MOSS

The original plant, the first to bring calm to disturbed soils, my gift is fertile ground and everlasting renewal.

When our continents were barren landscapes, I was an eager algae openly drifting in the currents of Earth’s primordial oceans. Craving something solid to bond with, I made landfall as moss, the first of all plants. Eons before the “low-maintenance” succulents of pinterest polygon terraria, I was the first green life of the terrestrial experience. And to think of the forests who have followed me across continents!

I made a covenant with change. For when I was born, I had little else around me to relate to. I thought of myself as the skin of our soils, the shelter to keep it all in. My body became the response to the weather’s call. Plumping in downpours, parching in dry-spells. So attuned to extremes, when things got arid I learned to still myself near-death as landscape’s patient meditation, lively awaiting atmospheric rehydration.

Come lay within me and know me as nature’s upholstery. I can feel your deserving rest in the contours of my pillowy tufts. And on this humid day, as you stroke the grains of my velvet patterns, just know that I am thinking of all the ways we can renew when it’s dry again.