I'm for sure vibing with this post lately! Taking a moment to really see a plant as you walk by, to take a picture, write it down, learn its name, has opened my eyes to the world around me. Naming plants acknowledges their being-hood. I'm not good at writing down physical notes though, so my documenting gets lost in the conglomeration of digital information I save.
I've recognized something similar with land as a whole too, and only recently realized this is why people like to name their homesteads. When I talk about the land I live on I always feel at a loss for the right words. I don't like to say "my land" or "our place" because it conveys ownership instead of partnership. Giving place a name allows us to recognize it as a living dynamic ecosystem. The english language relegates anything non-human to the objectifying world of "it". Names are how we can get around that limitation, and have the power to change our entire perspective, allowing for personal relationship with Earth.
I completely identify with not wanting to call it "my land" or "property". Robin Wall Kimmerer has an essay about the "grammar of animacy" which is pretty compelling, on how a word besides "it" is needed for plants so that we view them as fellow creatures rather than inanimate decorations.
Since naming our home stead, I have noticed other people in my life asking "How is Fox Hollow?" more often than "How is it going on your property?" which I love. Naming "things" and knowing them is powerful. ♡
I'm for sure vibing with this post lately! Taking a moment to really see a plant as you walk by, to take a picture, write it down, learn its name, has opened my eyes to the world around me. Naming plants acknowledges their being-hood. I'm not good at writing down physical notes though, so my documenting gets lost in the conglomeration of digital information I save.
I've recognized something similar with land as a whole too, and only recently realized this is why people like to name their homesteads. When I talk about the land I live on I always feel at a loss for the right words. I don't like to say "my land" or "our place" because it conveys ownership instead of partnership. Giving place a name allows us to recognize it as a living dynamic ecosystem. The english language relegates anything non-human to the objectifying world of "it". Names are how we can get around that limitation, and have the power to change our entire perspective, allowing for personal relationship with Earth.
I completely identify with not wanting to call it "my land" or "property". Robin Wall Kimmerer has an essay about the "grammar of animacy" which is pretty compelling, on how a word besides "it" is needed for plants so that we view them as fellow creatures rather than inanimate decorations.
Since naming our home stead, I have noticed other people in my life asking "How is Fox Hollow?" more often than "How is it going on your property?" which I love. Naming "things" and knowing them is powerful. ♡