A leaf, a handful of seed —

“We are speaking of love. A leaf, a handful of seed — begin with these, learn a little what it is to love.” Truman Capote

By Charlotte Hubbard, VMN


Liza Field in her 11/12/11 Roanoke Times column, Love Selflessly, interprets Capote:
If you want to grow, to get wiser and freer, lose your fears and bring medicine to the whole planet — then love. Even a small leaf will do for starters, Truman Capote said. If you began with a leaf, you could love a whole tree, and perhaps even all the outcast characters who come to live in it, as he showed in his uplifting, grubby, lovely, funny and hopeful tale, "The Grass Harp."


Love opens door after door to the universe. Love one tree and you begin loving good soil.


Love soil and you grow grateful to the humblest humus, pine-straw and rotting apple. You love the air of decay, the worms and microbes, the songbirds that eat them, the singing toads, rainfall and snow, sunlight and the wind blowing mournful melodies through the trees and fields.


You end up loving the seasons, the past and future, life itself, the whole cosmos and the dark, holy, palpable mystery looming through it. You catch fire.

She continues with comments from David Sloan Wilson:
"Evolution is not just about selfishness," agreed another biologist, David Sloan Wilson, in an NPR interview this year. "How can selflessness evolve?" Wilson, a SUNY-Binghamton professor, says organisms, people and communities all evolve through altruism and cooperation — not greed.

When I began the Virginia Master Naturalist program, I was looking for a distraction. I thought I wanted some escape and mild entertainment in an otherwise demanding life. What I found was selfless group of experts, teaching and learning about “..the past and future, life itself…” and a place to catch fire!


Join us for our next VMN Basic Training March 2012 and discover what you can love selflessly. Click here for draft course information and application information.