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Loree's avatar

My favorite line: “There is no master plan, just me and my shovel, eyeing where the light lands.”

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

Thank you for noticing this one. I like it too. :)

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Cass Dowding's avatar

This resonates! I wrote something so similar back in January. When I need to be grounded by all the happenings in the world I can’t control, I go to the garden. I think there’s something bigger at play. Like how Elizabeth Gilbert explains how ideas come to us, but are not from us... And I wonder if love is rising up out of the soil and floating around, looking for souls who get it. Souls who are filled with hope and calm and peace when they go to the garden.

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

love this 🙏🏼

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T J Mitchell Now@Days's avatar

Yes that line "where the light lands" struck me to. My wife and I live on a wooden acre+ & I'm always observing that. Not so much for shrubs, perennials small trees I have a good handle on their requirements but for the vegetables herbs we may want to plant. Love this essay on what has been a passion and a way of life for me.

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Jo Thompson's avatar

Beautiful - thank you 💚🌱

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

Thanks for reading, Jo!

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🌱🌸Katherine🌸🌱's avatar

Beautiful read. On a topic of planting trees, I thoroughly recommend black mulberry. It takes care of itself, no complicated pruning required and provides enough berries for people and birds to gorge on for weeks

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

I meant to say interesting…it was early!

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

Oh, interested thought! 🙏🏼

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TheGardeningKind's avatar

This was wonderful

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

Thanks for reading! I look forward to following along with your process.

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Jack Bentz SJ's avatar

Yes. I think I have finally put aside the possibility of being a nonchalant gardener. Even though my life as a Catholic priest is exactly what I want, there is room to want the garden as well. Am one with you in the seed fantasy moment of Gardening 2025!

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

Cheers and enjoy!

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Jeff Titon's avatar

This resonates with me, an organic vegetable gardener and apple-grower for many years. When I'd just moved to Brown from Tufts in 1986, I brought in a basket of tomatoes to our first fall faculty meeting. My colleagues were grateful but also thought it a little odd. As I got to know them, I understood that it was, indeed, a little odd. So after another year or two, I stopped bringing tomatoes.

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Robin Marie MacArthur's avatar

I imagine at least one colleague missed those tomatoes. Glad you were you in that context! Nice to connect with you here, Jeff.

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Jeff Titon's avatar

Yes, years later, reminiscing, one told me she'd missed them.

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