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The Nutrients of Disruption · Relatively Stable

0:11
SPEAKER_00: The nutrients of disruption.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Observations from a season of storms and weeds.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: When we moved into the new farm,
0:25
SPEAKER_00: we inherited centuries of lawns,
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SPEAKER_00: pathways,
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SPEAKER_00: and fields that had been tended,
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SPEAKER_00: mowed,
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SPEAKER_00: and cultivated by all the people who came before us.
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The grass around the farmhouse rolled out like an old painting,
0:40
the shrubs orderly and shaped.
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SPEAKER_00: I'd never lived anywhere that had been maintained for generations,
0:47
SPEAKER_00: and I felt a bound duty to keep up the good work.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: My intention was to keep the orderly lawn mowed and edged.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: As we moved into winter, I had time to work on a plan.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: I'd teach myself the ways of keeping a good lawn,
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SPEAKER_00: and I would source better equipment and supplies.
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SPEAKER_00: I consulted with lawn pros and researched every decision.
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As soon as the first weeds appeared in the spring,
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I planned to start mowing.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: If that didn't keep the interlopers in check,
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the next step would be to use herbicides in the fields to choke
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out the invaders
1:28
SPEAKER_00: and encourage more grass growth.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: By March, spring arrived earlier than expected, throwing me off track.
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SPEAKER_00: The ground breathed new life faster than I could make time to mow.
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SPEAKER_00: I watched the dirt closely each day,
1:45
puzzling over which shoots were sprouting and trying to
1:49
identify them by their
1:50
SPEAKER_00: leaves.
1:52
I decided to wait a bit on the mowing so I could figure out
1:55
what was growing in
1:56
SPEAKER_00: this new-to-us farm.
1:59
At first it was just a scattering of unfamiliar leaves pushing
2:02
up through the soil.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: The horses noticed them long before I did.
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For weeks they had been cropping the wild spring onions
2:12
scattered across the
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SPEAKER_00: pastures,
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confirmed by their breath that smelled like an Italian
2:17
restaurant at closing time.
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SPEAKER_00: Then other spring plants began to emerge.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: henbit,
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SPEAKER_00: chickweed,
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SPEAKER_00: grape hyacinth,
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SPEAKER_00: hairy bittercress,
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SPEAKER_00: blue violet,
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SPEAKER_00: dandelion,
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SPEAKER_00: field pansy,
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SPEAKER_00: shepherd's purse,
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SPEAKER_00: and sow thistle,
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SPEAKER_00: As the days passed and the plants finally revealed their blooms,
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SPEAKER_00: I began identifying them one by one,
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SPEAKER_00: and what I discovered surprised me.
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SPEAKER_00: Nearly every plant was not only edible to humans,
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but nutrient-dense and packed with minerals and vitamins that
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are needed at the end
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SPEAKER_00: of winter,
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when bodies are traditionally depleted from months of cold and
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stored food.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: The horses knew this already.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: They moved through the pastures like four-footed herbalists,
3:07
SPEAKER_00: selecting what they wanted and leaving what they didn't.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Their bodies began to drop their winter dullness and aches.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: The horses glowed.
3:17
I started reconsidering my plans for a tidy lawn and
3:20
continuously mowed fields.
3:23
My gut had been saying no to herbicides no matter how
3:26
determined I was to maintain
3:27
SPEAKER_00: the ideal of a socially acceptable landscape.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: I started questioning how much the fields truly needed to be corrected.
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Anyone who manages horses knows that lush green grass can
3:42
become dangerous to their
3:44
SPEAKER_00: metabolic systems.
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Modern pasture grasses are bred to grow quickly and store large
3:50
amounts of sugar.
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SPEAKER_00: Those sugars can trigger laminitis,
3:55
a painful and sometimes catastrophic inflammatory condition in
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the horse's hooves.
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SPEAKER_00: We spend a lot of time worrying about grass.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Standing in the pasture,
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watching the horses snack their way through what I had been
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calling weeds,
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I began to wonder if the fields and the horses knew something
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that I didn't,
4:18
SPEAKER_00: or something that my body had forgotten.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe those early plants weren't intruders after all.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were the land's way of offering vitamins.
4:28
and easily digestible nutrients that horses and our bodies need
4:32
this time of year.
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Maybe the best thing we could do was let the spring weeds run
4:38
their course.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: As all the weeds were sprouting,
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I had a conversation with someone who had been following my
4:45
story peripherally this
4:47
SPEAKER_00: past year.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: They listed all the weird,
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SPEAKER_00: strange turns that my life had taken,
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SPEAKER_00: the characters who blew through the farm and wreaked havoc,
4:56
SPEAKER_00: At this point,
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SPEAKER_00: I wish most of it were just a product of my overactive imagination,
5:01
but the crazy things this past year has brought into my life
5:05
are stranger than
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SPEAKER_00: fiction.
5:07
Just when we started to find a good,
5:09
peaceful stride,
5:11
something arrived to shake things up.
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SPEAKER_00: My first impulse was to say, let's pretend all this didn't happen.
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SPEAKER_00: But hiding has never digested my lessons.
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SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be who I am and the farm wouldn't be where it is,
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SPEAKER_00: healthier,
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SPEAKER_00: happier,
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SPEAKER_00: and more at peace without the big,
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SPEAKER_00: the small,
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SPEAKER_00: the random,
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SPEAKER_00: and the self-fulfilling disruptions that have found us.
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We're sold on the belief that a good life is a smooth road
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without roadblocks or speed bumps.
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We're shamed into believing that problems,
5:43
big and small,
5:44
mean that we're doing it wrong.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: And it becomes very easy to become complacent and depressed,
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SPEAKER_00: stuck in the status quo,
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when hurdles are assigned fault and treated as something to
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avoid rather than push
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SPEAKER_00: through.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Horses are smart.
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SPEAKER_00: In the wild, they'll go around an obstacle rather than leaping over.
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SPEAKER_00: They jump fences for humans,
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SPEAKER_00: sometimes for fun,
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SPEAKER_00: but mostly because it's the job we've assigned to them.
6:11
But it's one thing to take the path of least resistance with
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the goal of conserving
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SPEAKER_00: energy and another to avoid all experiences for fear of being exposed.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: What if our problems were the whole point?
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Once I started paying attention to what the land was saying,
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it became impossible to ignore how often nature uses disruption
6:33
to create renewal.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: One of the most dramatic examples is fire.
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SPEAKER_00: Fire and Renewal In western forests dominated by lodgepole pine,
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SPEAKER_00: the pine cones are sealed shut with resin.
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SPEAKER_00: Those cones hang on the branches for years without releasing their seeds.
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They remain closed through wind,
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rain,
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snow,
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and seasons of ordinary weather.
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SPEAKER_00: They only open when exposed to the intense heat of wildfire.
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SPEAKER_00: When fire moves through the forest,
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the temperature becomes high enough to melt the resin that has
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sealed those cones
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SPEAKER_00: for years.
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In a matter of hours,
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thousands of seeds are released onto the ground below.
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SPEAKER_00: At the same time,
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the blaze clears away dense undergrowth that has blocked
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sunlight from reaching the
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SPEAKER_00: forest floor.
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SPEAKER_00: What was once crowded and stagnant is suddenly opened up.
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SPEAKER_00: The fire also transforms what it touches.
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SPEAKER_00: Branches,
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SPEAKER_00: leaves,
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SPEAKER_00: and fallen trees are reduced to ash,
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SPEAKER_00: and that ash becomes a layer of minerals returned directly to the soil.
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SPEAKER_00: Phosphorus,
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SPEAKER_00: potassium,
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SPEAKER_00: calcium,
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and other nutrients that have been locked up in the woody
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debris are suddenly
8:01
SPEAKER_00: available again to the next generation of plants.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Within a season or two, the charred ground erupts with light.
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SPEAKER_00: Pine seedlings appear by the thousands.
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Wildflowers,
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fireweed,
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lupine,
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and countless others push up through the blackened soil.
8:20
Insects return first,
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then birds,
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then the slow rebuilding of the forest itself.
8:28
In the case of the lodgepole pine,
8:30
destruction is not separate from renewal.
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Fire is the mechanism that allows the next generation of the
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forest to begin.
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SPEAKER_00: The fire does not interrupt the life of the forest.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: It activates it.
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SPEAKER_00: At the same time,
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this truth does not make the experience of fire any less
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frightening when it's
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SPEAKER_00: happening close to home.
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SPEAKER_00: Back on the east coast,
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SPEAKER_00: a forest fire is currently raging in Georgia,
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fueled by the fallen trees Hurricane Helene left scattered
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across the landscape.
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SPEAKER_00: And in the mountains closer to me,
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SPEAKER_00: the woods burned for weeks and the months after the storm,
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SPEAKER_00: the dry remnants of broken forests becoming tender waiting for a spark.
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SPEAKER_00: When you study your place long enough,
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SPEAKER_00: you start to understand how closely the elements are braided together.
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Wind throws down the trees,
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water swells the rivers,
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fire follows the debris that's left behind.
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I'm speaking generally about the way life emerges after
9:32
disruption in my words to
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SPEAKER_00: you this week,
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but I want to say clearly that these observations don't come
9:38
from a place of
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SPEAKER_00: distance or abstraction.
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SPEAKER_00: When the elements move through a community, the consequences are real.
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SPEAKER_00: Homes are lost, people are injured or worse, and animals are displaced.
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People look around them trying to understand what has just
9:53
happened to the places they love.
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My heart is filled with love for anyone in my community who is
9:59
living in the
10:00
SPEAKER_00: aftermath of a disaster or who will face one in the future.
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Because the truth is,
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we are never fully in control of the systems we inhabit.
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SPEAKER_00: We are participants in the bigger cycles,
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and that means we can't forget something both humbling and
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ancient about life on
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SPEAKER_00: this planet.
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SPEAKER_00: We are, all of us, at the mercy of the elements.
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SPEAKER_00: Stable Roots is where I write each week about the intersection of land,
10:30
SPEAKER_00: horses,
10:30
SPEAKER_00: and the strange ways life teaches us through disruption and renewal.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Free subscriptions bring those essays directly to your inbox.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: and paid subscribers help sustain the work happening here at the farm.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: However you choose to join me, I'm just glad that you're here.
10:53
Flood Plains and Fertility Flooding quickly brings change and
10:59
destruction.
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Water spills across fields,
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rearranges soil,
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and temporarily makes the land unusable.
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In the hills where I live,
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we see the aftermath in every corner of the landscape.
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SPEAKER_00: When Hurricane Helene came through this region,
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rivers climbed out of their banks and spread across valleys
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that had felt stable
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SPEAKER_00: for generations.
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SPEAKER_00: Roads disappeared,
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SPEAKER_00: fence lines twisted,
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SPEAKER_00: and whole sections of land were reshaped in the space of a few hours.
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SPEAKER_00: When water moves with force, it leaves behind a broken landscape.
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SPEAKER_00: And yet,
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SPEAKER_00: over longer stretches of time,
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those same floods are the reasons many valleys become places
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where people can farm
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SPEAKER_00: at all.
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Flood plains are some of the most fertile agricultural regions
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on Earth precisely
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SPEAKER_00: because of these disruptions.
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SPEAKER_00: As rivers swell and spill over their banks,
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SPEAKER_00: they carry sediment rich with minerals and organic matter from upstream.
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SPEAKER_00: Silt from mountain soils,
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fragments of plants and nutrients carried from miles away are
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all suspended in the
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SPEAKER_00: water as it moves.
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When the floodwaters receive,
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those nutrients settle across the land in a thin layer.
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SPEAKER_00: Chaos smooths into a redistribution of fertility.
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Depleted fields are replenished as the topsoil deepens and
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crops grow more
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SPEAKER_00: vigorously in the years that follow.
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SPEAKER_00: Entire civilizations learned to build their lives around this rhythm.
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SPEAKER_00: The Nile flooded and receded each year,
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SPEAKER_00: laying down the dark soil that fed Egypt for thousands of years.
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SPEAKER_00: The Mississippi has been reshaping its floodplain for millennia,
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SPEAKER_00: creating some of the richest farmland in North America.
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SPEAKER_00: Even in these Appalachian foothills,
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the valleys that now hold our pastures and fields were shaped
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by countless cycles
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of water rising and falling long before any fence post was
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driven into the ground.
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SPEAKER_00: Without flooding, the soil gradually exhausts itself.
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SPEAKER_00: Nutrients are lost with every harvest and with every rainfall.
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The land grows thinner year by year,
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slowly losing the capacity to support life.
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SPEAKER_00: But flooding also reminds us of something else.
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When the balance of the land has been disrupted,
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water is often the first force to reveal it.
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SPEAKER_00: Christopher's family is from Hawaii,
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SPEAKER_00: and this past week I've been following the Kona storms closely.
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SPEAKER_00: Much of the Big Island has been dealing with severe flooding,
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SPEAKER_00: but one place stood out in the reports.
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The 642 acres of the Mahakona cultural and ecological refuge
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have experienced
13:51
SPEAKER_00: remarkably little damage.
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The refuge is being restored through native Hawaiian
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stewardship practices that
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SPEAKER_00: work with the natural rhythms of the landscape,
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SPEAKER_00: rather than trying to impose control over them.
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Attention is given to erosion,
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seasonal rains,
14:08
and the steady movement of tides.
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SPEAKER_00: The land is allowed to follow its cycles again, free of development.
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Knowledge passed down through generations understands that
14:20
weather is not an
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SPEAKER_00: anomaly,
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SPEAKER_00: but a force to live with and prepare for.
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In places where that wisdom still guides the work,
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resilience is not some shocking surprise.
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It is built into the relationship between people and the land
14:35
from the beginning.
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The disturbance that appears destructive is often the very
14:40
process that keeps the land alive.
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That truth can be hard to see when the water is still standing
14:47
in the fields and
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SPEAKER_00: people are counting what has been lost.
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SPEAKER_00: Disruption rarely looks like renewal while it's happening.
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SPEAKER_00: But over time, the land reveals a longer memory than our immediate fear.
15:03
What feels like devastation in the moment is often part of a
15:06
cycle that has
15:07
SPEAKER_00: sustained life far longer than we have been here to witness it.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: For a long time, people believed grazing animals were hard on the land.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Remove the animals,
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SPEAKER_00: the thinking went,
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SPEAKER_00: and the grass would finally have a chance to grow undisturbed.
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Fields would become lush again if only horses,
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cattle,
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and bison stopped cropping them down.
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SPEAKER_00: But grasslands did not evolve in the absence of grazing.
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SPEAKER_00: They evolved because of it.
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For thousands of years,
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vast herds of animals moved across open landscapes.
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SPEAKER_00: Bison sweeping through the prairies,
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SPEAKER_00: antelope following the seasons,
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SPEAKER_00: horses traveling in bands across plains and valleys.
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SPEAKER_00: The grasses we see today developed alongside that constant pressure.
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SPEAKER_00: Their growth patterns,
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SPEAKER_00: their root systems,
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SPEAKER_00: even their capacity to regenerate were shaped by being eaten.
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When a horse lowers its head and grazes,
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it's not just removing part of the plant.
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SPEAKER_00: The act of cropping the grass triggers a biological response.
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The plant shifts energy downward,
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strengthening its roots and sending up new shoots.
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SPEAKER_00: Hooves press seeds into the soil where they can take hold.
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SPEAKER_00: Manure and urine return nutrients to the ground.
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SPEAKER_00: Old plant material is broken apart,
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SPEAKER_00: and incorporated back into the living system.
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But it's also true that modern pastures with their limited
16:47
sizes must be managed to
16:49
SPEAKER_00: protect against overgrazing.
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SPEAKER_00: But the landscape was never meant to be contained.
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SPEAKER_00: Like us, it's programmed for movement, pressure, rest, and regrowth.
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SPEAKER_00: Without that cycle, grasslands begin to stall.
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SPEAKER_00: Dead plant matter accumulates,
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SPEAKER_00: shading out new growth,
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and nutrients remain locked in old stems rather than being
17:11
returned to the soil.
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SPEAKER_00: Diversity slowly fades as fewer species can compete.
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SPEAKER_00: The healthiest landscapes are rarely the ones left untouched.
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Instead,
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they are the ones in which life constantly moves through the
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systems.
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SPEAKER_00: Grazing, trampling, fertilizing, resting.
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SPEAKER_00: Each action feeding the next stage of growth.
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SPEAKER_00: Standing in the pastures this spring,
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SPEAKER_00: watching the horses move through the fields,
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SPEAKER_00: I recognized that pattern unfolding in front of me.
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SPEAKER_00: Their heads drift through the henbit and chickweed,
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SPEAKER_00: through dandelion greens and wild onions,
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SPEAKER_00: selecting what their bodies need and leaving what their bodies do not.
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SPEAKER_00: Every few steps,
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SPEAKER_00: a hoof presses into the soft ground,
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SPEAKER_00: and mouthfuls trim the plants back,
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SPEAKER_00: inviting new growth.
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What I labeled nuisance weeds are part of a conversation
18:06
already underway between
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SPEAKER_00: the animals and the land.
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SPEAKER_00: The fields are not failing.
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SPEAKER_00: They are healing.
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SPEAKER_00: And so am I.
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SPEAKER_00: After centuries of mowing,
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SPEAKER_00: fertilizing,
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SPEAKER_00: and cultivation,
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the land is beginning to express what it knows how to do when
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given a brief pause
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SPEAKER_00: from our constant corrections.
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SPEAKER_00: The plants are returning in waves,
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SPEAKER_00: each species arriving with its own purpose,
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each one part of a sequence that has been unfolding long before
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property lines were
18:37
SPEAKER_00: drawn around it.
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And maybe the wisest thing we can do is also the hardest things
18:42
for humans to accept.
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SPEAKER_00: Step back and allow the cycles to unfold.
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SPEAKER_00: What if we trusted that the rhythms of the natural world,
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SPEAKER_00: which are older and more patient than our management plans,
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SPEAKER_00: often know exactly what is needed for life to begin again?
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Wind and renewal.
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SPEAKER_00: The fourth element is harder to see until it's left its mark.
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SPEAKER_00: Air is a force to be reckoned with,
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SPEAKER_00: but we usually ignore it as it moves quietly across the landscape,
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invisible unless it is strong enough to bend the grasses or
19:19
scatter the leaves
19:20
SPEAKER_00: across a field.
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We notice the wind when it gusts,
19:24
damaging the structures and landscape around us.
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SPEAKER_00: Wind is one of the great architects of life.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Many plants depend entirely on air to reproduce and spread.
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Dandelion seeds drift on delicate parachutes designed to travel
19:40
miles before landing.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Maple trees release their spinning samaras,
19:46
SPEAKER_00: those little helicopter seeds children love to throw in the air,
19:50
SPEAKER_00: so that they can ride the currents away from the parent tree.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Prairie grasses release clouds of pollen that move across vast distances,
19:58
allowing plants to exchange genetic material with neighbors
20:02
they will never touch.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: The forests rely on wind to shape them.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Storms thin dense canopies by toppling weaker trees,
20:11
SPEAKER_00: allowing sunlight to reach the forest floor.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Entire ecosystems reset in the spaces where wind has opened the sky.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Scientists studying prairie ecosystems have found that wind disturbances
20:26
SPEAKER_00: strengthens plant communities.
20:28
Constant movement forces grasses to grow deeper root systems so
20:32
that they can hold their ground.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Those roots stabilize soil, retain water, and store carbon underground.
20:40
What looks like plants being battered by the wind is often the
20:43
very process that
20:44
SPEAKER_00: makes them resilient.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Wind moves the seeds, wind reshapes the forest,
20:51
SPEAKER_00: Wind encourages roots to grow deeper.
20:53
The same invisible currents that knock things down are often
20:57
what carry life somewhere new.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: When Hurricane Helene came through these hills,
21:03
SPEAKER_00: it was the wind that set the chain reaction in motion.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Trees that had stood for decades snapped and fell across the mountains.
21:11
Their fallen trunks later became fuel for the fires that burned
21:14
for weeks.
21:16
Wind,
21:16
water,
21:17
and flame move through the same story,
21:19
and each element left its mark.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: The elements do not work alone.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: They move together.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: The elements.
21:33
I know so many of you have had your lives turned upside down by
21:36
natural disasters.
21:38
Please know that I'm not making light of your misfortunes or
21:41
trying to find optimism in them.
21:44
It's just that when I began paying attention to the weeds in
21:46
the field this spring,
21:48
I thought I was studying plants but accidentally discovered the
21:52
way my own life has
21:53
SPEAKER_00: responded to disruption.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: I like to find meaning in symbols and lessons in patterns.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Flooding redistributes nutrients, allowing soil to renew itself.
22:06
Wind carries seeds and reshapes the canopy,
22:10
allowing sunlight to reach the ground.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Animals graze the land, and the grasses grow back stronger.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: The elements do not avoid disturbances.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: They use destruction to their advantage.
22:24
Damage becomes a much longer cycle of renewal unfolding beneath
22:28
the surface.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Once I started seeing those patterns in the natural world,
22:33
SPEAKER_00: it became impossible not to recognize them in my life.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: This weekend,
22:38
Christopher and I went out to dinner with a group of friends
22:40
who have been chosen
22:42
SPEAKER_00: family to me most of my life.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm hugging you hard, Tammy Turner, Christopher, and Michael.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: We sat around a circular table and shared bites from each dish.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: We shared stories and we laughed.
22:56
I was blanketed in the comfort of people who have known the
22:59
whole arc of my life
23:01
SPEAKER_00: and have continuously shown up with love.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: The people I've listed above have battled unbelievable odds,
23:08
SPEAKER_00: one fighting deeply for their life.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Their stories aren't mine to tell,
23:13
but my witness to the events in their lives that would bring
23:17
lesser people down is
23:19
SPEAKER_00: an honor I will never take for granted.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Sometime during the evening,
23:23
Christopher mentioned that this was the first time we had
23:25
gathered in a restaurant
23:26
SPEAKER_00: together since before he and I were married.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: One week after the ceremony, Hurricane Helene arrived.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: The weeks that followed became a kind of trial by fire.
23:38
The storm tore through the mountains and the farm began
23:42
absorbing one disruption after another.
23:44
The ground beneath our lives shifted in ways that no one could
23:48
have predicted.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Looking back at the past year,
23:51
the list of strange turns and unexpected challenges almost
23:55
feels impossible to
23:57
SPEAKER_00: explain to someone who didn't live through them with us.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Every time we seemed to find our footing,
24:03
SPEAKER_00: something new arrived to shake the ground again,
24:06
SPEAKER_00: stranger than fiction.
24:08
But sitting at that dinner table surrounded by people who had
24:11
witnessed it all and
24:12
SPEAKER_00: lived through even more,
24:14
I realized the same patterns of destruction and renewal I saw
24:18
in the land were also
24:20
SPEAKER_00: at work in our lives.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Fire clears,
24:24
SPEAKER_00: flood replenishes,
24:25
SPEAKER_00: wind scatters seeds,
24:28
SPEAKER_00: grazing renews the ground,
24:30
SPEAKER_00: and disruption makes space for the next chapter.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Every disaster I have lived through,
24:36
SPEAKER_00: every storm,
24:37
SPEAKER_00: every loss,
24:38
SPEAKER_00: every moment when something ended,
24:40
SPEAKER_00: has rearranged the landscape of my life.
24:43
And over time,
24:44
something stronger grows in the spaces that were left behind.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: The farm is healthier,
24:50
SPEAKER_00: the horses are thriving,
24:52
SPEAKER_00: my life is fuller than I could have ever imagined,
24:55
SPEAKER_00: even amid so many changes occurring at once.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean the storms are easy when they arrive,
25:01
but the land has been reminding me that the elements know what
25:04
they're doing.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Renewal often begins with disruption.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: In the aftermath,
25:11
SPEAKER_00: the weeds crop up and eventually,
25:14
SPEAKER_00: if left to soak up the ground,
25:16
SPEAKER_00: the blooms open.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: When I am patient enough to watch what grows after disturbance,
25:25
I began to see that what I thought was a problem was often the
25:28
beginning of something new.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Love, Kim