As I reflect on the closing of 2018 and the potential 2019 brings,I feel all the forces of the holiday season; but overwhelmingly I feel the sense of renewal, growing in intensity, bringing with it the inevitable coming of the new year.
Renewal provides new opportunity from yesterday’s mistakes, missteps and mishaps. Why is it the new year brings even a small sense that we can let it go, put it behind us and start anew? Maybe we get our clues from mother nature and the powerful forces of renewal that allow our gardens to flourish year after year.
Something we talked about during office hours on Thursday night connected with me, bringing me to the force of renewal, connecting me to a site of importance and interest for me; the garden centers of Laguna Woods. I felt my original site for project 2 had become too broad and lacked a connection to a topic that made sense to me the way the garden center does.
Renewal is a force within the garden centers as individual garden plots come alive for another season with the lush growth of leafy greens, beans, peas and bitter melon. But you can see renewal in other ways as well. In the plots where the gardeners have decided to let the soil rest and rejuvenate itself for the fall and winter, preparing for new opportunities in the spring.
Sitting down to eat with loved ones is also an act of renewal; the nourishment, times with loved ones, the celebration of the new year as we reflect and think about new possibilities. In remembrance of my grandfather (a gardener), each year, as my family comes together, I make the applesauce.
Beans growing over a fence in fall.
One Reply to “Narratives: John Molendyk”
Dear John It’s always a pleasure to see how much you’ve learned over the course towards a critical thinking designer who recognizes the challenges and takes initiatives to improve and iterate. I think we all encounter the similar difficulties (I personally have had the same experience in terms of my research), but eventually, when you are able to make the connection, you reach an epiphany. Keep up the great work.
Renewal provides new opportunity from yesterday’s mistakes, missteps and mishaps. Why is it the new year brings even a small sense that we can let it go, put it behind us and start anew? Maybe we get our clues from mother nature and the powerful forces of renewal that allow our gardens to flourish year after year.
Dear John It’s always a pleasure to see how much you’ve learned over the course towards a critical thinking designer who recognizes the challenges and takes initiatives to improve and iterate. I think we all encounter the similar difficulties (I personally have had the same experience in terms of my research), but eventually, when you are able to make the connection, you reach an epiphany. Keep up the great work.