Watching Nature Unfold: This is a Magical Opportunity
There was period of time in my life when I rarely stopped to watch nature. I have always loved being outdoors. I love camping, hiking, gardening and just being outside to soak up all of the good energy. Being outside is what I loved most growing up. I would set up my pretend scenes out there and spend hours pretending and having fun.
For many years though, until a little over a year ago, I spent a lot less time outside. It started with a baking business that my mom, sister-in-law and I started. Every weekend we would set up our stall at the local farmer’s market and sell our baked goods. We did that every season for around 4 years. Then, I started a pie business for around 2 years. That lead to me starting a meal service for another 2 years. After that I worked at a coffee shop doing all of their baking and cooking for 4 months. Then, they closed down. Again, I pivoted and found a job baking for a farm store. I made a major pivot after that and I decided to start my own home organizing business. I wanted more time to spend helping people one on one and I wanted more time in my schedule to spend doing other things that I loved.
Over the past year and 3 months, I have now had the time to start watching nature again. I have worked more in the garden, replaced the soil, helped to make a rock garden area and a fire pit. I have sought out drought tolerant perennials and planted seeds. This is bringing so much joy into my life and bringing to life something that I had lost. By spending so much time indoors all of those years I had forgotten what a joy it is to care for and nurture a garden. I had lost touch with the sparks of joy I had found growing up, growing my own flowers from seed and helping with the vegetable garden.
I am so overjoyed now that I have made a major shift in my life to focus more on nature and our beautiful back garden. We live in the suburbs but are very fortunate to have nearly a quarter acre of land that our house is on and most of that is our backyard. We have a raised bed garden with raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb, gojiberries, kale, garlic, lavendar and other perennial flowers. This year I decided to try growing vegetables again so I added butter lettuce, artichokes, beets, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli. I love how the vegetables are mixed in between the flowers. My husband, son and I also planted a whole bag full of bee, butterfly and hummingbird friendly flowers that have now sprouted. On the outer edges we have strawberry plants, dwarf apple trees, huckleberry bushes and even tea plants. We truly have a lovely flower garden that is also a mini-farm for us.
Ever since the quarantine began around 3 weeks ago, I have felt so very blessed to be able to spend even more time participating in and watching nature unfold in our back garden. It has been a joy to really notice the beginnings of cherry blossoms and watch them flourish and bloom. Now we get to enjoy the “cherry blossom snow.” I don’t think I had ever noticed the beginnings of lilac blooms before and now I have noticed how small they are when they first form and how the buds start to grow and open slowly. I am excited by the lily of the valley flowers starting to form as the little green shoots came sprouting up by surprise around a week ago. Now, every day I take time to check on them, noticing flower buds are starting to form.
Yesterday evening it felt magical to be in the garden just as the sun was getting ready to set, doing a little light weeding, noticing every sprout, every flower bud, every development in the garden. It feels like I am truly a steward of our land, someone who is partnering with the plants to harmoniously create a paradise that we can enjoy and we can share the bounty of the fruits and vegetables with others. This is truly nature’s gift to us.
A little secret is that I love to talk to my plants. I believe it is so important to tell them daily that they are beautiful, they are strong, they are resilient and they are protected. It may seem a little strange or out there, but I love it! My goji berry plant’s leaves were eaten by some finches last year when I first planted it. This year I have taken very good care of it and I tell it it’s protected. So far, no finches have come to eat the leaves. I have told the lettuce plants the same thing as they were starting to get eaten by some slugs. They are also protected and will grow beautifully. Of that I am sure!
As we all take more time to notice the magical beauty of nature as our whole planet slows down, I believe it is an amazing opportunity. I have already noticed that my plants have never looked more healthy thatn this year. I have never seen so many healthy leaves or new shoots on my raspberry plants. My rhubarb seems to grow like crazy every single day! I love noticing every little detail every day. We are kept in the present moment by this noticing practice. We can become more patient, more resilient, more self reliant, more abundant, more aware, kinder and more giving when we watch nature unfold.
What have you seen in nature that has surprised you the most?