Stop and Feel the Sunlight: A Life Perspective with Maureen Heffernan
Written for Shoot the Breeze Magazine: Volume 00 - July 2024
It’s a beautiful thing to witness: a community coming together, each person contributing a small part to create something greater than they could have alone. There’s a folk story you may have heard, with titles that vary from place to place—stone soup, axe soup, nail soup, wood soup, and so on. At its core, the story is about the power of vision and the way a simple idea can grow when people believe in it and contribute their piece.
Imagine a man walks into a town and sets up a giant pot over an open flame. As the steam begins to rise, your curiosity is piqued. “What are you up to?” you ask, your interest catching his attention. With a smile, he replies, “I’m making a delicious stone soup! It’s a tradition of mine, and I love sharing it with people as I travel.” His enthusiasm is contagious, and as he talks about the soup, you find yourself drawn in. “This soup could use just a little garnish to finish it off. You wouldn’t happen to have a carrot or two to share, would you?” he asks.
Excited by the idea, you run off to fetch some carrots, thinking of the tasty soup that will be yours for the small price of a carrot. As you return, you see others have also become intrigued. Each person the man speaks to is inspired by his vision and agrees to contribute something—some potatoes here, a few stalks of celery there. By the time you add your carrots, 20 people have brought something to the pot, which is now nearly boiling over with ingredients.
The stone, being quite inedible, is eventually removed, and the soup is shared among everyone who contributed. What started as a simple idea—a seed planted by one man with a pot and a rock—grew into a meal that fed many.
Some might say the man tricked everyone into giving him free soup, but the truth is, without his vision and the stone to get things started, the meal wouldn’t have been possible. It’s a story about how a small idea, when shared and nurtured by a community, can grow into something extraordinary. And all it takes is for a few people to buy into the vision and contribute just a little bit. Planting the seed of a vision doesn’t have to come in the form of a man with a pot, it can come from something much more simple, especially when you are young.
Gardening isn’t something we’re surrounded by in our busy lives, stereotypically done by little old ladies, post-retirement. The idea of gardening also isn’t commonly introduced to children, this was often done by a grandparent. During the interview Maureen and I talked about her early life, as well as her focus on children’s education. There is this sense of joy and curiosity that comes from watching a plant grow from a seed. “You have a small window...to get that as a kid”, referring to that sense of exploration, Maureen’s early childhood was full of exploration, surrounded by nature.
Looking at a satellite view of Northeastern Ohio, you’ve got two colors as far as you can see; green and blue. Lake Erie to the north, the second smallest of the great lakes, still fills the horizon when viewed from ground level. Just a few miles into the coast you’ve got US Route 20, and Interstate 90, snaking their way from the border of Pennsylvania along the lake down to Cleveland. Once you’re past the highways, it’s all nature. Arboretums, farms, parks, woodlands, reservations, hunting areas, it’s a playground for anyone who wants to be outdoors. As a child, there’s an importance to play, to being able to explore the world. Most of our learning, even in our adult lives comes from undirected exploration. Maureen talked about this idea of non-directed, unsupervised play, and how it molded her childhood. Being released into the wild, running free through fields of corn, watching life happen. This awakened something in Maureen at this young age, she mentioned how mind blowing it is for a child to watch a seed grow into anything, let alone a corn stalk twice your size. This wonder, and love for watching plants grow set in motion the life Maureen Heffernan would create.
This exploration didn’t just stop at the area around her though. Maureen moved on to bigger things, leaving Ohio as an adult to attend Fordham University, conveniently located across the street from the New York Botanical Garden. From the coast of Lake Erie to the coast of the Atlantic, expanding her wonder to Sociology and English. Maureen put herself through school, working at the New York Botanical Garden across the street. This historical garden in The Bronx is over 15 times larger than our Myriad Botanical Gardens. Working here, Maureen quickly discovered she’d rather spend her time in these beautiful gardens over a corporate job in a stuffy office building. These gardens display massive collections of living plants, growing and thriving together, a museum come alive. This love for plants and gardens only continued to grow, after graduating from Fordham University, she made her way to Alaska. This year long trip had her again working with people and plants.
Alaska is an expansive state with a varying climate from border to border. Most of Alaska though is tough on all living things. With some months of the year seeing no sunlight, something both plants and people need to survive and thrive. Fairbanks, Alaska, is the second largest city in Alaska by population, and six hours away from the next largest city on a good day. Along with the wild sun pattern, Alaska has some serious temperature change over the course of a year, with recorded lows at -80 degrees Fahrenheit. Maureen Heffernan had the opportunity to work with the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, a part of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. One of the highlighted experiments aimed to select varieties of vegetables that have adapted to the climate and environment of Alaska. This horticultural research program tested over 100 species of vegetables, varieties of artichokes, celery, broccoli, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, almost anything you could think of to grow. It takes a lot of labor to maintain this many plants, especially when the idea is to maximize yield. Maureen from a young age immersed herself in horticulture, the study of growing plants.
Maureen’s career continued in both education, and taking care of people. Making her way back to Ohio, another graduation, and another job working her dream. With the American Horticultural Society she held different titles at different times, Seed Program Coordinator and Education Coordinator are some examples. Both titles that define the person we needed to run our parks here downtown.
Moving forward on the same trajectory, learning, growing, and caring for people. Maureen’s wholesome values took her across the world to Europe, back to the east coast in Maine, and finally here to Oklahoma City. Initially turning down a job offer for Tulsa, in 2011 she arrived. Little did she know she would help grow a significant portion of the city’s green spaces over the next 14 years. Under her leadership, both the Myriad Botanical Gardens and Scissortail Park flourished.
If you’ve lived in Oklahoma City for more than a few years, you’ve at least driven past either Myriad Botanical Gardens or Scissortail Park. It takes a lot of people to make the day to day happen across these beautiful spaces. It really only takes a few good hearted people, with wholesome goals to start change. Something Maureen said during our interview, “I wanted there to be a Farmers Market, and now we have a Farmers Market”, simple but makes a example. Maureen Heffernan may have been the CEO of these big organizations for over a decade, but she’s also just a person, a human being like you and me. Many events that go on throughout the city now stemmed from a few people with a common idea. A full-moon bike ride, another idea dreamt up on a hot summer day. Initially starting with a dozen or so people, turned into a city street takeover, hundreds of people. The idea of doing something just for the common good is my biggest take away from my time with Maureen. When we commit our time to bettering ourselves and the world around us, we just feel better. Parks, gardens, and just nature bring so much enrichment to our lives . Next time your feeling any abundance of emotion, happy, sad, frustrated, take a walk around a park, or get out and start your own garden.
