La Belle's Hobby Farm: Same Dream, New Chapter

Don't smother each other.  No one can grow in the shade. 
~ Leo Buscaglia

 

W

hen I first planted my tommy toes, I overwatered them.  They drowned in my care, unable to breathe and become what they were born to be.  And my basil plants grew so large and beautiful, I hated to take too much.

But the purpose of a garden is to both enjoy beauty and to share it.  If you are blessed enough with a bountiful harvest, but you keep the fruit on the vine (as I did with my basil), it will wither and die and give joy to no one save the worms.  I had to step back and seemingly neglect my garden in order for it to grow.  Funny how a little dehydrataion can make them shoot up and reach for the sun.

Now in mid-October, there isn’t much left.  But despite the chillier nights, the tomatoes stubbornly keep producing, and the plants continue to creep over the edges of the garden onto the lawn.  I pick the tiny red and yellow fruit and wonder if they feel like I do.

Trapped.

In many ways, I have found myself either dying on the vine or being "overwatered" with family issues these last few months.  All of a sudden, the dreams I cherished last fall began to close around me, suffocating my creativity.  Some is due to a long commute; a lot is due to the constant rub of a critical spirit tearing me down more than I can build them up. 

In the end, I have become one very drained, unhappy, and under-productive plant.  

But these are my dreams, my story, my garden.  And so I have the power to change the plot line, the dialogue, the scenery, even the boundaries.  My actual garden isn’t going anywhere, and I do have plans to expand it next spring.  It's just that I may be traveling to it once or twice a week to tend it instead of walking out the back door.

And that decision makes me (and my creative spirit) breathe a little easier.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

The farm post is feeling a little metaphorical today!  What other meanings does your garden (and nature in general) hold for you?