Dirty Hands: A Sabbatical Beginning

The sabbatical project began about eight years ago, when I started working with a small environmental nonprofit called Lands and Waters. By small, I mean one paid employee--that would be the organization's founder. Call it serendipity: I found by sheer luck an organization that breathed and acted upon many of the thoughts concerning the environment and modern urban and suburban life that I had been mulling for years. For me, that means getting people involved in nature right where they live. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors, and when I find time to get into the woods or on the water, I take it. But to get kids and adults truly familiar with nature and the environment means bringing the outdoors as close as possible--and that can mean right outside one's doorstep. The mission of Lands and Waters: protect and preserve the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through hands-on projects with elementary and middle-school students at their schools. Hands-on! That means working with kids to build their own rain gardens, bogs, sponge gardens, wetlands, vernal pools, and forests. In other words--nature on their doorstep. Sign me up!

Another title for this humble blog could be "Dirty Hands: A Sabbatical Year," because there's no doing this work without getting one's hands literally dirty. I've chopped my fingernails down to nubbins so that I don't have to fuss as much with keeping dirt from collecting the fingernails. I kick off my shoes before walking into the house. I have pants, shorts, t-shirts, and shoes which are dedicated to the sabbatical work, because I can't get those clean enough to wear for any other purposes. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Although the title refers to an entire year, the actual length of the sabbatical is six months. But add in the eight years I've already been active with Lands and Waters, plus the application and interview period, which began in July 2011, by the time I began this project in the first week of May, and when I wrap up at the end of October, it will have been more than a year.

I'll wrap up this little intro by stating that faith is probably the most important aspect of this project. I don't mean religious faith. Instead, I'm referring to faith in the environment, with our help, to become healthier. There are times when I'm a doubting Thomas (to use a faith-based metaphor) about whether a seemingly small step will be successful. A good example: About five or six years ago I wanted to plant a tree in front of my condo unit to replace another one that had fallen in a storm. The Lands and Waters president--Jeanette--suggested planting a sycamore, as well as two more in the same general area. Sure, that sounds like a good plan, I said. Then she showed me the trees: they were sticks. Charlie Brown trees. Not the trees that you usually pick up at the plant nurseries. I waited and waited for those trees to mature--faster! faster!--despairing because they remained at the stick-stage uncomfortably long for my impatient self. Jeanette said stick (oops, pun) with it, the trees will come along. And sure enough, they have. The one directly in front of my place, which I'm looking at right now, is about 40 feet high and has leaves that span at least nine inches. Yup, that's it above.

That little stick of a tree is much like Lands and Waters projects: small things that become great things.