I’ve been looking out of my therapy room window, noticing the increasingly long grass of my newly laid lawn. I’ve read so many suggestions this year to let lawns become more diverse, longer, wilder, more friendly to insects, birds and wildlife. I thought I would give it a go, despite my conditioned discomfort that lawns are meant to be uniform, short and all green.
It’s been delightful to see increasing numbers of birds exploring the grass, particularly where it is longer. I like the wispiness, the variety, the beginnings of some colour on the lawn, it just looks real and alive.
It puts me in mind of Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s encouragement to us to connect to the wild within. It can be easy to conform, to flatten yourself and make yourself fit in with the cultural norms, the fashions, the expectations of others. And yet, each time you do, you lose just a little of your inner vitality and sense of life.
We are each different. We are each wild as well as tame, in our own ways. We blossom and thrive when we tap into our own inner beings, and bring expression to what we find within.
So, while rewilding lawns is a great idea, alongside it, how about rewilding you? What do you want to do to express more of who you truly are?
Not my lawn...but lovely nonetheless!