26 Jun Getting Lost in Nature
My holistic doctor offered me the best cure for stress: get lost in nature. While he may not have been speaking directly to my love for gardening, that is where I find my greatest reprieve from the stresses of life.
The pumpkins, grown from heirloom seeds that date back centuries, are making great strides. With an awesome force of nature, they are running wild in a controlled kind of way. The vast vines push through the fence, finding wide-open spaces to make their mark. Like my ancestors who came to American before the American Revolution (see Seeding Our Future, Minding Our Past), they are prolific and bountiful. Plucky, as one historian noted, about my pioneering forebears, when they faced stresses beyond those of our modern lives.
Getting lost in the garden, I watch and wait for new growth to emerge. When baby pumpkins show up on the vine, I hold great hopes for them. When, as some do, they shrivel and die, I mourn their loss. Mostly I rejoice over those that are growing big, strong and round. And in the process, I observe that they are brilliant testaments to the beauty of life. Who can feel stressed when these mighty pumpkins assert such confidence and tenacity? Time in the garden is truly great medicine.