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Appleseeds by Niki Mathias's avatar

The symbolism of this is breathtaking. Thank you for this: "Apocalypse was always the chestnuts’ time to shine... their moment is the rebound..."

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Undistorted, Radical Clarity's avatar

This reads like a field guide for anyone who’s convinced their creative canopy has already burned—and a reminder that the burn‐scar is where the next root system takes hold.

What struck me most isn’t the miracle of the chestnuts themselves, but the genealogy of obsessions that kept them alive: Bommer’s cartographic mania, Huvenne’s restoration stubbornness, your own “deranged” devotion to a species most people can’t even identify on sight. 
It’s the chain-reaction of private fixations—passed hand to hand across centuries—that turns catastrophe into seedbed.

Publishing works the same way. A book proposal feels, at ground level, like paperwork; step back a century and it’s part of a much longer mycelial network, one that may carry a voice further than the author can imagine. The “ruined monastery” stage of a career isn’t a verdict; it’s the moment when the overstory finally opens, the audience changes shape, and the seedlings that were starved for light get their first sun.

So here’s the takeaway I’m grafting onto my own work:

Write like the arboretum will be abandoned.

Because one day it will—and that’s when the trees have to know how to survive on their own.

Thank you for letting us walk the trail with you and remember that every extinction narrative has a secret seed bank waiting to rebel.

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