about this site

Refuvescence is an independent publication of creative nonfiction by Zara Maria Zimbardo. A space to help metabolize wonder and horror. To decompose toxic inheritances. To tend gardens of joy, justice and perpetual weirdness. A home of animist shimmer and Earthling heartache. Also, baby Crone post-menopausal alchemy.

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What does the title mean?

"Refuvescence" is a neologism I created in collaboration with the Bureau of Linguistical Reality. Its definitions include:

1) The almost miraculous moment of transition when compost is infused with fresh oxygen and turns from smelling rank to smelling sweet and is now fertile.

A recognition within it that this moment, which seems like magic, is the communal, cooperative, alchemical work of millions of individuals: the communal work of bacteria, worms, fungi and other organisms. An acknowledgement that death, rot and decay are the necessary fodder for life, growth and beauty.

2)    A collective moment of transformation when what seems mired, foul and utterly messed up in a society transforms into a progressive and uniting force. Where rotting structures and ideologies are turned or composted into fertile ground for new growth.

3) The agents of transformation within a rotting culture.  Those who do the vital work of decomposing what needs to transform so that habitable futures may be possible.

Refuvescence is ubiquitous in these times of accelerating decay and emergence.

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