Happy New Year

Gardening is cheaper than therapy….. and you get tomatoes. ~Author Unknown

Happy New year!! Its been a few months since I posted anything on my blog but as the new year has arrived, there is no time like the present to act on my intentions, otherwise they will remain only an intention. Writing my blog is one of them.

As  New years day darkened and drew to a close I sat in an old leather chair purchased with the house we recently bought, listening to a howling wind outside and contemplating what 2012 would bring. I had a cozy feeling of warmth and contentment having spent the early evening with friends sharing a laugh and a bowl of clam chowder.

That was not the case however earlier in the day when the realization that the Holiday season was well and truly over struck me. Paul and I had gone out for a couple of essentials in the morning. Despite it being New Year’s Day, the grocery store was open and as we approached, the doors opened as if by magic sucking us (and our credit card) into the store. It was then it hit me… all signs of Christmas were GONE. Not a wreath, tree, festive flower arrangement or Salvation Army bell ringer in sight. Seemingly overnight they were all replaced by rows upon rows of perfectly flowering primroses and miniature daffodils.

 Wait a minute …. had spring arrived already and I missed it? I shouldn’t have been so surprised, after all Christmas had been over a whole week (sarcasm) and my house still looked like Santa’s grotto!  I was lured into a sense of mild anxiety realizing that I was in mortal danger of jumping on the ”seasonal hamster wheel” as I entered the store and glimpsed at all the valentine’s paraphernalia.  I wanted to shout out “slow down, what’s the hurry, I haven’t even got my tree down yet”. Should I really be thinking about daffodils and Valentine ’s Day already? “NO” I said to myself. I only went in for milk and I left feeling like I had to run to catch up to the next big day on the calendar.  (I am now thinking about Easter) HELP!

Deep breaths, sanity recovered and milk bought, I left the store telling myself to stop being ridiculous. Never the less, after we got home, I had my tree down, fallen pine needles vacuumed up and decorations packed and stored away in less than two hours!

It’s the same every year and I have decided this year to get off the seasonal hamster wheel. As Holidays go that’s why I like Thanksgiving, even though as an English woman it was not a tradition I grew up with. For me it is the jewel on the American calendar, adorning the month of November which would otherwise be rather lack luster.  It is a single day. Demanding no presents, it has no expectations beyond the promise of spending the day in good company, eating and giving thanks for the things that enrich our lives. It is a subtle reminder to keep within us what is truly important as the madness of December crashes across the next page of the calendar with all the subtlety of a circus elephant. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas, I do, I just feel we have slightly lost our way amongst the self inflicted chaos of the season.

So now we are a week into the New Year and today I began to act on another of my intentions; tending the garden which came with our newly acquired home. It is quite large but well landscaped making maintenance relatively easy and is complete with a forest beyond the garden. 

I go out there most days and find it very therapeutic. There are lots of huge trees so cleaning up the leaves is an endless task but working in the garden helps me physically regain strength and range of motion that I lost after surgery. It’s also a very calming place where I can quiet the emotional turbulence and do a lot of thinking and mental healing. There is something very restorative about being outside, watching nature do her thing and the seasons ebb and flow. That is the order of things, it is how it should be… right? But today I couldn’t believe my eyes, a rhododendron is actually flowering,

a yellow shrub that I don’t know the name of is in full blossom

and I have small pink roses that don’t seem to realize that they were supposed to have been over in October. I thought perhaps Mother Nature has ADD like the rest of us or maybe she unwittingly stepped on the seasonal hamster wheel too. But no, I think spring has actually sprung early and I didn’t miss it.