We all know of GW Carver....the peanut dude, chemist, master agriculturalist. There's a side to his story that many of us never hear- that of his deep connection and reverance for the plants he worked with.
As a child, local farmer's wives brought him their sick houseplants for Carver to revive. He quickly became famous for his ability to bring these plants back to health. When asked how he worked such "miracles", Carver replied:
"All flowers talk to me and so do hundreds of little living things in the woods. I learn what I know by watching and loving everything."
He went on to study and work in the fields of agriculture, revitalizing the soil of the post-Civil War Southeast US ravaged by cotton monoculture by planting the peanut. He reported that he directly consulted the plants when searching for a solution to a agriculture/horticulture-based problem.
Many people became somewhat flummoxed over his methods. To their persistent pleas to reveal his secrets, Carver provided this reponse:
"The secrets are in the plants. To elicit them you have to love them enough."
"But why do so few people have your power" One of the visitors persisted. "Who besides you can do these things?"
"Everyone can, if only they believe it. The secrets are all here, in God's promises. These promises are real, as real as, and more infinitely solid and substantial than, this table which the materialist so thoroughly believes in."
And so for anyone who doubts the value of the exchange between different life forms, I give them a piece of this cake to eat. The story of Luther Burbank (which the Burbank potato is named after) closely parallels Carvers....which I will be posting soon.
The above information was taken from The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, which I highly recommen
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