Thursday, February 21, 2008

Today hope returned to my life. After spending some amount of time de-icing my car in the parking lot after work, driving to the library (closed!) to return some items before their actual due date, I returned home to find that my basil seeds have actually germinated! I was astonished. Last spring was a dismal year for my flowers. I simply abandoned them in favor of self-pity and air conditioning. This year I am attempting to rekindle my gardening passion armed with a few peat pots and an assortment of envelopes from the Burpee company. I have an assortment of annual herbs (dill, parsley, basil) as well as sage and even a few annual flowers. I hope my one and only fluorescent light will serve as surrogate sunlight long enough to get them started. By the time they are transplantable, we should be through with all of this icy mush.

There is no therapy like gardening. Setting a seed, watching it sprout and grow, caring for it like your own child. Working the soil in the springtime feels like talking to God. It's deep and hypnotic, revealing truth and meaning. It promotes a feeling of connection with life itself. Peace, I guess.

I wish I had the land to have a real garden...one like my grandfather's. Potatoes, corn, green beans, squash, watermelon and the most luscious tomatoes ever grown on this earth. He had a true talent for gardening, for growing anything, yet he made it seem effortless. There were apple orchards, peach trees, cherry trees (my favorite), gooseberry and blackberry bushes, pear and pecan trees. If only my own grandchildren could visit such a wonderland. I never knew how much love and care lived in the rich dirt of my grandfather's garden until now...when the sight of one tiny sprout makes this soggy, cold, wet February day a great one.

Namaste

2 comments:

Tim said...

Glad to hear that you are feeling better. This has been an really long, cold, yucky winter. Just hearing of that tiny sign of new life in your indoor garden was enough to lift my spirits! Thanks for sharing.

BTW, I'm have a make-up yoga class this Saturday at 9am. Might do you some good to come!

Anonymous said...

I agree. Gardening is good for the soul. I love getting my hands in the soil, even if it requires digging out from under my fingernails afterwards.

I try to wear gloves, but when I see one weed, I end up pulling 1,000!