The Edge Effect

My first real connections were with the land and its animals and plants.  Growing up on a ranch in a geographically isolated area of the High Plains, gave me this rare opportunity.   The opportunity to have the time and space to develop and build observation and reflective functioning skills. Skills stemming from the thousands of small interactions within daily routines.  Watching the clouds, the birds and the land was (and still is) a daily morning ritual.  It was more than seeing...it was also a feeling.  A sense of connection to the wind and the land and a fascination with the edges.

The edges seemed to be where all the happening was!  The edge between the tree grove and the prairie breaks were where we would most likely run upon the animals.  The deer and the coyotes as well as the livestock.  If I wanted to go and catch a horse in the trees, I knew they were usually along one of the edges.  They would escape to the trees in weather (or when I wanted to catch them,) but they tended to congregate along the edges.

I learned to observe closely for the edges.  The edge of the alfalfa field I was haying or the corn field I was irrigating.  The edge of the breaks or the edge of the giant storm fronts.

Later, I went to High School in town and then off to college and I was painfully aware of the edges.  I could see where the lines were drawn socially and where I stood.  These spaces between dynamic systems.  I used to find these places increasingly lonely.  Intuitively seeing the spaces in between, left me feeling as if there was something deeply wrong with me.

I grew up and had my amazing children, and learned about the edge effect in relationships.  The attachment happens in that space between one person and another.  Healthy boundaries did not cut us off from connection, but rather strengthened it.  Allowing each individual or system to have their identity within connection.  The edges of healthy family systems.  Where I was part of and yet separate from my family of orgin.

My work led me to study family and community systems and behavior.  The edge effect on engagement and healthy relationship.  When I learned about procedural memory and how my skills of observation and seeing the edge effect was not some anomaly that made me odd, but rather a gift from my childhood and the nature I love so much.

The edge effect in permaculture is where the overlapping systems produce the best growth!  I first realized the connection between my work in family systems and the permaculture design in Gais Garden.  I love the following definition found at the website https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/permaculture/permaculture-design-principles/10-edge-effect/.

"The edge effect is an ecological concept that describes how there is a greater diversity of life in the region where the edges two adjacent ecosystems overlap, such as land/water, or forest/grassland. At the edge of two overlapping ecosystems, you can find species from both of these ecosystems, as well as unique species that aren’t found in either ecosystem but are specially adapted to the conditions of the transition zone between the two edges."

 The following is an example of two ecosystems overlapping and the richness in the edges.

In my current work, I am working to see the edges between varied systems and intervention and hoping to help teams see the overlap where two systems can create a rich and productive landscape.

How would seeing the systems we work within as ecosystems overlapping promote shared vision and shared engagement?  Would the territorial-ism that pervades our work diminish if we embraced a permaculture mindset for our communities?

For the first time, I am deeply embracing who I am.  The many ecosystems and edges created by my varied background as a strength.  As valuable.  I no longer see what I don't have and am beginning to see the richness of what I do.  Instead of seeing where I don't fit or belong, I'm seeing the richness of the overlap.  The word art would not allow me to add: Childcare provider, preschool teacher, family preservation, wrangler....  I'm a dreamer and dooer.  An idealist pragmatic.  A lover and a fighter.  A lover of people and a lover of quiet space.  A watcher and a fixer.

It is the not belonging and the spaces and edges in my life where my greatest growth have been.  The time, spaces and people.  The transitions and changes where the richness lies.