Report From PIA – August 21
I am almost at the one-year anniversary of my promise to blog every day, and for the past three entries have written about what I’ve learned.
Being in the gardens for the past 350-odd days, I’ve watched for what is meaningful and satisfying, and have realized that another gift is that I’m actively looking in gratitude.
In this time when media feeds on horror stories, angry rants and bizarre tales, a quiet message about appreciating where we are isn’t likely to be the most popular url, re-tweet or facebook link. A blog that starts in the garden and speaks about appreciation of a quiet, everyday, mixed-blessings life won’t “go viral” or make news. Yet I’m sure in all my being that there is value here.
Knowing that I need to write here daily keeps my eyes open, and since I’m starting in a garden, I’m more likely, perhaps, to look for beauty, humor and wonder.
So here I walk, among flowers, tomato plants with early blight and Heuchera plants that have dried up despite all the time I’ve spent with the hose. Here I am, watching the birds and earthworms that wriggle out from under the weeds I’m pulling. I sit icing a sore hip, wondering if my thyroid will wake up and work again, and praying for family members who are in need.
Here I am, telling myself to just get on with it already. Stop hunting intently for what blogging has provided over the past year, and move into the present moment and the life that’s all around me.
Tomorrow, a return to cultivation.
