At the edge of wild and concrete
There civilization and nature meet
To root
And uproot
Break through cement
All that is inclement
For the soul
Become You, whole
Flourish
Beyond the toll
Beyond the toil
Gently find
Your toes
Lightly dancing on soil
Feel the warm sun on the concrete
And in spaces between
The strongest ones grow
Milkweed and cosmos
Inner Strength
To flower
Your heart-soul
Sovereign divine power
Find your mojo
Receive your Grace
You don’t have to earn your place
By Alicia Kwon Copyright 2025
The Juniper tree that sits next to this little baby milkweed, which, by the ways is now all grown up, was once a potted Christmas tree a year I could’t bear to cut one down but my inner child wanted a real one, not a fake one. I thought it wouldn’t make it, but I felt better planting it than dumping it out to die. So I planted it with love. I added leaves. I nurtured it with my heart. And it’s been over seven years and it’s thriving. It has occasional struggles where I pull of dead needles and add more leaves. We all need tending. But right next to my drive way, it’s doing great!
Do you real eyes your struggle makes you strong
And yet you don’t have to earn the right to stand
To sing your song?
You’ve been innocent all along
You’ve fooled yourself
You’ve played at doing wrong
Or getting it wrong
Or having others think you did
But the truth, inner kid
Glowing
Growing
Up YOU
Is that Infinite
Birthed Your Song
And it’s a gift
You cannot lose
Only think you’ve lost
The only thing Real is nothing
No-thing is absolutely real
And that is the primordial birthplace
Of your new reel
That one based on the truth you were created Perfect
Unique
Sovereign
Source-Speak
Ing
Through Uniqueness
That comes
When you re-member
The ember that becomes a flame
To unleash the atomic power
Of your soul
And use it to tend, warm, nurture and burn away lies and oppressions
Without creating new aggressions
Self-mastery
And Wildness meet
When the fire
That is YOU
Becomes a controlled burn
For you come from the uncontrollable
And by learning to control yourself
You unleash your uncontrollable nature
To bless all life
By Alicia Kwon Copyright 2025
Anecdote to share:
“I became a Patriot on the 4th of July,” I said to my husband with half a deadpan expression and a twinkle in my eye.”
“Oh?” “I’m all hears to hear what about this,” he says, wondering what’s coming next.
“Well I was outside and the fireworks were going. I couldn’t see them but I could hear them, and the sky was clear and full of stars. Fireflies were everywhere - in the garden, on the median and where the tops of the maples meet the sky,. And I thought, “yes, this is it. Fireflies instead of firecrackers. And a truly star-spangled banner in the night sky.”
My husband nods, encouraging me to continue my train of thought. “And I looked at the median and thought, “We’ve colonized it with a natural environment where before it was previously a monoculture lawn. Colonization is very American. So yeah, that’s pretty much how I became a patriot.”
Later I retold the story to our son. I added, “Also, I love your dad, so in that sense I am into that pat - but not the riot. We don’t need to have a riot.
Give your favorite dad a pat. We don’t need the archy either. Unless its an arch of trees. I have said before why I am not an anarchist and any more I subscribe to any school of political or religious/philosophical paradigm/world view that ends in “ist” or “ism,” but I might be an arborarchist. Simply in the sense of adoring trees that arch toward one another gracefully, affording friendship, shade a bit of romance. Do notice how when they do, they often seem to lightly hold hands, intermingling branches like fingers, or even kissing? Do you see the light that shines through the darkness, a pure heart lighting the way beyond every storm? It’s always there, regardless of if you can see it!
I also discovered a wonderful new combination: yogurt and pudding. Who says you can have the healthy thing and the treat at the same time instead of debating whether you should have your main meal before your dessert? As you know, I’m a fan of dissolving false dichotomies, and no less when it comes to putting yogurt and pudding in my mouth as a simultaneous simple pleasure festival for my tongue than when it comes to politics, solving humanities problems and how to garden.
I came upon a term called Wild Tending reading a fellow substacker’s piece not long ago, and it really resonates deeply inside my being as what I do when I garden instinctively.
The median strip with the fireflies is an example of that: I didn’t do much. I have, over years wild tended my front yard, mostly by adding stumps, planting a few herbs, gently tending here and there, sprinkling seeds now and again. Early on I added some Paul Stametz mushroom powder designed to support the local mycelium. Around that same time I planted milkweed seeds from the garden of an ancient best friend I lost touch with when I left facebook. But before that happened and after she ditched me for the mean kids in junior high, then found me seventeen years later and apologized, she sent me milkweed seeds, along with some others, “so that we would have the same seeds each growing in our gardens.” It was very sweet. The milkweed that now comes up year after year is a tribute to the power of making amends, feeling connected (yes I still feel very connected to her even though I doubt we will “talk” again in this life,” and remembering that good people can get lost for a little while, but not stay lost. Although that year was really painful for me and I left school as a result of being isolated and bullied on top of the pain of losing my best friend, I didn’t know that weeks later, the same thing happened to her. She felt that he had gotten what she deserved and she also left the school. It took her several years before she felt worthy to have a social life and make friends again. By the time she refound me, we were both well into adulthood. She had found a blog I wrote called Quirky Grace and on it is a picture of me and my son. “You looked exactly the same,” she said. After apologizing, she confessed to me that she had momentarily gotten caught up in the wave of power that she felt being part of that mean kid group. What an expression of humility to admit that! She is such a gentle soul. May we all have compassion for ourselves and one another as we come home to our True Selves.
The bee you see below is connected to that friendship and to the loss as well as as the amends that were made. Bzzzzz: Beauty comes from our mistakes when we recognize them and seek to own them, make amends and be compassionate with ourselves and others!
Do you see the broken places in the stem? We have had some very naughty animals this year who have become quite assertive. Yet the stem, bitten in two places, managed to heal well enough to allow this flower to flourish. It endured our most recent storm, which you can see toppled the solar lights just beneath it! Resilience is happening. You are same essence of resilience that can survive being broken multiple times, in multiple places and still say, “I may be on my side, but I am blooming beyond those who tried to eat me and the storm that blew me…I am BLOOMING!
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