The Garden of Patience, Presence & Inspired Thinking

What brings you inspiration? I was asking this question of myself as I raced to plant some flowers early a few morning’s ago, before the sun came up over to the side of the house where the deck is located. Summertime and all that it brings--the ability to walk outside barefoot, hear wind chimes making music with the rustle of the trees; longer days, the ability to float in a pool or play in the waves at the ocean—is inspiring to me. It brings me so much joy and a clear space to both relax my nervous system and fire up my creative spirit. Gardening, though, doesn’t normally fall into my general Top Ten list of warm weather activities. Though I suppose it is beginning to rate somehow and somewhere for me today, as I am devoting a blog post to it.

Now, I love flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits. I love indulging in the harvest and I have a deep appreciation for sitting next to a space where peppermint and basil are growing and flowers decorate with abundance. It’s getting the aforementioned to grow and tending to the many needs these living, growing creatures have throughout the season that tends to roadblock me some.

For example, I had a little “incident” last week with some sunflowers I was working on growing from seeds. (Before I go any further I want to state that last year at this time I planted both tomatoes and sunflowers from seed—the first time ever—and I was successful. Whether it was beginner’s green thumb or not, I did it so I actually have proof that it is possible. Just sayin’.) When it came time to water, I had gotten lazy. While I usually first take recycled water that collected in the tub in the dehumidifier, put it in a metal sprinkler can and water ,on this particular morning I just poured the water from the tub on to the beautifully early sprouting sunflowers. And then I walked away. Several hours later I came to admire the sprouts that would miraculously grow to be my very favorite flower. To my horror they were now horizontal, uprooted and laying in mud. Horrified that I murdered the sprouts, I went into immediate denial, walking away and adding insult to injury, let the soon-to-be dead sprouts fry in the sun. I wish I could tell you that I was kind and compassionate with myself. To anyone else I would have likely said, one of many things that would have held the space for the potential of quick redemption and comfort. I went directly to “Bad Mela!” Not-very-inspired….or kind.

After I moved through bad-you-woe-is-me, I reached out to two friends who happen to not just have green thumbs but, really, green skeletal systems. I believe one was a flower in another life and the flower kingdom would welcome her back in a heartbeat. The other is the poster child for co-creation and I’m convinced could build a breathtaking garden in a garbage can.

The friend who I believe is part flower, said it seemed as if it was about looking at things another way, upturning and upheaval for something different and working with what is, The flowers had a message for me. Wow. Kind of like being in an inversion in yoga, it’s interesting to look at stuff from a different angle. The other friend simply asked why I just didn’t put the sprouts back in the earth, at the time of the drowning, so that they could continue to root and grow. This floored me. I never thought of that, as I heard the first friend’s message in my head, once again, about looking at things another way. That might have been inspired thinking but it was out of my realm on the fated day the sunflowers died. I wasn’t able to see past my own story, and mine didn’t have a happy ending.

So, this morning when I asked myself about inspiration, I was actually putting an additional three sunflower seeds into Mother Earth. These sunflowers take about 70 days to grow. So, I’m excited, hopeful and, yes, even a bit inspired to see what might occur by late summer as I tend to my garden of presence and patience along the way.