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That's two years of my life I will never get back...
Like a slow cooker, the days and months in the last two years have come to a final full boil and I am slowly regaining the components of my former life. If you find yourself trying to survive a stressful patch of time, go back to the basics. Replant the roots that kept you grounded and you may be surprised by your harvest.
I discovered that everything old is new again through planting a simple back yard garden. The obsession started with an abundance of compost in tubs mounded full of fruit and vegetable detriment generated in the pursuit of peeling and trimming to uncover the perfect form of the plant to present to our guests. I simply could not heave the scraps into the dumpster knowing the power contained in all those decomposing cells. I felt like my husband and I were being peeled and trimmed, yet our perfect selves were buried in the legal compost of our lives.
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| We are going to need a bigger, better garden next year. |
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| Note the boots |
Nothing says I love you at Christmas like a stacking compost bin called The Organic Choice Biostack from your boys.( Second only to the thigh high chicken boots from my Mother In Law Honey). Funny thing is that it is a summer gift that you can actually use starting in December unlike the trampoline: although that did not stop us from setting them both up on Christmas Day. It snowed continuously starting the next day and both toys were abandoned until the great thaw of April. Maintaining our delightful sense of humor and waiting out Mother Nature were priceless lessons in patience. You know how you get patience? You wait for it. Not funny when you are in the waiting room of life. But I suggest you find a joke or 100 jokes to laugh at and something to do with all that time.
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| If you build it... |
As we prepared the boxes and filled them with beautiful black restaurant and chicken coop blended compost, the days grew warmer and it was almost time to get the early peas and beans under their cool blankets of spring dew. I contemplated my situation as I emptied potting soil into the re-purposed plastic mixed lettuce bins and inserted each cherry, plum and golden tomato seed. Slowly the days marched on and the beautiful little shoots from the Jalapenos and Habeneros emerged out on the sun porch. Is it killing me or is it making me stronger ?; I kept wondering as I kept watch over these delicate early plants. I lost myself in seed catalogs and kept looking to the future of what this garden would produce.The only time we were not discussing the details of how to save our family business from our family was when we were planning rows of vegetables or working out how to build support structures for the peas and tomatoes.
Thankfully I had the strong support of my friends and employees to remind me to keep fighting the slugs and garden pests. Somehow we were all working our gardens and following our paths through various challenges. Whether we were running away from, or running towards our final destinations depended on the day and the crisis. I think it was Angelo's triathlon that got the TEAM RAIN spirit train rolling. Before you know it we were in three hour spin challenges and spartan races. Who could forget the New Year's Day Polar Bear Plunge? I think Color Me Rad was one of our highlights. I found me again and I knew I was here to stay.
Wild Ones Color Me Rad Video Diary.
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| Thanks Kate for the tutus. |
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Whether you are fighting for that last mile, or the extra reserve tank, your last chance, or the day's last hope.. Dig in, fuel up, cover yourself in the compost of friends and people who believe in you, take stock in your family and focus on what really matters. Grow your garden with the people and the things that make you happy. Do not be afraid to take a chance and laugh at yourself whenever possible. We are not perfect beings, but rather powerful cells waiting for our chance to blossom forth for the ultimate harvest. I want my legacy to be that I went hard and now I am going home.
Well two years gone is two years older, but never felt newer than this.
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| I chose My Path, and I will keep on it! |
Like a slow cooker, the days and months in the last two years have come to a final full boil and I am slowly regaining the components of my former life. If you find yourself trying to survive a stressful patch of time, go back to the basics. Replant the roots that kept you grounded and you may be surprised by your harvest.
