Pineapple Weed, Wildflowers, and Nettles
Welcome to episode 1! This grand experiment is all thanks to the encouragement of a dear friend who, upon receiving a lengthy voice-note from me, went on to lay out, most convincingly, the reasons why I might try podcasting.
The truth is, I’ve thought about playing with audio-art-making before, and recently launched a private poetry channel for my closest friends, but I forever got hung up on the ‘not knowing how’ of it all. But with encouragement, I decided to jump in and start where I’m already at — with the voice note I sent to my friend, edited only as much as was necessary to preserve the confidentiality of folks who didn’t ask to be podcast subjects.
Because this voice note wasn’t ever meant to be a podcast episode, I refer to some things that listeners won’t have context for, so here’s some additional backstory:
four years ago I moved into a house that is such a fixer-upper it feels more like a complete rebuild. It’s been a stressful four years with no end in sight. So when I mention the house struggle, that’s the context.
Last year I found myself stuck in a real unhealthy situationship, which you’ll also hear me reference.
And lastly, this voice note was born out of response to a very lovely observation by my friend. After sharing pics and details about a recent campout I went on with my dog, Ollie, and the joy that I felt in watching him take in his first solo camping experience with me (having only been once, a couple of years ago when still a pup and with his brother, Ringo, who we discovered does NOT enjoy camping - it was a long night) — seeing him smell and watch and make sense of a storm and get excited about a squirrel… just the beauty of watching him receive the gifts of the experience itself… my friend remarked that it felt like I was living the world through many pairs of eyes… Ollie’s and Ringo’s in addition to my own… and that I was absorbing the place as much through Ollie’s joy as my own. And THAT reconnected me to remembrances of my now dormant spiritual practice of seeking to understand the world through the eyes of our plant and animal neighbors.