Ants, Aunts & Community
From Gale Lawrence, The Beginning Naturalist
“Ants are abundant because they are well-adapted and successful insects. The twentieth century doesn’t seem to be bothering them at all. Unlike many other abundant and successful animals, however, it’s not the well-adapted individual that spells their success. It’s the well-adapted communities. One ant when left to its own devices would lose all its motivation for survival. Individual behavior is related to life in the community, and without the community an individual ant wouldn’t know what to do.”
My Aunt Gale was a trailblazer. She moved from Washington DC to Vermont in the 70s, stopped shaving her legs, became a vegetarian, and only wore Birkenstocks. She moved next door to the Audobon Society and begain volunteering to lead children on nature walks. The children inspired her curiosity so she would choose one topic a week to get really interested in. Magazine clippings and news articles filled file cabinets galore. We tease that her file cabinets are the original google! She’d spend the week studying and learning as much as she could and then she’d write about it. All her musings led her to write books that contain her findings. Her books are all about getting us back to nature and seeing the unseen around us. When she wasn’t writing, two weeks a year she would camp by herself to escapse the noise of the world. Just her, a tent and the Vermont woods to keep her company.
Every summer we would go to Vermont (my dad’s family home) and I’d get two days- just me and Aunt Gale. We’d hike out to her retreat and spend the night talking until we drifted off, waking to a view of Camel’s Hump. Or we’d sleep and at 2am she’d wake me and we’d hike into the field with lawn chairs. We’d sit and talk and watch the Perseid Meteor showers streak through the sky. We’d stay awake waiting for another brilliant flash to inspire us. Sometimes we’d sleep on the pull out couch and just watch Gunsmoke to pass the night away!
Aunt Gale knew my interests and loves. At least once a month I would get a package or a letter with her special purple stamp “Snail Mail from Aunt Gale” (with an image of a snail) and it always included an article about something just for me. She gave us moon phase calendars every year for Christmas. And words of advice all year long. Aunt Gale passed away last week. I knew I had a copy of her book somewhere. Found on my shelf, I opened it, only to find it with a dedication to my mom, dad, sister and me in 1978. How on earth do I have this copy? I have moved 19 times since then! But here it was…. The dedication, “It’s not much… but it’s a beginning! Love, Aunt Gale”.
Maybe that’s how it all starts… It's not much, but it’s a beginning. So here we are, it’s our 19th year in business in Greenville. We have survived because of each of you- our community. Just like the ants, we wouldn’t have made it through a pandemic, a move and all the noise without our time together. And with the advent of the twenty-first century and even more noise in the world, we are ready to create something different with you. We don’t have two weeks to go wander in the woods as a group. (But how fun would that be?) Instead, we are offering you a few hours to remember who we are as a community. Cell phones off. Connections with other humans, on. Welcome to our newest series - (re)Connection. It’s not much… but it’s a beginning!
Our first (re)Connection event will be Sunday, October 6th from 1-4pm. Leave your cell phone behind. Bring a blanket, a board game, books or journal. Come hang in Rain’s Garden or in the studio. Our theme for October is UNITY. Come together just as you are! Find time for introversion in a beautiful space among like-minded souls or find time for connection and laughter as you share a game or a cup of tea. Juice Lab will be here providing juice and nutritious snacks for our October gathering. Each event will include a special theme and a small business / community connection providing food and drinks. These events are free to everyone to attend.
Let us become a well-adapted community away from electronics and reconnected to the slow rhythms of life and nature. Let us remember who we are, free from the noise of the world. May this time together bring out our inner ant and our inner Aunt Gale - connected to our community and curious about the world.
