Robin Smalley
a pisces with roots for feet who grows with plants and kids... a part of a dynamic learning community grounded in nurturing our awareness and understanding of this fertile bioregion. as we sit with our plant brother and sisters and play with our little family, we begin to see the patterns evolving. ripples in streams, circles drawn in the sand, twirling our bodies ecstatically toward the sun and falling with the winds. we are here, alive! breathing beings that stretch and grow and feel and die.
we are blessed. in creation, in tending. i walk slowly, hearing the brown and yellow glorious leaves fall from their limbs, listening to the winds blow through the ferns, touching usnea with tips of fingers and learning how elders recognized its ability as a dye plant.
i share joy in creation: of sunflowers and red russian kale, of classrooms of t'ai ch'i and songs of rivers, of listening to children's stories, and learning how to create the community we envision. i envision myself growing flax for fiber, pounding fibers into cloth, dyeing with lichens and mushrooms, bartering with my neighbors, tending a flock of kids and sheep, and riding a community bicycle to harvest native herbs from the forest. presently, i live with cedars and oregon grape, three chickens and a rooster, a pup, three brothers, doug firs, and a spiral garden. I love the winds and do dream of them and my family from the east coast. yet am thoroughly enamored to learn about the plants and peoples of this bioregion.
autumn, the season of growth through decomposition.
may we all live like trees, standing tall and bending with the winds.
