too much, and still alone
It just takes one, but one isn't enough to un-silence the spring
It’s been quiet in our garden this year.
Well. The lawnmowers are loud… but in those rare moments they’re quiet, it’s too quiet. We have your typical birds and squirrels and whatnot, but that’s about it.
The silence of suburbia reigns supreme.
Even in the four years we’ve lived here, there’s been a significant observable decline in flying insect populations. Our garden is obviously a notable exception, but it still stands - one yard isn’t enough to stop this trend, or really even slow it down.
We’re still largely alone, with no real indicator that anyone else will be joining us in this increasingly necessary de-lawning endeavor.
Over and Over Again -
Well we don’t want all this.
Not everyone likes wild lawns.
You’re asking too much of regular people.
I’m so glad you’re doing this, because I could never.
I don’t want to spend the money right now.
The excuses are endless. They’re exhausting. They’re not grounded in reality, and they’re indicative of much larger issues. I’ve mostly run out of things to say in response. I feel like everything I have to say has been said in every which way (I have a whole website, go click around in it) and still…
Our Nice Librull culture shouts “climate action now” from our neatly manicured lawns and call it a day well spent. We look around furtively waiting for someone else to “start the trend” — but even then, we don’t hop on board. Too expensive, too painful, too radical.
We claim that “when the boomers die” it’ll get better or that “one day” we’ll be stable enough to do this stuff, but we’re lying to ourselves.
I know - we all know - that 20, 30, 40 years from now we’ll have to live with our excuses, and our regrets. On days it feels too quiet, I guess at least I’m glad I fill the silence with this reminder. One silent, empty flower after another.