Look around you at the lovely northern woods. It is the peak of summer. The sunshine filters down through a full canopy of leaves. Some late wildflowers may still be blooming on the forest floor. It is a calm and peaceful scene.
Now look down. What is supporting the visible forest, and in a figurative and literal way, supporting us all? The soil, the “root domain”, is the basis for land life on our planet. Most of us don’t give it a thought, as it is dark and inaccessible to us. What is going on under the surface? I envisioned a place of unexpected color and pattern, filled with life and activity, where things are not always what they seem on the surface. Going deeper, one may contemplate the connectivity of the universe.
Reading the essay by soil scientist and geographer Francis D. Hole, “Some Patterns in the Earth Beneath Our Feet”*, I was taken by his description of the beauty to be found in the living soil. He recommends starting “outdoor soil clubs” similar to bird watching societies. Hole suggests becoming “—amateur soil walkers, exhuming soil profiles for temporary admiration— contemplating with affection ‘the root domain of lively darkness and silence.’”
* Wisconsin Land and Life, Edited by Robert C. Ostergren and Thomas R. Vale. The University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.
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