success

Constructing Social Capital

The future is a place of construction. What happens will be built on top of what is being done today. It’s easy for me to look back to search for answers, but the future is a place of dreams and aspiration. It can be a place that welcomes me if I build toward it today.

Where do I want to go? I like to come up with new ideas and new ways of organizing information. Other people have their own destinations.

The concept of social capital is useful for making a successful quest. The resources in the form of people and organizations whom I can connect with; people I can get feedback from and who can help me move from the origins of an idea into its completion. Social capital can be just as necessary as physical capital.

These memoji can represent some of the ways to build social capital. Depending on loved ones and people who care about the same things. Using physical resources to combine efforts. Building social capital by having something appealing to share. Finding people who want to come along toward the same goal. Having an idea that inspires people.

By building on their inspirations, many people could build a new future. Trusting that it will be successful is daunting without also constructing some social capital.

I believe many people currently are impoverished in their social capital. They might not belong anywhere and just need someone to help them climb up the mountain of fulfillment. Perhaps they feel unable to make something beautiful or reach the summit.

Social capital is a resource that would help many overcome their struggles.

Landscaping Success Story

For several years I’ve known that my lilac bush has had some shrubs hiding within it. If I needed proof, in September, I saw a Rose of Sharon blossoming in the middle of it.

Rose of Sharon hiding in lilac bush

I knew there were also some maples and a couple other bushes intertwined. I had despaired of getting rid of them because they were so similar to the lilac branches and hard to identify.

However, I had a lucky break when I went out to do some other landscaping.

Most of the leaves of the lilac were gone but the other bushes still had their leaves. That let me pick out the branches to get rid of without damaging the lilac.

Lilac bush after other shrubs removed

All of the green amidst the branches were weed shrubs that I wanted to get rid of.

It didn’t take too long to clip off all of the unwanted branches. I wasn’t able to get rid of them permanently. They’re pretty well established with big roots. However, I consider it a win to be able to cut them back as much as I did. I wasn’t expecting that.

Lilac bush after other shrubs removed.
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This is what the lilac bush looked like after I was done.

It was a success that I wasn’t expecting.

My original goal for the exercise was to clip off all of the dead stems from my peonies which I was able to do in a separate part of the yard.

In the middle of the peonies is a sumac bush that I’m trying to discourage. I didn’t see it this week. I cut it back a lot not long before the weather turned cold, so it might not be able to grow back until spring.

All through the summer, my landscaping and garden would have different shrubs starting to grow. I would dig down around their roots as far as I could and then pull them up. I think I was successful at killing most of those before they got too big.