A few days ago, the feature on my blog which sends emails to subscribers to alert them to a new post went haywire. Subscribers were getting emails every few hours, most of which were for posts I had written years ago. I was appalled. People who subscribed to Dirt Simple were getting spammed. The blog had suddenly gotten a life of its own, and was clogging up innocent inboxes all over the place. I apologize for the nuisance-truly. Debbie Saro, from Web Savvy Marketing, keeps a close watch on all of my wordpress websites. She knew there was a problem long before I got the message from Buck, and wrote to her. She deactivated that portion of the blog immediately, and let WordPress know they had a problem that needed fixing. Astonishingly enough, readers responded favorably to all those emails. I had no complaints. I had lots and lots of readers reading those multiple posts.
It happens all the time. Something in one’s life gets a life of its own, and all one can do is bring up the rear. Our past summer was cold and rainy. I had no say in that decision. Coping with the fallout fell to me. My wishes for stellar summer weather-just wishing. Nature, who most definitely has a life of her own, batted last- as usual. In mid November of this past year, Mother Nature decided to get sudden and serious about winter. By late November, we were chopping frozen soil out of pots in order to do the winter arrangements. We had no warning, nor did we have a grace period. One day all was well. The next day, we had trouble. I was irritated, but I wasn’t waving flags, writing letters, or sounding off on the radio. Why not? Every living thing-and this includes nature-is entitled to a life of their own.
Landscape design is work that I do based on the parameters set by the client, the parameters set by the site, and then there is nature. The drawing that I present to a client is not the beginning and the end. It may look like a document, but it is in fact a description of a big fluid situation. It is an invitation to interact. Plenty of times I have visited a site after I have drawn a design, and gotten back talk. I may call it back talk, but I know better. Any client has a life all their own. Any property has a life all its own. If I am confident, I will let anything pertinent to the design have their moment to speak back. Listening to what gets spoken back will greatly inform your design. My advice? Listen. Have you not had plants that let you know they are not happy where they are planted? Plants have a life of their own. On a good day, I am tuned in to what they see as a life of their own. On a worse day, I am moving plants around.
Just like you, I have a life of my own. I may tag along, or I may insist on forging my own way. I like having freedom of expression. If you are a subscriber who was annoyed about WordPress going rogue, I am sorry. Given how many of you subscribers read multiple old posts over the past few days, I may repost some old essays this winter. Who’s to say WordPress cannot have a life of its own now and then. The now and then is over-for now. Whew!