Note from Robbie & Steve: This is our 4th year hosting interns from Professor Liz Carlisle’s Agroecology Program in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California Santa Barbara. Each intern has engaged fully in Condor’s Hope as we work and explore side by side and learn from each other. This article features the reflections of our Spring 2025 intern, Sophia Delap.
by Sophia Delap
Under the heat of the sun, I examine the gnarled branches of a grapevine that’s lived on this Earth longer than I. I lean into its tangled mess of leafy new growth, wondering what wisdom it holds from the decades it’s been standing. The grapevine whispers its knowledge to me as I prune and disbud. This is a moment of reciprocity between plant and person, where both entities give and receive.
In these Spring months, I’ve found how pruning a grapevine, or perhaps any woody plant, is analogous to life. I imagine the rootstock as our foundation and upbringing, its trunk as a continuation of our childhood into adolescence, and the sprawling branches as a number of pathways we have taken to get to where we are now.
Looking at the grapevine is like looking into a time capsule of the past, present, and future. The process of pruning, as I have learned, entails consideration for its previous and current growth, informing how we prepare the plant for the future.
I first approach the base of the plant to remove the suckers, perhaps symbolic of how we spend too much energy dwelling in the past. Removing the foliage in the old growth tells the plant to redirect its energy into the growth happening above. When we let go of the things that no longer serve us, we channel our energy into the opportunities that the present gives. With a plethora of new vines, we choose which to keep and which to cut away to allow ourselves room to photosynthesize.
With each vine we choose to keep, we open ourselves to “fruitful” new experiences. Each bundle of grapes reminds us of the blessings we receive from growing into new spaces.
I thank this grapevine for reminding me of what it means to live abundantly.
