When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
About a year ago, I bought my first succulents on a whim. I wanted a little piece of one of my favorite places on earth (the Oxford Botanical Garden) in my undergrad dorm room and purchased six succulents in two terra-cotta window planters. Since then, I've learned a lot about succulents, had some ups and downs, and expanded my collection. I'm living my 10-year-old self's dream and slowly accumulating a jungle inside my apartment.
Read MoreThe glasshouses were my favorite spot in the entire city. There were palm trees and coconuts, pitcher plants and lilies, lemon and orange trees. It was life, and life abundant. I could (and, in fact, did) spend countless minutes crouching and staring at the pond in the Lily House or trying to find every yellow plant to match my rain jacket. One glasshouse even included the corpse flower, which is a giant flowering plant that smells like rotting meat to attract flies for pollination. It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra, and this was the first time I'd ever seen one in person.
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