Why do we do this?

Some times you wonder why you do things. I don't oftne wonder why we have gardendwellers FARM. At the FARM I can be anything - a child, a caretaker, a healer, a mother, an explorer, and adventurer or a teacher. In the garden I can be relaxed. I can be stressed, if I want to and I let the weeds get the better of me. I can be creative, imaginative, and knowledgable. I can even be stupid if I want to. There are times the garden teaches me things. Many things.

A week ago I was weeding (oh really, aren't I always weeding?) and as I weeded I was thinking about a particularly troublesome situation that I had been in . I was taking my anger out on the weeds, which in itself is good therapy, but it wasn't helping much. I felt myself getting more and more agitated the more I thought about the problem. Then, out of nowhere I was showered with light pink petals falling from the sky. I looked up just in time to see the flowering crab beside the garden send another shower of feather light petals my way. Just a breeze at the right time of senescence in a flowers life? Yes, most likely. But I got the message - let go. I had to let go of the problem and move on. I get it. The rest of the weeding was quite pleasurable.

Tonight as I was weeding - again - I was wondering why we are organic. It would be so much easier on me if we used chemicals to do the weeding for us. The beds would look much cleaner - not to mention my fingernails would too. As I weeded along the row of parsley filled with ash seedlings, grass, and lambsquarters, I noticed someone watching me.

This is what I saw. Mr. Toad had made his home right under the young parsley plants and was quite happy just waiting for his next meal. Maybe a tasty bug of fly.

Then I got the message again - we are organic because it is good for our gardendwellers. It is good for the toads, frogs, birds, bees and others that live here and share our garden with us. It is their home too and they don't want it contaminated. I got it.

These are only two of the lessons I've learned in the garden and if I just take the time to listen, my garden schools me on many things every time I enter it. I just need to 'get it'.

Come out and play with us in the garden -- see what lesson it has for you.