Making Room For Life

What skills or lessons have you learned recently?

In the last year I finally signed up to do bush regeneration in our local national park. It was something I’d planned to do for a long time, but COVID put it on hold. When things settled, I took it up.

The work is often slow and unglamorous. Much of it involves dealing with privet and lantana. I’ve been surprised by what I’ve learned along the way. A few hours of careful work can clear a space enough for native species to begin recovering. The change isn’t dramatic, but it’s real.

One of the first lessons was not to start with the worst, most overgrown areas. Instead, you begin at a healthier patch and slowly work outward into the harder ground. Progress comes by extending what is already good, rather than being overwhelmed by what isn’t.

Lantana, I’ve learned, does require technique—but it’s doable. You cut it back, poison the stump close to the ground, and take care not to affect anything nearby. It calls for attention and restraint. Some people baulk at the use of poison, but sometimes it’s necessary, provided it’s used judiciously and with respect for what surrounds it.

What I love most is returning to a place we’ve already worked on and seeing the difference it has made—light where there was once thicket, space where things can breathe, the first signs of new growth beginning to flourish. The lesson wasn’t as complicated as I imagined: careful work, done patiently, really can make room for life.

Daily writing prompt

What skills or lessons have you learned recently?