Seedlings Sprouting

This morning I arrived at the high school where I was scheduled to meet students and the word had already gotten to the guidance office that my step-mother had died.  They were sad for me and I even got an emotional embrace.  I appreciated that they cared enough to say something.  One of them, after I told her that I kept myself busy with gardening projects this past week, said that she finds gardening to be one of the best healing activities.

Human beings have comforted themselves for generations with the thought that death arrives but life continues.  Gardening--nurturing seeds and soil to grow plants--helps one see that life does go on, and that its beauty is there for us if we are willing to look.  Watching new life appear and then grow helps us see the miracle that life is, and to appreciate our own lives.

At least it does if we are willing to see that.  I don't mean to be trite, but looking at the life that blooms in spring, and seeing that death is a part of life, is one of the most powerful things I know.  I can't help but be amazed at how life resurfaces after the cold and ice of winter.  Choosing seeds and planting them, caring for them and reaping their fruits, being active in the process rather than passive--all that just dazzles me.

Right now it has indeed helped me in dealing with death.  The children helped me tuck seeds into potting soil and toss around compost.  They have helped water the strawberries and watched carefully as I removed blueberry bushes from pots to sink into the earth.  Having them with me has made these actions doubly valuable, as their lives are so new and have so much promise. 

I still have much I want to do.  I wanted to plant spinach and to spread some more compost on the beds I created last year.  I've still got time.  My parents visited these past couple of days and gave us a new tree to plant.  It apparently will have purple blossoms.  I need to figure out where to plant that and then do so.  I will continue to get my hands dirty, through summer and fall, in attempts to see plants offer their flowers and their food. 

I have much to learn, and healing yet to do.