![\"Baby](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/93821339_183238339333283_132919535480078336_n-764x1024.jpg?resize=108%2C164\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt was also a reminder that we can also respond positively to what is going on in our physical world. I\u2019m writing during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. We\u2019ve been sheltering in place and practicing social distancing, but at the same time, we\u2019re hearing stories of dolphins being sighted in the canals of Venice (apparently, according to Snopes,<\/a> true, but not necessarily completely unusual) and reading reports of pollution levels dropping so much that the Himalayas are now visible in India. All of these stories and conversations have made at least some of us more aware of the effect humans have on the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As my friend has modeled, one response to our environment is rather simple, really. One way to change the world, the physical world and not just the people in it, is to plant things. Anything. Plants help purify the air and produce oxygen; provide food; and modify temperatures. Plants are not only components of medicine (you did know that most medicine is plant based?), they actually promote health and healing just by being visible, by our looking at them. It has been shown that people who can see growing things, even pictures of growing things, have less stress and so heal faster and are healthier than those who don\u2019t. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I hear more and more of my friends talking about feeling renewed through gardening. Even now, when the situation we are living with limits us to varying degrees, these gardeners are poring over seed catalogs, raising seedlings, and even looking forward to weeding. Apparently such actions can have a calming effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, you say, that\u2019s all very well. But I have physical limitations. Plus, you\u2019re living where there\u2019s a yard and I\u2019m not. Plus, the friends you talk about have the resources to buy plants. Gardening can be expensive. So, this is easy for you<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps. But let\u2019s take this move \u201cPlant,\u201d one step at a time. One small change-the-world-action at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A major piece might involve planting trees. Last week the people I\u2019m living with planted a new weeping cherry tree. They even paid nursery workers to come to the yard, dig the hole, and actually plant the tree. In non-social distancing times, I\u2019ve been given tree seedlings on Earth Day (April 22nd). Another friend found information on the number of trees we might plant to replenish the atmosphere. This article from The Guardian <\/a> offers a tree planting plan that eliminates the effect of about 2\/3rds of our current emissions. Maybe we can\u2019t plant that many trees individually, but the article does confirms that tree planting is a positive action! <\/p>\n\n\n\n But planting trees might be a bit extreme. What about other outside plantings, for example my friend\u2019s invitation to butterflies, the tomatoes we used to grow on the deck, the vegetable garden with flowers around the edges at another friend\u2019s house? What might work for you? Vegetables? Flowers? Reseeding the bare places on the lawn? Perhaps, when we\u2019re no longer isolated, you could become part of a community garden that not only provides fresh food, but promotes community and reclaims land. Or can you put a window box on your apartment\u2019s balcony to share the pleasure of greenery with those passing below? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \tThen there are plantings inside <\/em>aka houseplants. Do you have any? (Some people claim no green thumb. One friend even tells of killing an artificial fern!) Any plant counts, for example the cactus I was given by a lover when I was on a business trip. (True story. He wanted to give me a plant rather than flowers.) The ubiquitous African violets and spider plants. Some herbs on the window sill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, some plants are dangerous to pets. Others may or may not affect air quality. But all plants contribute to our appreciation of\u00a0and the importance of regularly seeing growing things. If you think you have no access to plants, consider experiments like the getting an avocado seed to sprout and grow.<\/a> You put 3 toothpicks in it and suspend it in a glass of water and wait. A cheap version of that gift amaryllis which occasionally develops a life of its own. One friend has an amaryllis that has grown and bloomed for the last 24 years\u2014lasting longer than her marriage or any of her pets.\u00a0 Other friends might have cuttings from philodendron that needed trimming – another plant that can begin its new life in a glass of water as it grows roots. Plus there are multiple kits, simple and complex, for herbs and vegetables that can grow inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So notice. Act. Look at the plants around you. Plant something.\u00a0 Change the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n _______________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo credits from the top: Sometimes something is so obvious, you never notice it. This conversation began when a penny dropped for me, as they say, while a friend told me his neighbors had cut down the trees in their yard at the same time … Continue reading ![\"People](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/IMG_20170701_1743091-1024x802.jpg?resize=147%2C121\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Tree](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/IMG_0236-768x1024.jpeg?resize=132%2C189\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Cactus\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/My-Photo_68.jpeg?resize=102%2C149\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/anaryllis2-032015.jpg?resize=119%2C177\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Lettuce seedlings \u2014 Kate Cook
Gardeners \u2014 Jeff Dey
Tree planting \u2014 Spirit Moxie
The cactus 12 years later \u2014 Spirit Moxie
The amaryllis \u2014 Teich Technical and Marketing Communications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"