This year has already ushered in a list of new things for me… If I had to choose a word that seems to be trending for me this year, it would certainly have to be “NEW”… It isn’t a word I chose, but rather one that has chosen me.
Our house got a new paint job. Boy did it need it. My husband and I are not completely done with that project but between all the aches and pains from the bending and stretching it has required so far and the weather, it is taking us some time to complete.
I got a new greenhouse this year. Tom got it for me for Christmas. With it has come some learning curves as well as an opportunity to retrieve it from over the fence where it was thrown in a recent windstorm. I’ve learned that owning a greenhouse doesn’t necessarily make your life easier and that being a plant mom can be as exhausting as having a puppy. And that when you are going out at 3:00 in the morning to check on them, you should probably put on shoes.. and a bra.
I’ve taken a couple of great online classes learning about soil and herbs and making tinctures, etc. I’ve even taken a class (in person) on Homeopathy that blew my mind. I’ve learned that in the arena of gardening, be leery about those that call themselves experts as I am convinced that the more knowledge you achieve in this area, the more you discover that one can have a lot of experience but they are never an expert.
I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone this year to facilitate some classes on the benefits of planting an herb garden, which is new. I do not like standing up in front of others as every insecurity that I fight starts screaming so loudly I can barely recall the topic of my talk… But… New ain’t bad and I am learning.
Last Fall I ripped out all of my herbs and this Spring am beginning again. New. It’s all new. It’s been scary. It was quite easy for me to stay the same. Work with the ones I had. Feeling accomplished because they were big and beautiful and…. thriving in most cases despite me and despite the places I had planted them back when I didn’t know what I was doing.
I’ve met some new friends so far this Spring, but honestly, I’m just working harder to have a deeper connection with my old ones.
By nature, I am much more of a FALL Season girl than I am a Spring one. But, this year, I have a whole new appreciation for the complexity of Spring. Coming out of my own winter experience I can appreciate more the unseen things that happen in the waiting of those cold dark dreary days. I better understand that there is life happening even if it is happening where others cannot see it. I am celebrating even in my own life those tender shoots bursting from the ground reminding me that there was beauty in the waiting.
Life is hard. It isn’t always the “party” that I think it should be. I’d rather not have to do the hard things.. and in the last couple of years, there have been hard things. Things I felt called to do that I would rather have not had to do… although now I know that I would have missed out on the blessing and the healing had a chosen not to do them. Like my garden, my life, on so many levels, was uprooted and new things planted. it was a brutal process… but I am starting to see and feel the reward.
Spring is known to be the season of New beginnings… So bring on the New beginnings.
A Cowgirl Called 