Once i returned to school, i was wondering if my ocd issues with weeds in the spring and summer had to do with my misplaced 'teacher' approach: to trying to find a solution to things...how to help a kid with this or that, teach a skill, have materials ready- have my tools for the yard- digging in the dirt- getting down on the floor with the kids...I have realized that i cannot fix everything..although i am sooo proud of my neighbors who have taken up the plow (literally), i also see yards who still need a good crashing...BUT slowly improving, slowly finding its own way and style...while raising children, taking care of ill parents, working extra jobs, and getting old.....and then i thought of another 'gardening' lesson that applies to my life..... the return of the grasshoppers...(not the locust plague)..just the lowly grasshopper...
When the grasshoppers hit late in the summer, i just want them GONE! I did put some mealy stuff in the shrubs, but was afraid of getting the corgis ill...and you cannot spray them without a huge lesson in futility... they are kind of
creepy...and
crunchy if you test it! So, in guilt, i looked them on the internet...to find some reason why they should stay or go. well, they do not eat any evil bugs, produce any lovely butterflys, do not smell fragrant, nor look lovely upon my marigolds as they light upon the petals..That would be the butterfly. Even spiders eat evil bugs!!!
Do grasshoppers provide a benefit to nature? YES...they teach us one thing..
.just to BE. They are only good for who they are. (.unless you are a chicken, then they are a tasty tidbit). The birds dont bother with them, so the grasshoppers hang out on the shrubs, and jump around when you walk by, as in a greeting.
Soooo, grasshoppers are welcome so i can remember
to just BE...just let some things occur in my yard, in my work, family and life because it does..
and that is a lot harder than i think it is!!!!
Just let my students BE- let the kids with Down syndrome be themselves, let the kids with Autism hang alone, the kids with CP be slower, the kids with gifts focus on those, the kids with ADD be spatially gifted, and the slow processing kids observe..and take their time.. we shouldn't try to cure kids with disabilities, but find ways to help them connect and be part of this lovely world.
.to just be..
