I have come to appreciate the value of composting - in my garden, my body, and my writing. An accumulation of nutrients comes with time and a diversity of input and experience. After prescriptions of broad spectrum antibiotics last year, I’ve been trying to rebuild my gut biome, with a variety of fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and spices. Similarly, my writing is nourished through variety and time, reading, staring out the window, time spent away from the computer and from any conscious thoughts about writing. Just like compost in the garden, the more variety of materials added and the more time it’s given, with regular exposure to the air, the richer the compost created.
Keeping your compost aerated, and never squashing it down, are key lessons the internet tells me. They feel like pertinent things for me to keep in mind as I dwell on my writing (and my body) - not trying to push it into any one thing but giving it the space to find its own rhythm and pace, keeping it regularly exposed to the air, letting it breathe. In essence, much of the work is then for it to rest. Or it might look like rest, pausing, reflecting, taking breaks and seeing it from new perspectives, while the worms and the microbiome get to work. There might be little to see on the surface but a great deal of activity beneath. Composting becomes an act of curation and care, of looking after this thing you have created/are tasked with managing, until it is strong enough to be sent out into the world.
I have loved listening to this interview of Ocean Vuong, and have borrowed it to add to my writerly compost heap. The phrase ‘I feel larger than the limits of my body’ taps into ideas of the mycorrhizal network of fungi, parallels also with disability communities. Horizontal rhizomes, inter-connected and mutually supportive without hierarchy, we share nutrients and resources, working collaboratively. Fungi are key elements in creating rich compost, digesting and recycling nutrients into a newly useable form.
There’s less than a month now before Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability is available in paperback! Available from your local independent bookshop or library if you can access them, it is available to preorder and exists already in hardback and as an ebook (available from 6th March 2025).
I really respect your respect for your creative process. This is actually quite hard to do in my experience! You're right that it's easier to prioritise the goals of others. Thank you for articulating this through the metaphor of compost 🍃 🍂 🪱 🐛 💚