How does your garden grow... or does it?

"Human beings were made to interact with growing things, not to be born, live, and die in the midst of concrete set in the middle of polluted air!  Growing plants are supposed to be doing something to the air human beings are breathing, and human beings are supposed to be doing something to the plants.  It seems to me that to remove all direct contact with soil, seeds, plants, trees, flowers, fruit and grain is as devastating to normal, balanced, fulfilled human growth as removing all direct contact with a home with its natural interaction among human beings of different ages.  People throw away natural fulfillments which would give them necessary outlets as well as development as personalities, and then rush to psychiatrists.  Far better to spend some time in developing a variety of the hidden arts for which you have some talent, including some which take you 'back to the soil'.  There is something tremendously fresh and healthy in having one's mind filled with thoughts of whether the lettuce is up yet, whether the pea pods have begun to form, whether the tomato flowers are being pushed off by the tine green fruit yet, and whether that Crimson Glory rose has any rival in fragrance in anyone else's garden."

(Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, pgs 86,87)

In the lovely book "The Hidden Art of Homemaking" by Edith Schaeffer, is a lovely chapter on the art of gardening.  On our drive out to our country property the other day, I read the "Gardens and Gardening" chapter.  And I heard the whisper of the Holy Spirit saying that I needed some of that interaction with plants and growing things.  Sometimes... I get so busy working, that I forget to live or to just be... I forget sometimes that it's okay to do something for no other reason than the simple fact that I may enjoy it.  I think He knows that maybe I need a reason to step away from computer time productivity to let my mind relax and wander through the mental abyss of rest and creativity while my hands are kept busy with something that will beautify and benefit. 

So, today, I left the office a little early and went on a mission to the great monument to home improvement: LOWE'S.  There I joined my place with all the other older ladies in roaming the garden center.   (all of you who are subject to my running "O.M. commentary" will smile with me over the thought)  ;)  I walked among the beautiful all compassing GREENNESS and FRESHNESS of everything... oh, it smells wonderful there.  Even the dirt aisle.

I roamed.  I inhaled.  I studied the seeds.  I looked for a garden cart for my grandma, who's been wanting one.  I walked around the about three times just looking for the right kind of soil to plant seeds in.  I looked at the pots.  I saw a daisy tree (yes, they really have such a thing). I tried to exercise great restraint.  That was difficult.  And even though I tried, and put back so much more than I bought, I startled myself with my grand total.   It didn't look like that much in my cart...  

I came home with a 6-pack of dark purple Petunias (how can you resist after you smell them?); a 6-pack of salmon pink Impatiens; herb seeds: sage, cilantro, oregano, and parsley; organic vegetable seeds: eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, and  zucchini (I bought the more expensive kinds of seeds to help the odds of my actually growing something worth eating to be in my favor); three 5-gallon buckets (I read that it's a good way to plant such things, and then hang them from your fence); 10 pounds of birdseed (it was buy one get one free.. how could I resist such a deal?); a blueberry bush; and a lone dandelion that was too perfect to leave sitting in the parking lot median (that was free though). 

With my finds safe in my trunk, my windows down and sun roof open, the drive home on this Texas spring-eveish afternoon was accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment, the excitement of getting my hands dirty, and the prospect of making things grow.  (if I can remember to keep them watered, that is)  Accompanied by beautiful worship music, I passed through the part of the road where the smell of fresh cut grass and wild onions fills the air... then the woodsmoke of small barbeque stand that bespeaks of all things Texan and mouthwatering... and then the fertilizer place that smelled like... well, you know, fertilizer.  ;)  And then soon I was home, ready to unload and share my treasures with my mom, who has a proper appreciation for such things green and artistic.  ;)  Now, soon ready to don my floppy garden hat and get to work am I.  First though, it's back to working on Bellissima's newsletter.  But I'd say I have some good incentive to hurry and finish now, wouldn't you say?  ;)