Summer Intern Reflection by Isaac

Before arriving at Holy Wisdom, I already knew that I loved environmental conservation work, but I hadn’t had a real, solid working experience in land management. As endlessly discussable and loveable a prairie is, there’s only so much learning that I can do in a classroom. This has been a summer of rapid growth for me as I built my hands-on skills. Thanks to this community’s support, I now know the buzzy, bright rush I feel when I’m waist-deep in the prairie, different species popping out as I scan the landscape for their unique shapes and shades of green. I have learned to use a barrage of tools, and to explain to a team of volunteers exactly what a ripe lupine pod looks like.

But there’s an industry secret that no one told me about until I got to experience it this summer: Conservationists are capable of time travel. I can see this time-traveling ability in the eyes of the Land Management team and so many people here. They can somehow see the past and future when they look at the landscape, a hilly time machine. One can look at the land and see it as it is right now, yet scattered over it are millions of clues about what it has been and will be. For a place of such peace, the whole landscape here is calling out with things to notice, to learn about, to tend to. Though the prairie might seem static, it is ravenous for care and attention.

To know about what the land used to be, I can look at the pile of stones on Rockytop and know they were moved there. I can see the woody skeletons of last year’s compass plants and grasses standing among younger growth. I can ask the sisters about what the land used to look like, when there were horses in the barns.

To know what currently is, I can fix my gaze on tiny patches of prairie and notice the ants clustered on aphid-y Golden Alexander. I can ask volunteers the names of the plants and birds that I don’t yet know. I can walk the paths and learn the way that goldenrod looks right before it blooms.

To know what will be, I can work with the land management team to string trim, rip out an invasive, scatter seed, and help manage a prescribed burn. Looking at the land, I get to imagine what the work I’ve done will produce. Maybe this oak I’m protecting will be 60 feet tall soon: I can see it when I look at the gawky young tree in front of me.

I am so excited to continue my conservation work as I graduate, to keep using my skills and my knowledge that I gained from working here…and especially to keep practicing this time traveling, to fine-tune my ability to notice what a landscape is capable of, imagining the world-to-come. I’m proud to be able to go out into the world and say, “Holy Wisdom Monastery was my first experience in conservation.” Thank you for welcoming me into this place so unlike anywhere I’ve been before. I’ll see you in the future that’s already growing in the prairie.

Thank you all.

Isaac