Maybe Daffodils Do Grow Between the Cracks

During the past few days, we’ve been staying in the magical place of Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. [Side note— Mt. Cook was renamed Aoraki to basically reclaim and take back the sacred land of the indigenous Māori tribe of NZ after European settlers tried to take ownership of it ~~~per usual~~~]

Along with learning general history and ecology of the land, our group has been studying plant identifications of New Zealand. From the feisty matagouri to the common coprosma, each plant serves an important purpose/role within a larger system. I’ve realized that while I was looking for daffodils (or little slivers of happiness sprinkled throughout life), I ended up finding that the daffodils were accompanied by many other beautiful flowers and plants—like the Manuka shrub (makes the best honey👌🏽👌🏽), the Mt. Cook Lilly, or the Matagouri. Each plant fills a role within a larger system that works altogether to keep its ecosystem maintained and running. If one of the plant species is destroyed, although it may not seem like a big deal, the whole system of maintaining the ecosystem can go to absolute shit—and the ecosystem can just collapse. For example, we’ve learned that an important plant identified as Matagouri in New Zealand is a Nitrogen Fixer, simply meaning that its roots take in nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it to a form that also strengthens the soil and helps other plants grow. YAY MORE PLANTS = MORE OXYGEN THAT WE BREATHE!!!!! If the Matagouri plants were to be burnt down in fires or grazed out of the land to build infrastructure, then the Nigrogen levels drecrease dramatically—> meaning all the other plants in the ecosystem start to fail too. So if all these plants are going down one by one because some dumbass wanted to build a casino or a mall where there are heaps of Matagouri, the nitrogen levels plummet, the other plants cannot receive helpful nutrients to grow, then the animals, insects, and cutie birds have nothing to eat or no shelter to live in. Crazy Sad Domino Effect, Right?

Plants are like people. People are not divorced from the land; we are married to the land and a part of it. Just like how plants work together to sustain our lovely little delicate planet, people should work together too. Humans are the strongest when we work together.

Don’t believe me?

My home country was hit with 2 devastatingly destructive earthquakes back to back— each nearing almost an 8 magnitude on the Richter Scale. It literally rocked their world— and NOT in the good way. The earthquakes hit at the most silent part of night: around 4 am when the world was supposed to be peaceful, quiet, and asleep. My grandmother, whom I miss very very much, still is scared to lay her head down on her pillow at night, in fear that the ceiling might come down on her in her sleep. She lives alone. My heart is still broken by the fact that I cannot save the people still stuck under the massive blocks of concrete. I cannot grant them warmth and comfort while they shiver away in freezing winter temperatures of below 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 degrees Celsius). I cannot hold the hands of the children who have lost their mommies and daddies that have been crushed beneath the rubble. It breaks my heart that I can’t help directly.

However, I started brainstorming. If I care so much about this, and I have friends and others who love me and care about me…maybe I can get them to care enough to want to help too. So I went to my handy-dandy Instagram and put up a wee little post. It basically said that people spend atleast $5 a day on WHATEVER, whether it be a laxative of an overpriced coffee, or even a drink at the bar. I told

them to skip the calories for at least one drink and donate the $5 to someone who desperately needs it because you missing your $7 caffeine intake for one day can serve as the only drinkable water someone in Turkey might get that day.

And crazy enough, it worked. Within a day my Venmo was BLOWING UP. I had friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends sending me money, so that I could donate the money collected to a trustable fund to help the earthquake relief efforts directly. Within 30

hours, I have raised over 1,000 dollars—just through spreading the word on an Insta post. CRAZY MAN. My heart exploded with happy tears. People from all over the world coming together to pitch in just a little tiny bit of their energy towards the same cause. Just like the plants I’ve been learning about in NZ working together to help maintain their world, people were working together to help out Turkey.

We are all apart of one world and one giant system. If EVERYONE directs just a tiny bit of our energy for the greater good, it adds up to A HECK OF A LOT of energy going towards the greater good—which can make a world of a difference.

If you want to do your tiny part, you can either Venmo me @ defne-bozbey , or you can directly donate to the fund I will be sending the collected money to at https://donate.tpfund.org/campaign/tpf-turkiye-earthquake/c465112

Because daffodils will grow taller if other people are willing to help water it.