As we harvested the majority of the peppers that are left in out garden, I felt gratitude for the abundance that nature blessed us with this year.
I started to think about how all of this started with a thought and a desire to grow our own produce, and from tiny seeds.
A couple of years ago, we built raised beds to grow vegetables. At first, we built two and the next year three more. We now have five raised beds in which we grow lettuce, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, zucchini, tomatoes, red peppers and a wide variety of hot peppers and herbs.
Our garden has brought to our table a variety of culinary pleasures this year. From tomato, basil salads, caprese salad, spaghetti squash and stuffed peppers, red pepper hummus, middle eastern harissa sauce. zucchini bread… which I served for our first, Spiritual Spa Day and VAM Nights… to a variety of hot sauces that my son made and bottled for our year round enjoyment.
In a moment of stillness I began to think about all the lessons the garden has taught me.
Growing a garden is no easy task. Gardens require dedication and constant attention to make sure that tender plants survive. But, the reward is great.
We work with the rhythms of nature to sow the seeds in the spring, watch them grow to maturity in the summer and harvest the fruits in the fall and turn over the soil. Winter brings a time of rest and rejuvenation. In the beginning of spring, we till the soil to help control weeds and mix in nutrient rich organic matter so we can repeat the process all over again.
And so, we do this in our own lives without even noticing. We change, we grow, we wrestle with our shadows and weed out the things that are holding us back from living our best lives. We rest in between these cycles letting the old parts die and give birth to a new version of ourselves at the end of the cycle.
We can start now to create new thoughts of the life we want to live moving forward and become aware and make deliberate efforts to eliminate the weeds of our shadows and in their place sow seeds of self-love that will nourish us and allow us to live our best possible lives.