Remembering Dana Meadows on the 10th anniversary of her death

Yesterday (Monday February 21) was Dana (Donella) Meadows' 10th year death anniversary. A reminder of this transition appeared on my calendar. On this date, in past years, I have often shared one of Dana’s reflections on love, ethics or systems. But yesterday morning I heard a public radio piece on the arrival of the seed catalogues.

All her friends know that gardening was an important part of Dana’s life, and the arrival of the seed catalogues in frigid New Hampshire was an important, joyful, part of the garden cycle. I can remember the trays of seedlings that would appear on Foundation Farm’s first floor sleeping porch, catching the sun’s rays through the window. Later there might be almost too much garden to mulch, weed and cultivate.

In memory of Dana, here is David Mallett’s rendering of “The Garden Song”

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

Gonna mulch it deep and low

Gonna make it fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row

Please bless these seeds I sow

Please keep them safe below

'Till the rain comes tumbling down

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones

We are made of dreams and bones

Need a place to call my own

'Cause the time is close at hand

Grain for grain, sun and rain

Find my way in nature's chain

Till my body and my brain

Tell the music of the land

CHORUS

Plant your rows straight and long

Season with a prayer and song

Mother Earth will make you strong

If you give her loving care