WILD PRAIRIE

Rev. Dr. Kate Winters, June 30, 2023, Dwelling in Presence

I was worried when Joel allowed “No Mow May” to become a full “No Mow June” except for the paths that he would clear around and through the land for us to walk on. I thought the neighbors might complain. No worries, so far no complaints. At least, none we’ve heard. It certainly makes for a very different view out my writing window in front of the house. I feel as if I live on a prairie now – with grasses that sway in the breeze, giving the earth movement and texture, with patches of daisies growing unrestrained throughout the yard. It is rather wild and beautiful.

I have never been one to want her yard perfectly neat and trimmed. I like plant life to look like LIFE, free and unencumbered. I remember the contrast between our and the neighbors’ forsythia in Connecticut – theirs trimmed into perfect round bushes looking to me like overgrown tennis balls, and ours tangled and messy and reaching out every which way, a bright yellow explosion. Oh well, to each his/her own.

I’ve never had a prairie lawn before though. I find it fascinating to see the diversity of grasses that grow if they are left to do so. I thought about getting a book to try to identify them, but then why does everything growing on this earth have to have a human-made name? Can’t they just be admired for what they are? Vibrant shoots of life springing from the fertile soil?

One benefit of these wild grasses is that they let us know when the deer bed down nearby by the large flattened spot we find in the morning. I’m sure the moose I haven’t yet seen in the yard sleeps in the woods, but just in case, we have a great grass mattress for her to try! People have asked about ticks, doesn’t the long grass attract more? Honestly, we have found that the ticks are in the long grass, the short grass, in the bushes, trees, and flying in the breeze. No matter the length of the lawn, we need to be just as vigilant.

Speaking of being vigilant, attending to the landscape around the house, I’ve become a little more gentle with myself. As I seek to find ways I am meant to grow in this new phase of life, I realize that not everything needs to be neat and tied up in a box right away. If I just let things be, to percolate as long as they need to, perhaps new forms of life, new patterns, new rhythms, will sprout in the soil of my life. Considering that I like the wildness of plant life, I ought to see what is trying to rise in me before I try to prune it into shape. I’d rather be a bright explosion of color than a groomed tennis ball! Perhaps my “No Mow May” will last at least throughout the summer. Who knows what color and shape I’ll take by Autumn?