Gardening

Go visit Author Mom with Dogs and see the lovely pictures she has taken of her garden produce. She has pictures of her grapes and the squash she has grown, including Hokaido Stella Blue squash which she says may be the best new vegetable she has ever discovered.

Seeing her post reminds me of the years when I grew a garden, and how much I loved it. The peace and connection to nature that comes from working in the earth. The feeling of self-sufficiency of growing some of your own food. The sheer pride when you feed the food that you have grown to others. The fun of canning, dehydrating, and freezing for later in the year. The memories of a summer well spent that come when you take out the food you have put up and enjoy it while the snow lays on the ground.

I have not done many things that made me feel as calm and centered as gardening. Raising my children, teaching Montessori, writing, taking long walks, watching the eagles kettle in the sky. The list of things I love doing is longer than this, but that calm and centered feeling is very rare.