Within the garden. Among the city. by Jacob Sandoval, Garden Intern 2016

"I love Songaia, I love community...the people, the dandelions and the trees," but when the work week in the garden is over, there have been various times that I venture out into the Seattle city.

Though I still do enjoy being in the city sometimes due to the bounties of people, potential experiences, and the endless playgrounds of realities that are occuring between the different groups of people and lone wanderers. The tourists, the couples, the families, the homeless, and the working class. Stirring in a stew of metal, trash, laughter, casual encounters, love/hate, relaxation, workday hustle and sin. It all evens out though.

A type of life like this seems to put its existence on a downward slope towards endless dead ends, but until then it is a fun ride.

I like to experience life in the city to study the nature of people and society, which seems to be at a continuous flurry of disarray and commotion.

At the end of the day, I enjoy experiencing life within nature in it's bountiful sanctuary. We are all a different unique species of plant, bearing a different fruit from each of us. Each year we grow and improve at different rates. When we get strong enough to produce fruits, we continue to grow and produce higher yields. We adapt to the changes around us and hope for the best. A time will arrive when we've done our part, but the earth will thank us.

With a contrast of experiences, I get to witness the duality of living a life within nature and living a life among the city. As I expected, I enjoyed life within nature much more, but there was a lot to learn, observe and experience in the city as well.
One thing I realized was that nearly everything I saw in the city demanded to take something from me. Each corner had a tempting source of empty delight that tried to summon me to consume from it.
But when I am in a natural land such as in much of Songaia, it is quite the opposite. The land asks what I can contribute to it, as well as what it can contribute to me, rather than what can be taken from me.

Still I believe that living a life within nature is important in order for us to take example from it; its immovable peace, and its unstoppable power. At Songaia I get to experience nature as it naturally occurs. In the city I see many people acting in an unnatural way that they naturally grew into due to unnatural circumstances of life in the city.

I like to study the nature of plants to experience the power of their peace and the prosperity of their lives. A flower does not wilt under the stresses of the world, but it flourishes through the blessings of the earth. That is something us humans must remember within our daily routine In hopes that our routine is productive in enjoyment in what many say are the little things in life but are actually the big things.