Seeing Nature as a Gardener (Part 1) With Brett McLaren and Rachel McLaren

Learning How to See with Brian McLaren

Center for Action and Contemplation

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the way we see nature could be the key to a more sustainable future? In this two-part series, we're turning to see nature as a gardener. In this conversation, Brian speaks with two of his children, Brett and Rachel McLaren, about their love for nature and gardening. They discuss their childhood memories of exploring and appreciating the natural world, the joy and importance of gardening, the value of diversity in plants, and the challenges of restoration and preservation. They also explore how their experiences with nature have changed their perspective on the world and their role as caretakers of the earth. About Brett: Brett McLaren is the Chief Strategy Officer of MetaPhase Consulting. Brett is responsible for overseeing business development, strategic partnerships, development of corporate capabilities, marketing, and proposal operations activities. Prior to MetaPhase, Brett supported large scale federal IT programs at federal consulting firms including Booz Allen Hamilton and CGI. He holds a B.A. in Computer Information Systems from James Madison University and an MBA from Georgetown University. He is a PMI-Certified Project Management Professional, and holds Agile SCRUM and Change Management Advanced Practitioner (CMAP) certifications. Outside of work, Brett enjoys trying new ethnic food, fishing, the outdoors, and coaching soccer. About Rachel: Dr. Rachel McLaren is an associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Iowa. Rachel’s social-scientific research revolves around the exploration of how individuals navigate and derive meaning from significant experiences within their relationships, encompassing various facets such as conflict resolution, handling transgressions, and managing emotions. Her recent work has focused on sense-making and conflict in parent-adolescent relationships. You can find links to her research articles here. Resources: The transcript for this episode can be found here. To learn more about Rachel's work, visit her website here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I had a really special relationship with my grandfather.
0:04.7	I just loved everything about him, my mother's father.
0:08.8	One of the things I remember from my earliest childhood was visiting him,
0:12.8	and in his yard, he had beautiful flower gardens.
0:17.4	As soon as the long winter up in Rochester, New York was over, he would go and buy petunias and
0:24.3	marigolds and later he had a vegetable garden as well. But he loved to have beautiful flowers
0:31.9	and vegetables growing in the yard. I have this primal memory of a giant tree in their backyard that was
0:41.6	blown over in a storm, and so they cut off the stump of the tree. And at the base of this stump,
0:50.3	he filled it with flowers. In the absence of the big beautiful tree now.
0:56.2	It was just a feast of color and beauty and wonderful smells.
1:02.1	When I was a little bit older, my dad became a gardener, and he loved to grow tomatoes and squash.
1:09.5	And when I became a little older and I was a teenager for a couple of summers, I worked on a farm at a summer camp.
1:16.6	I remember we built a barbed wire fence six feet tall to try to keep the deer out of the garden.
1:23.6	And then that fence had to be adjusted to seven feet and eight feet and nine feet
1:28.4	because we learned how high those deer could jump. And I have such good memories of
1:34.7	planting and harvesting tomatoes and potatoes. All of my life, I've enjoyed gardening. Today,
1:43.3	I've got a little over a dozen mango trees in my yard and
1:46.9	in fact right now it's mango blooming season and so i'm anticipating uh enjoying the the sweet fruit
1:54.4	later this summer i've enjoyed learning how to graft and prune and how to identify and treat diseases and deficiencies.
2:03.9	And when you're a gardener, you see the world differently.
2:08.4	In fact, a friend of mine says there are really only two ways that we see the world.
2:15.5	One is like a warrior or a knight, and the other is like a gardener.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Center for Action and Contemplation, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Center for Action and Contemplation and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.