This year I spent Earth Day in a garden. In a few gardens, actually. I was buying plants to bring back to the school where I now work a 7:45 to 4:30 job. Weeks before, I had jumped at the opportunity to supervise an upgrade of the garden on the school’s premises. I had a lot of ideas to uplift the already quite lovely landscaping job done by the previous tenants. I did my research on prices and availability of some plants my boss had specifically requested and I go to work – planning, budgeting etc.
Having just returned from a short Easter break (of course, I wanted it to be longer! LOL!), I figured 20th – 22nd would be ideal to complete Phase I and then I could return to business as usual before we closed again for May Day and Id-el-Fitr. I had seized this gardening chance for one, the obvious fact that I love gardening and The Earth, and two, I really needed the diversion on emotional and spiritual levels.
March and April were hectic months for me. I found it hard to relax. I was triggered by something different every week. I was tired – not in a good way. I felt like I were swimming in a boiling cauldron. The pressure was on.
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I chat everyday with one of my best friends, Tesem. We talk about almost everything. We share memes and screenshots from social media and pages from books we are reading. I shared a Tweet about some of the oldest companies in the world and how their focus wasn’t really on expansion. I felt like there was a message in there for me. I am full of grand plans and schemes and very good intentions that do not always pan out exactly as I envisaged, or worse, keep growing in my head until I feel unable to move forward because I’ve charted this complicated step-by-step map and I do not have the skills, tools or personnel to “make it happen”. I shared my thoughts with Tesem and her reply was simple: “#JustBuild”.
So this is what I’m doing now. Building, brick by brick, and being okay with knowing that some plans will have to adjust. Some will have to be dismantled. Some will be for someone else to build.
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The pressure I was under had reduced considerably by Earth Day. I slept for most of the next day (which by the way happened to be Vagina Appreciation Day). I was that exhausted. I had promised myself to take advantage of Taurus energy (one of my favourite “seasons”) and be as grounded and “Earth-bound” as possible. My garden task at work helped with this ambition. Embarking on a landscaping project at home will help me maintain my momentum. At first, my plans for my curb garden were so ambitious, I was terrified to even start. Now, I’ve broken down the plans into manageable, doable, achievable blocks of work (and fun). I hope I have some lovely photos to share soon!
Featured image by Gold Owen
Earth. Love. Faith 