By: Rebecca Liston
In 2019, Las Peregrinas began publishing a newspaper. It was no easy feat to bring the idea, borne around Sarah’s kitchen table in Ypsilanti (our HQ), into being. And true to form, there was some disagreement among us all at various points in time.
(Important note: We here at Las P. believe heartily in the notion of healthy disagreement and discussion. It is from this that all the best things are created. As Stella says, “Reasonable people disagree. And that’s a good thing.” Anywho…I digress!)
One such disagreement came around what to call this new newspaper of ours.
I wanted to call the paper “Road Apples.”
Sarah, evermore classy than I, respectfully declined the idea.
And while I am totally cool with that decision, I still have within me this deep desire to publish something by that name because, gosh darn it, it speaks to the way that I live, and what I believe in.
“Horse poop?” you ask. “Horse poop speaks to the way that you live and what you believe in?!?!”
Okay, yeah, it may be a bit of a stretch to wrap your head around this one, Dear Reader, but let’s look at horse poop in a slightly different way, shall we?
Road Apples are, by definition, the wee piles of horse poop that accumulated on the roadways back in the days of horse and wagon travel.
It is, quite literally, crap left on the road by the horses who travelled before you.
But here’s the cool part.
That crap could be collected, and dried, and used as fire-starter.
It could be formed into “bricks” and used to heat homes.
It could, in cold weather, provide a type of hockey puck for kids to pass around with sticks.
It could be used as an excellent compost.
And it’s a key ingredient in adobe bricks!
And also?
Horse poop created new growth.
You see, horse poop contained seeds from plants eaten along the way, and from those piles of poop, new plants (some not even indigenous that area) were born.
It’s Metaphor Month in Stella Orange Land this month so let me take a page out of her book, so to speak:
There are folks who shall travel the Road of Life before you.
Along their journey, their trusted steeds shall poop.
When you, following behind, see someone else’s crap, do not dismay!
For it shall light your fire.
It shall warm your hearth.
It shall give you something with which to play.
It shall provide nutrients for your inner soil, strength to your own foundations.
And it shall plant new seeds, the harvest from which will be enjoyed for years to come.
And remember this also:
Every time crap happens to you and your trusted steed, you’re providing Road Apples to all those who follow.
And I don’t think it gets much better than that.
With love and Road Apples, from one Traveler to Another,
Rebecca Liston is cofounder and business intuitive at Las Peregrinas, a creative and consulting agency. She specializes in anchoring folks in a clear-eyed understanding of which path is theirs for the taking. She’s got one foot in the land of the subtle and unseen, and the other foot firmly planted in the land of ruthless pragmatism. Oh, and she swears like a sailor, which makes us love her more.
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