Creating a Joyful, Connected World with Rain Gardens
Sometimes I’m a really good procrastinator. I’m pretty good at showing up when I’m supposed to. But when I have a lot on my plate and my schedule is flexible, I can get myself in trouble..
There are so many temptations in this material world. One current one for me is a TV show called Station 19… I get to see firefighters heroically battle all kinds of challenges. I sometimes see them stuff down their feelings, and eventually see them deal with the same when they finally understand what’s the root of them.
The root of my procrastination is the same thing that’s at the root of why I do the work that I do. Some years ago, I created a personal mission statement: “I create a joyful, connected world by planting and teaching and singing and celebrating life.” The next day I learned that the converse is also true; I call that my shadow mission: “I create a sad, depressing, disconnected world when I don’t plant and teach and sing and celebrate life.”
The bottom line here is, I need to do things that actually bring me joy. If I’m not doing those, then, everything else seems too overwhelming, or too hard. My business, Catch the Water, is an expression of the passion inside of me that comes alive when I plant and teach and sing and celebrate life. It’s an expression of who I am at my core. I can’t help but be who I am.
However, growing and nurturing a small business sometimes feels like an uphill battle. And my inner shadow provides distractions so that the pain of the overwhelm is softened, for a little while.That’s part of me, too.
One reason I create rain gardens is simply that it brings me joy. When I’m in the middle of a rain garden project, shaping soil, planting plants, deciding what goes where, I feel free and I feel connected to earth and water and life itself. I feel in my bones that assembling complementary plants together is like stitching fragments of nature back together. It’s even better when I’m in the garden with a homeowner or a co-worker, sharing the joy and connection.
I know that slowing down rain and helping landscapes be receptive to rain is a concept that’s foreign to many, but to me, it’s like I’m creating a miniature wetland, a magnificent place where water infiltrates deeply into the ground, encouraging roots to grow deeper, which ends up making these plants more drought tolerant, more resilient.
Rain gardens serve multiple purposes. They filter pollutants out of water. They infiltrate water high in the landscape close to where it falls, decreasing flooding and management burdens downstream. They also give us an opportunity to plant plants that thrive in wetlands. According to a 2016 Ohio EPA bulletin (https://epa.ohio.gov/static/Portals/47/facts/ohio_wetlands.pdf), 90% of Ohio’s “wetland resources have been destroyed or degraded through draining, filling or other modifications”. That’s a massive loss of rich biodiversity. When we plant and nurture wetland plants in proper conditions in our landscapes, we also help to support the wildlife communities that depend on them for habitat. We can help connect habitat dots that would otherwise be fragmented.
Planting native plants — specifically ones that can withstand both wet and dry extremes — in rain gardens is a celebration of hope that these plants — and the diverse communities of wildlife that they support — still have a place in this world. Inviting that kind of regional biodiversity into our landscapes is one of the greatest and most heroic actions we can take to help our planet and our local communities adapt to climate change.
I need hope today. Not a hope built out of pipe dreams, but a hope that moves mountains. And because I need that hope to be alive and well inside of me today, I’ll continue planting rain gardens and filling them with native plants that are both beautiful and resilient. I’ll continue to remember that my mission is important for my sanity, for helping me thrive, and for helping to create a joyful, connected world.