Tending the garden

“One spring, I decided I would grow my first real garden - a vegetable garden.  I had no idea how much work this was!  First I had to till up the grass, which could not be done by hand - I had to rent a machine to help me do it.  Then I had to clean out the grass and prepare the soil.  The soil had good nutrients, thankfully, because of the region where I lived.  Late winter, I had started seeds indoors and had sprouted several things already - cucumber, tomato, kale to name a few.  As I prepared to do my planting, I thought well I’ll just stick them in the soil and water them.  No.  I had to dig small holes for each.  This was backbreaking work and I couldn’t get everything in as quickly as I thought.  I had to take many breaks.  Within a couple of weeks, I got everything in the ground.  

Around this time, weeds started to grow in my garden.  Weeds?!?!  Oh my.  Weeding the garden is tedious, back breaking work.  And once you’ve weeded it, there are more weeds already growing in.  I realized I was in a bit over my head.  Perhaps my garden was too big, I thought.  I pictured the end result and it kept me going.  Also, I realized I loved to have my hands in the dirt.  

I watered the garden daily and watched the small plants grow.  Eventually I began to see the literal fruits of my labor.  Large cucumbers, many tomatoes and large clumps of kale among other things graced my garden and my kitchen.  One day, feeling particularly proud of my work, I was cleaning kale in the sink and a caterpillar practically jumped out at me (that’s what it felt like, anyway).  I screamed with fear.  I knew a caterpillar could not hurt me but it was unexpected and on my food!  I learned a new lesson about garden growing - clean your food very well.  Boy, having a garden sure was a lot of work!  I had never been so tired and yet so satisfied as I was that spring and summer.

I think about this first garden of mine and it brought more than delicious fresh food to my kitchen.  I was experiencing a major life change at the time and was in a great deal of pain.  Looking back, I think growing the garden was quite cathartic.  I also remember a thought coming to me one day while weeding.  I realized that weeding my garden was much like clearing out my own undesired traits and things in my life that were holding me back.  It takes work and can be painful.  But sometimes we have to do a bit of weeding in ourselves to make room for new growth and new blooms.  I try to remember this when I feel the tangle of weeds inside.  If I use my (garden) tools, I can grow beautiful things in myself.  And it has worked so many times.”

-Anonymous

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