I love learning about the nonhuman plant, fungi, and animal relatives in my community. I love discovering a new plant and get excited when I see (and hear) new birds for the first time.
But
I'm also wary of it becoming something like collecting rare coins or baseball cards or something. I want to develop a relationship with these kin, not just collate what I've seen or constantly look for "new" and "exciting" things.
1/2
I'm thinking about what Tyson Yunkaporta said in #SandTalk, that knowledge is about relationships and processes, not content. This is difficult to do, and I'm not quite sure how to go about this. But I don't want to just learn what things are, I want to know them, to be related to them.
@nathanlovestrees I guess one way of thinking about it is to ask, "What is the relationship, even indirect, between the last two new species I noticed in my area?" Maybe that bird doesn't eat that tree's fruit, but it may eat an insect that lives on the tree, etc.
That helps us to push back a little against our frequent human tendency to see ourselves as existing at the top of a pyramid of species significance that it's our job to catalogue.
@bioluminescently absolutely, that's a great idea. Another thing I try to notice is when I see/hear things—when certain plants leaf or bloom, or when I see/hear a certain bird for the first time.
My favorite time in the spring is when the wood thrushes come back to my area. It's always a special day when I hear them singing again
nathanlovestrees
bioluminescently