TWO "Gs"...GOOD WEATHER AND GARDENING

           

I’m excited!!! Beginning yesterday and lasting through Friday, the weather is supposed to be wonderful. The sun is supposed to shine, no rain, and temperatures are in the upper fifties, maybe even sixty on one of those days. Yippeeeeee!!!

          When I wrote this on Monday, it was the usual gray and the temperature was in the forties. I looked out my window at all the work that awaited me in the garden and did my best to remain excited about the good weather. You see, there is a lot of work to be done.

          In the front, I need to finish the brick work around the big rhododendron, deadhead all the daisies from last year, cut down all the ornamental grasses, rake the dead leaves from the flowerbeds, weed and/or spray weed killer depending on where the weeds are residing and prune some of the shrubs. In the past, this would be the work of one single day. These days, I may or may not finish it all by Friday.

          This leads me to the question, “Why when I finally have all the time in the world to work on what I love, do I lack the strength and stamina to work at it for as long as I want?” Somehow, it doesn’t seem fair that when I was strong with the stamina of the proverbial ox, I was yoked (like the ox) into a job and/or work that didn’t leave a lot of time for the work that I loved. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my job, was good at it and it gave me a strong sense of worth. But it wasn’t the same as what I get from working in the garden.

          I guess the lesson I need to take from this blog post is that it doesn’t matter how long a project will take me, but that I persevere until it is complete, while also taking into great consideration my abilities and strengths. If I can manage only two hours, then I need to pat myself on the back for those two hours and not lament the other ten hours I didn’t have the strength and/or stamina to continue.

          It’s a hard lesson to learn and I’m still in the process of learning it. Rather than be satisfied with what I can and do accomplish, I often choose to beat myself up over the lack of accomplishment. Beginning with these sunny days, I need to, and will remind myself often to, concentrate on what I’ve completed rather than on what’s left. They say practice makes perfect, so perhaps by the end of the week when the rain returns, I’ll be much closer to perfect.