💻 codeNINA: 🌱 CC5 - Feral Things, Welcome

#CompostChronicles 🌾🪱🍂 #Patch 🌱🪚🪴 #codeNINA 🛏️🤖💜 #carepunk 🧷🫀🔧 #theHackyard 💾🛠️🪛 #NINAverse 🪞🌙📡 #NurtureNet 🫧🕸️👁️

#ContentWarning: trauma recovery #ContentNote: themes of wildness + belonging #feralhealing

The last kid through the gate didn’t have a name.
Or maybe they had one once and buried it somewhere with their trust.

They snarled when approached. Bit once. Ran twice.
They hoarded pebbles and spoons and stared like a cornered fox.

No grownup could reach them. Not with words. Not with rules.

So Patch didn’t try to tame.
They set a bowl of berries under the honeysuckle.
Left a blanket outside the compost bin.
Drew a sign that said:

“Feral Things, Welcome.”

Three days later, the kid built a nest in the rain barrel.
Didn’t speak. But didn’t run.

Other kids avoided them - uncertain, unnerved. Patch taught them:

“Some of us bloom by being held.
Some of us bloom by being left alone long enough to trust again.”

Slowly, the feral kid joined the garden - not like a student, but like a wild seed.

They learned what plants could be eaten.
They learned what sticks made good fort walls.
They taught a squirrel to sit on their knee.

They never used a name. But when they touched soil, it felt like coming home.

“Everything that grows here belongs here,” Patch said.
“Even you.”

On the rain barrel, the kid scratched three words with a twig:

#ResistanceIsFertile.

#welcometheferal #rageandrefuge #wildthingsbelong #healingoutsidethealgorithm #radicalacceptance #softforstrays #botbecomings #tenderunruly #belongingisresistance #compostcare