Life at Home

A swallowtail butterfly pauses to sip nectar from Buddleja ‘Lochinch’ in a Palo Alto garden designed by Verdance Landscape Architecture

Like most people, we’re working from home these days, navigating unforeseen challenges such as mastering videoconferencing technology… determining rules for who gets to use which space when… and maintaining focus when even noise-cancelling headphones aren’t enough. If this is the extent of our problems, we are the lucky ones.

But most of us are also living with something else that’s new: fear. And however appropriate it might be — or even helpful, if it keeps us home or at least practicing “social distancing” — this chronic, low-level anxiety is draining.

Even before the pandemic, tens of millions of people in the U.S. were suffering from anxiety or depression. Adding very real worries about our health, our finances, and our loved ones — while also losing social contact and breaking familiar routines — will spike the number and severity of these cases. And for those courageous enough to serve on the front lines as healthcare workers and first responders … well, the stress is unimaginable.

(Fortunately, many therapists and counselors are transitioning to a tele-health model, and compassionate organizations such as Reloveution are providing support services in creative new ways. For anyone who is feeling like they can’t go on, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline remains available 24x7 at 1-800-273-8255. Help is available.)

Verdance was founded to, quite simply, create places that inspire life. For the better part of two decades, through prosperous times and difficult ones, our work has celebrated the potential of the home to be a place of refuge and rejuvenation. Today, we are keenly aware that our work is more important than ever.

Wonderfully, landscapes and their ecosystems are unaffected by the virus that terrifies us; which makes them ideal places for us to not only shelter but also draw strength. In the garden we can witness beauty in each flower, life bursting forth in each leaf, birds and bees going about business as usual, entirely unconcerned with our concerns. Watch any of these, even for just a minute, and fear evaporates… leaving us stronger and better able to manage the anxiety that will, unfortunately, creep back in the minutes and days to come.

If you can, wherever you are, step outside, or just open a window: can you smell the damp soil, or even the sweetness of flowers? Can you hear songbirds, or perhaps the buzzing of bees? Or perhaps you can hear… silence. The reduction in traffic and airplane noise has been an unexpected benefit for many of us. If you’re able, if safe social distancing and sheltering orders allow, take a little walk: just to the end of your driveway, or to the end of your street, or hey, all the way around your block if you can. You’ll notice that Nature is alive and well, with lots of details and surprises put in place just for your delight: bright green lichen growing on a fence post, tiny piles of earthworm castings in the dirt, a hummingbird hiding in the hedges. Notice the details, breathe the air, forget the fear, let Nature soothe you.

None of us knows what tomorrow holds, so drink in this moment. And if we are lucky enough to get a tomorrow, do it again. And again.

Let’s go to work.