Cultivating Consciousness at Hillcrest Community Garden

My pal, the wonderful Toronto artist John Clapp, wrote a piece recently about the Hillcrest Community Garden that is worth a read:

Among the plots of fruits, vegetables and fragrant herbs in the Hillcrest Park Community Garden, a frail figure with a long, snowy beard sits in a dilapidated wheelchair, hunched over a large pot of soil and looking rather like an aged Charles Darwin.

Meet my friend, Darryl-a 52 year old man with advanced Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative disease that systematically destroys bone and muscle cells and severely diminishes motor dexterity.

Covered in compost, garden trowel in hand and with awkward,  jerky motions he somehow manages to successfully transplant a few of his favorite varieties of flowers.

Upon completing the task, I ask him what he would like to plant next. He responds in his usual barely audible voice: “sunflowers.”..