I never thought I’d be a gardener.

For one thing, I was a firm believer that I had a black thumb. What’s the point in gardening if everything you touch dies?

But must importantly I was not an “outdoors person.” You couldn’t have paid me enough money to spend a day sweating under the sun, nails and hands caked in dirt, fighting off flies and gnats and mosquitos and all manner of flying, creeping, crawling things.

I was an indoors person through and through.

I was also deeply unhappy.

I don’t think I started to feel real, true happiness and peace in my adult life until I began cultivating relationships with plants.

Last year I grew my first cucumbers, tomatoes, luffa, bell peppers, basil, and dill. My garden was tiny and admittedly I did kill about as many plants as I successfully grew.

I learned you couldn’t reasonably start sunflowers in a red solo cup and expect them not to die. I learned that carrots were cold season vegetables and wouldn’t make it in the sweltering North Carolina heat. I learned how to be a little more patient and attentive and caring.

Plants bring me joy. Plants make me feel safe. Plants keep me grounded. They make me a better person, a better wife, a better mom to my dog - Bean.

Bean couldn’t be with me last year when I started gardening. Much like the carrots Bean couldn’t handle the heat, the sheer crush of people, and the activity from the near by military base. It was an awful place for a reactive dog to be. North Carolina wasn’t a plot of dirt where she thrived and grew. There she wilted. And so I made the tough decision to send her home early.

Now we are reunited, gardening together, and just like the veggies in my little plots of dirt this year, thriving and growing.

This all to say that being out in the country, gardening, enjoying peace and quiet, sunshine, and nature is good for me, for Bean, for the garden, for everyone.

Slowing down and reconnecting with nature IS the path to true joy, inner peace, and connectedness. It’s where we find ourselves. It’s our home.

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