Grandma's Garden wisdom and more
After all these years, I still hear my grandma's sweet voice as I calmly walk through our garden plucking weeds and deciding what piece of bounty to pull up from the earth.
Since childhood, when I garden, I hear her words that have gifted me a space where I can find peace and quiet regardless of whatever chaos surrounds me. It did however, take many years before I realized my Grandma's wisdom would integrate into many areas of life, giving me a much larger and needed sense of peace.
As a child Grandma's small home on Sunrise Mountain
was a safe space to be myself; I felt free and unruly, unashamed of my tangled hair and the dirty nails I got from digging up her yard. Like clockwork upon arrival, I would kick off my shoes and wildly sprint barefoot across the boiling hot desert dodging the random junk strung throughout her yard, to the spot I loved, her very perfect garden.
I couldn't wait to impatiently rip everything out of the ground with one swoop, proudly hauling a giant bunch to her, usually unripened and usually mostly carrots. I would then eagerly over plant the seeds for her, “fixing it” so her life would be easier by allowing her to relax so that she could watch all of my planted seedlings grow until my next visit. Now I know, she was the one fixing things, things that I had damaged. So as I got older (like 7) it's no surprise, she began to stop me, Always starting out “One carrot at a time Ronni Marie" and then in one way or another remind me to; Slow down, don't try and take everything at once, enjoy and appreciate what's there and ready. Eventually and thankfully I practiced what she preached, in the Garden…..
It was in 2016 while visiting my grandmother that I realized her garden wisdom would be the inspiration for a drastic change in how I would live the rest of my life. As we sat together, I was reporting to her all the going ons in my life; children, family, activities, businesses, groups, teams, friendships, etc. When she stopped me, and after a long pause, responded far differently than I ever expected.
Verbatim, "Ronni Marie
I worry about you, slow down, no need to do everything all at once, life is too short to always focus on what needs to be fixed, spend some time enjoying what you already have”. Wow! I quickly became the silent one. No, she didn't say the “carrot thing” exactly, that would have been too perfect and kinda
weird. But the message in her words were clear and not lost, they hit me hard. I then took a long look at how I was living and prioritizing my life, and realized immediately, I was exhausted and needed to change.
Fortunately it is never too late for that change, and so I began the journey of changing how I live my life, while gratefully reflecting on my grandmother Marion's words and eventually finding peace in far more places than just the garden.
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