Landscape Maintenance and the Fear of Death - Wonderground

To be a gardener is to give a fuck. To be a gardener is to be invested in a place—to know it, to protect it, to be present to it. How can we protect and heal ourselves and our planet if we’re not willing to step into, and value, the role of the gardener?

We have an immense repertoire of behaviors through which we deny our powerlessness in the face of death; from seeking symbolic immortality through children, flags, causes, fame, to persuading ourselves that we are indestructible by living recklessly and irresponsibly, to consoling ourselves with the belief that death is an illusion.

believed it to be our omnipresent fear of death. The frightening

Why is death so terrifying? What specifically is it about death that frightens you?"

This reciprocal relationship with the land upon which we dwell is so essential to our practice of belonging. For those who live in urban centres, it is important to adopt even a small patch of green, whether it’s on a balcony or rooftop or in a community garden plot, and begin to learn its ways. Learning might even begin with something as quiet as