We are being altered by the soil we touch. This is not a feeling; it is a biological event. Contact introduces microbes into our system. Specifically, bacteria like *Mycobacterium vaccae*, found in soil, have been observed to interact with our immune system and may trigger the release of serotonin in the brain.
The process is a quiet exchange. A chemical negotiation between our own body and the earth’s biome. We call the result happiness, a sense of calm. The language is imprecise for the transaction taking place.
The simple presence of green things is not the mechanism at work. A walk through a managed park is a transaction of observation, but gardening is a transaction of responsibility.
One must engage. To nurture a plant is to make a series of decisions and to live with the direct, observable consequences. You choose where to place the seed. You determine how much water it receives. You must respond to an infestation of aphids or the sudden appearance of powdery mildew. This active participation—this intervention in a life process—is what creates the unique layer of meaning.
During the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, small vegetable gardens were cultivated on balconies and in ruined courtyards, a stark instance of nurturing life as an act of will.
Gardening forces a different kind of time. It grounds a person not through abstract thought but through necessity. A seedling does not care about yesterday’s anxieties; it requires water now.
The schedule is dictated by sunlight, by rainfall, by the life cycle of a bean or a tomato. This provides a structure, an external rhythm to which one must adapt. A sudden frost in May. The day the tomato hornworms arrived. Finding the first ripe strawberry. These are not just events; they are data points that demand a response.
The resulting sense of accomplishment is not abstract either. It is tangible. It can be held in the hand. It can be eaten.
If you spend any time gardening, you probably understand what I mean when I say it feels good — despite the lifting, sweating and straining …
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