Category: personal growth

Finding maturity in my garden

Indeed…

My best friend brings out the child in me. He who shall not be named brings out my inner Terminator. Online friends reveal my inner comedian. My sons draw the love and patience from my heart and soul.

The outdoors reveals my true self. Getting older and slower, weaker. More inclined to sit and listen, smell, feel, taste and imagine. More apt to let the wind plant for me than to bend or kneel.

NO, never kneel. One day I may not be able to get up; meanwhile, those knees hurt so bad.

The world is so beautiful just as it is; anything I can add is frosting on the cake.

Future wildflowers…

Or maybe a little bit of cleanup after the winter winds dropped things on the ground…

Have you noticed how pink spring can be?

Raucous red gets my blood moving again. I become a one-woman riot!

Speak up, speak out, be all sides of yourself. With graceful honesty.

Love, your garden.

Gardening with Calvin and Hobbes…in the maritime Pacific Northwest

If I get my timing right…the unexpected showers can be a definite blessing. For example, it’s spring and I finally read the back of the seed packs of some native wildflowers. Oh great…”best if planted in the fall.”

Since I am planting in the spring, I kept on reading. “Plant on the surface of the soil and water daily.” Sigh…I am already feeling like a slave to my garden. Not really. A watering can does the job – easier for me than dragging a hose…

Lines from a poem written by a friend:

“we are what we are not; we are what we want to be…we are both”

This cartoon and this poem reminded me why I love C & H so much. Because I am both.

Like the weather…like my garden…like Calvin…I can be obstinate, sarcastic, hot-headed, imaginative, and egotistical.

Hobbes is rational and aware of consequences. playful, loyal, kind, and objective. So am I.

Spring weather can be both the lion and the lamb. My gardens always start with somewhat of a design but quickly lean toward chaos. The squirrels and small birds help with that.

If you’re into astrology…I, born in March, have a sun in Pisces and my rising sign is Virgo…where Saturn also resides. My astrologer friend used to say, I’m a Pisces (deep down inside) who thinks she’s a Virgo.

“If I only could bring logic and order to the world…if everything and everybody just did things my way…oh forget it, that’s too much work. Back to daydreaming…”

Gardening: growing ourselves

A garden can provide us with food, beautiful flowers, and herbs for health and added deliciousness, but it can also add stress and even unnecessary competitiveness. We can link our results to our identity more than is healthy.

This is why I find solace in chaos gardening. I do what I can to the best of my knowledge and abilities, working with what I have and what I am. I am content to step back and let nature do its thing. Gardening is self-expression; it brings me peace if I can laugh at my mistakes; it allows me to grow as I watch the plants grow.

These plants and I have a deeply symbiotic relationship. I give them what I can; they return the favor. If our relationship becomes too stressful, we take a step back. Eventually, we come to terms with our differences and remember what it is that gives us joy in our relationship.

Our imperfections, mine and my garden’s, are what make us unique. If I work with nature, with presence and care, both of us will be in some way beautiful. Neither of us are concerned with trying to impress anyone.

As I work with care in the moment, it is the process that brings us joy and peace. The results are beautiful, in their own way. Chaos with a touch of Zen