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Christine's avatar

“Front-loading the suffering” has entered my lexicon. Really lovely Mere. Wishing you the best in your new endeavors xo

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Tender Thickets's avatar

Thank you so much pal 🥰🥰🥰

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Iris Rankin's avatar

This is beautiful. I don’t think I ever could tire of hearing you talk about your tree grief, though I do hope your new spaces bring their own balance of joy so you don’t have to hold the grief only. It sounds like you are in patient wait for that, to learn how to be in relationship with the new environment and how to love it, and you, kindly there.

The plum pits made me think of Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy, which is what I’m reading now, where he talks extensively about gardening as a kind of community ethos, and his hope of transplanting a fig tree from a treasured person’s yard. The read feels like it’s up your alley if you haven’t read it yet.

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Tender Thickets's avatar

Awww thank you so much Iris!! That means a lot to me. An incredible coincidence too - you probably know that Ross Gay lives here in Bloomington and *tonight* I'm going to the weekly work night for the community orchard that he's written a lot about stewarding. I've been slowly working through the Book of Delights but Inciting Joy is going on the list now!

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Iris Rankin's avatar

Whaaat! I love this so much. (Spoiler alert: the fig tree is in that orchard!)

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