to let something else go.  I remember one Easter when I was a minister preaching that message and then giving the congregation the opportunity to come forward and light a candle to represent the light of the longed for new life.  I expected a handful to come forward, but to my surprise everyone in the congregation came forward.  It took a whole extra hour.  I remember a long line of people waiting and an altar over-filled with candles burning bright.  We all need new life.  In this dark and hurting world we need the new life of kindness and compassion and justice and truth and many more things.  In my mind I see a long line of all humanity coming forward to pray for new life.  That's what Easter means to me--new life.  

A Glorious Week

It's once again quiet around the house, but last week it was a bee-hive of activity when our two Michigan granddaughters were here for a week long visit.  I made up a schedule of the day by day activities planned and put it on the frig.  Keep them busy and they will be happy was the idea and it worked.  Two days were spent with good cousin time.  But overall, nature activities dominated.  We took them tide-pooling to Moss Beach one day and to Muir Woods and Muir Beach another.  We went on an otter spotting trip in Elkhorn Slough on a pontoon boat and then to the Monterey Bay Aquarium where one of the girls proudly told the docent at the splash zone "we went REAL tide-pooling."  On the rainy day we went to the nearby Lawrence Hall of Science and then to a movie (which surprised us with its cost and loudness).  Parents reported the girls had a great time, which we already knew.  They were happy here and there were lots of very sweet moments.  Memories were made that will last a lifetime for each of us.  What a gift to be trusted with the care of precious grandchildren!