Becoming a Better Partner

Plus a Tiny Sign Making Party!

The most streamlined part of my fortifications…and yes, those stones are pressing on rebar which is pushed through the lath to stop the skunks from flipping it upward.

It’s May, which means I’m gardening at full-tilt. I’ve started hundreds of seeds inside, I’m planting small starts outside, and I just finished pick-axing a 3’ x 20’ garden bed for veggies and cut flowers. When I lie in bed at night, I feel my hands throb from all the gripping, pulling, pushing, lugging, and axe swinging. Don’t let anyone tell you gardening isn’t a contact sport.

Last weekend, I planted 20 plants in a bed around my new patio, and during the night the skunks have been tearing them out with an intensity I’ve never experienced before.

Usually, they dig around a new plant once or twice, then I replace the soil, and that’s that. This time, it’s like they’re working as a team and tossing plants over their shoulders as they dig big holes, nibble at roots, and hunt for grubs. Perhaps it’s a mother and her babies?

Suffice it to say, I’ve been upset. I know mama skunk probably just thinks she hit pay dirt—friable soil, easy access to grubs and tasty fresh roots—a free lunch for the whole crew! But as I witness what feels like plant carnage around me, I’ve been struggling to consider her point of view.

Each evening, my fortification process for protecting my little plant babies from my nightly visitors gets a little more effective, even as it looks a bit more ridiculous—milk crates with rocks on top to weigh them down, sheets of metal lath bent into tent shapes with oddball found objects blocking the “entrances” at either end, netting and row cover hats for whomever is still left unprotected, and lots of little rocks piled and perched at every vulnerable opening.

Every morning, I go to the window in trepidation to view the potential havoc. The skunks always seem to find the weak link in my armor, but the damage is less each day.

My horror over my plants being attacked makes me realize that if I ever get chickens—which I’ve been fantasizing about for years now—I really have to toughen up.

But if I can just keep these plants protected for the next 3 or 4 weeks until they become established, I’m hoping we’re home free on the skunk front even as I know the grasshopper pressure is bearing down.

But this, I remind myself, is the nature of gardening—a constant give and take with the local critters that also interact with my garden. And in a world of climate change and environmental degradation, imbalance plays a big role. For instance, fewer predators mean more skunks and fewer birds mean waaaay more grasshoppers.

Since we moved to New Mexico, my goal has been to turn a yard that was basically an empty lot into something that felt beautiful to me and also supported my immediate local ecology. I’m now faced with realizing that perhaps I’m succeeding in ways I hadn’t considered. The skunks are a big part of my local environment. Perhaps my success is also their success.

I’m relieved my fortifications are working, but I also feel like I need to come up with a better a long-term peaceful solution. Maybe change a little something in myself.

Because as I affect the land and ecology around me, it affects me back. And if I perceive my relationship with the land that is my property as a partnership rather than a stewardship, then I need to learn how to be a true partner, not just impose my will.

What could this look like? Feel like?

I know it doesn’t mean I let skunks or other wildlife consume or destroy my plants; after all, a partnership is a two-way street. But it does require some sort of subtle listening, some sort of allowing and adjusting that I’m just beginning to perceive and can barely articulate.

I’m used to this feeling—this groping in the dark of not-knowing—so I know I have to let it unfold. In the meantime, I’ll try to stay curious and open while protecting my plants as best I can.

How’s your garden?

You’re Invited!

Speaking of peaceful solutions and groping in the dark of not-knowing, our next Creative Change-Makers Zoom call is this Thursday, May 22 at 4pm Pacific, 5pm Mountain, 6pm Central, and 7pm Eastern.

It’s going to be a Tiny Sign Making party this time and I’d love it if you’d come.

I’ll offer some examples of different ways you can create your messages, but mostly, it’ll be all of us creating together in real time. Cranking out the signs. Sharing our efforts with each other. Offering support.

It will be fun and easy.

Fun and easy matters because we need to have long term ways of speaking up that don’t drain us. Ways that actually feed our creativity and lift our spirits.

While tiny signs aren’t hard to make, they can be hard to make by yourself, which is why we’re doing it together.

Although I’ll probably go over the top with some of my tiny sign making, I actually think extremely simple—and even crudely made—signs probably have the most impact because they have a powerful emotional immediacy that can be felt by the viewers. They think, “this sign was made by a regular person just like me.”

And sure, we might be posting our opinions on social media, but I believe the physical world aspect of this matters much more. Because now, digital media is old hat and taking action in the real world is the novel fresh thing.

Think of how you feel when someone mails you a letter. A letter!

The Crucial 2nd Step

Knowing you’re part of a group of kindred spirits doing the same helps you follow through on not just making your little signs, but posting them as well.

So we’ll also be brainstorming at the end of the session about where we’ll be putting our signs because making them is only half of it. They must be seen. And that requires a plan so we don’t chicken out.

If you’ve never hung something in public before, you can feel nervous when it comes to actually doing it. The clandestine nature of putting them out in the world is a real adrenaline rush.

But doing this changes you in good and important ways because you’re no longer on the sidelines. You’ve stepped out of the safety of being a detached observer and put yourself in the game.

The more you hang your tiny signs in public, the more that initial nervousness will transform into confidence, and then it gets more fun. You can start twirling your invisible mustache and tee-heeing to yourself as you casually slip a message into an egg carton or a library book, or as you stick a post-it note on the stall door of a mini-mart restroom. It’s empowering.

And if you are heading into any airports or hitting the road by car this summer, having an arsenal of tiny signs on your person can such a great way to pepper the world with unexpected messages. You can reach a whole new audience beyond your neighborhood or community.

Let’s Have Fun

This Tiny Sign Making zoom call is a PARTY, so feel free to pour a glass of wine, play music, and eat snacks.

It’s free for paid subscribers. If that’s you, there’s a registration link at the top and bottom of this email where you can sign up.

If you’re a free subscriber, and want to join us, just upgrade your subscription by clicking the button below. It’s only 36.00 for the year. And then you’ll also be ready to go for future Creative Change-Makers workshops—like a fun zine-making workshop in June.

(When you upgrade, there will be a link in the welcome email to register for this call. If you have any trouble, just email me or hit reply on this newsletter. )

I hope to see you!