So, there’s this insane paranative lunatic guy I know. He’s a mad genius who hasn’t yet managed to properly aggravate those who would rather he went away, and thus, much to our benefit, he is still at large. Now this cat is crazy ten ways to Sunday; but one of the best ways he is out of his mind is that he teaches people how to respectfully observe and relate with the intricately interwoven ‘living calendars’ of places, and the organisms that weave these webs together.

This is called ‘Phenology’, which, from the Greek: φαίνω (phainō), “to show, to bring to light, make to appear”, that is to say, he ‘makes the living relational calendars emerge into the light of awareness’. But what this guy is doing isn’t a purely scientific or objective approach to understanding natural phenomenon; is is a practice-way of understanding and living our own nature and roles as well as getting a read on crucially important ‘news’ relating to changes, threats, and opportunities. See, before we had news, we had nature. Books? Same thing. Language? Same thing. And so on.

Try to understand what this might mean and how shocking it is to have a direct experience of these matters, instead of our kind of calenders. Because these calendars are not so much accountings as they are living expressions of the stories and changes, growth and loss, of intricately co-intelligent relationships. This is not merely a calendar, but an infinitely deep ‘living book’ written not by human beings, but by the webs from which our own intelligence finds and takes its sources. And this guy actually exists. In fact, I am glad to count him my friend. His name is Ryan HeavyHead.