That linear time is a method of colonial control is perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned in the fight to undo the horrors of capitalism. Before imperialists descended on the United States, there were no clocks. No second hands tick tick ticking our lives away. These are constructions that whiteness created to ensure our lives were ruled by the... See more

That impulse to scour away the messiness that makes life resilient is what many conservation biologists call the ‘pathology of command and control.’

A garden is a way that the land says, “I love you.” … Gardens are simultaneously a material and a spiritual undertaking.

A garden, much like a home, is a blunt, bare-faced extension of the human beings who control it. If you are the caretaker of a piece of land, that piece of land will inevitably come to embody your behavioral and cultural values, albeit in an abstract sort of a way.

Following this logic, our brains reward a kept garden because it staves off wilderness, because in the wilderness there is death, and thus by keeping nature controlled and orderly, we keep death away.

Landscape maintenance is, therefore, an exercise of fear.

There is beauty in something well-made. The fine fit of a tailored suit. The delicate stitching of a vibrant rug. The mechanical elegance of a well-tuned watch, ticking silently. The same aesthetic laws that govern these objects – and innumerable others – apply to the business world, too. There is such a thing as a beautiful, elegant business. Not ... See more

The uninterrupted continuousness is critical. As soon as you get in a car or hop on a train, the strange spell of the walk is broken. The point of the continuous uninterrupted walk is to be ensorcelled by its strangeness, to fully inhabit the walk and engage with what the walk delivers, good and bad.

The physician and writer, Oliver Sacks, explains the value of gardens:

“As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and f... See more

So, to create something truly alive and nourishing, we must be willing to immerse ourselves in the rich, fertile soil of our own humanity – the depths of our emotions, experiences, and connections to the world around us.