Three years after retiring, I finally signed up to be a UC Davis Arboretum volunteer. On our first day of training in January this year, we introduced ourselves. Every person shared stories of tender connection to the arboretum; riding bikes with their kids; walking with family and friends; discovering new plants for their own gardens. I didn’t know these people. Yet, in the warmth welling in my stomach, I felt an immediate web of connection to them, wound with strands of love for our shared place.
For one of our training sessions we learned to prune woody plants. I was excited to learn this skill, as my fear of harming a plant makes me a timid pruner. Stacey, our teacher, demonstrated on an overgrown flannel bush that our group would later prune together. Her technical knowledge and practical experience were impressive. But most striking was how Stacey seemed to connect to the plant’s spirit, past and future, as she explained where to make pruning cuts that would best support the plant...