If you’ve never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden. ~Robert Brault
I love the flavor of Takoma Park. Ever since I found my first basement apartment here 11 years ago while looking for the “alternative” part of town, there was just something about it that I loved. After living in community for 4 years at a holistic retreat in upstate New York, I knew I couldn’t just move into an apartment complex in the suburbs. I needed a good health food store, trees, gardens, prayer flags and a little hippie magic if I was to survive urban living. Enter Takoma Park. While I have lived in a variety of places since that time, the joy of walking or driving through Takoma Park has never left me. Whether it is the archway of cherry blossoms on Flower in the spring, the azaleas on Philadelphia or a blanket full of giveaways in someone’s driveway there is always something that catches my eye and brings me joy. My latest favorite is a beautiful garden on Carroll Avenue full of red and green leaf lettuce and all sorts of other gorgeous looking plant life. I pass it coming and going as I head to the mind and spirit center every week. Without exception, I catch myself admiring the sheen and color of the leaves, looking to see how much it has grown or whether anything has been harvested yet. I have a deep appreciation of gardens and I am thrilled that this one is in plain sight in the front yard because not only is it bold and beautiful, but it offers a front row seat to how amazing the growth process is.
My love for gardens is rooted in an adolescence spent tilling, planting, weeding and picking our family garden with my siblings—which as a teenager seemed to me to be a small urban farm. While I didn’t like it at the time, years later I found that I missed being able to work in a garden. I missed the smell of the earth, the miracle of growth and the excitement of getting food out of my own yard. For me, there are few things more satisfying than getting your hands dirty and working in harmony with nature to create a harvest that feeds and blesses not only your family but your neighbors as well. To me, growing something from a seed is nothing short of magic.
Likewise, a similar magical process is involved in our own growth. When we recognize that our mind is nothing short of a fertile field, we are able to take the action required to create an abundant harvest. More than just a metaphor, the same processes and principles that result in a beautiful garden in our yard work equally well in our lives. Keeping the soil turned over, planting seeds in their season, fertilizing and watering to maximize growth and pulling the weeds are all requirements in creating the life that we desire. A vacant field will still produce life, but it will only yield what has been grown there before, what blows by or what another leaves in it. Our lives, like a garden require time, energy, vision and attention to bring forth a nourishing harvest in its season.
Spring is an excellent time to check in with and work on your garden. How’s it growing? Have you planted what you want to harvest? Are you pulling the weeds that choke out growth? Look around this week and see how your garden is growing. Next week I’ll talk about tips to grow the garden you desire.
In the meantime,
Be Blessed,
Laura
www.genuinejoynow.com
twitter: @genuinejoynow
