Sunday, July 18, 2010

Garden Lesson: What I take for granted

Oh the precious moment of life!  The tiny hand that grabs your finger.  The wonder and amazement of those tiny, tiny toes!  I LOVE this picture.  Two hands that hold those tiny feet.  A small life, a gift given to us, to protect and teach and LOVE.  My baby girl, the #1 Princess,  will be 26 tomorrow.  We are celebrating her birthday today.  My gift from GOD, is what I always called her.  And while I am not an overly religious person, I still believe in something greater than ourselves, no matter what we “name” it.

Life can change so quickly for us.  In an instant, with just one word, one action, one moment, life as we know it, does a 360 degree turn.  And I am NOT just talking about the bad stuff.  One phone call, one email, one post on a blog, one line in a song, or one scene in a movie. It can be exactly what we need to hear at that moment or it can be news that just throws us into NO! NO! NO! this can’t be happening.

It has been one of those months for me, so far.  It seems a bit surreal at this moment in time.  Good news, bad news, lingering news, all of it.  It certainly has been a roller coaster ride of highs and lows so far.   It hit me last night as I worked in the garden.  (And boy did it hit me hard).  My garden and its lessons are still so amazingly profound.

Yesterday, I just relaxed.  I took not one, but TWO naps yesterday.  I felt rested and relaxed for the first time in weeks.  I went out to the garden to check on its progress.  As I looked at the garden, I was a bit sad, a bit overwhelmed and immediately hit with the thought…what happened?  I have not been tending to my garden as I should.  I got so wrapped up in the roller coaster ride that I forgot to get off the ride long enough to take care of the little things.  And, oh, those little things can quickly become BIG, OVERWHELMING things, if you start taking things for granted.

As I weeded in the garden, I felt each of the muscles in my arms.  I looked at the wonderful, good things still growing, in spite of the weeds running amuck.  I saw the wet patches of soil, where the weeds were and the dry cracked patches of dirt that were only a few feet away. In my mind, I saw ALL the memories, the emotions, good and bad, of my month, and my earlier experiences, roll through like a big picture reel on fast forward.

It ended with a memory of my Grandma.  The lady in my life, that I ALWAYS wanted to be most like.  And remembering her story that stays foremost in my mind.  Her belief that our body is “just” our house.   She told me this story, numerous times in my life, but what I always remember is the time I heard it first. Her sparkling eyes, that just twinkled with love.  Her beautiful white hair gave off the picture of softness that could only be described as angel soft.

We were having a conversation about death.  You see, my first memories of that finality, were early on.  My Dad passed away when I was five.  A car accident.  So, she told me how the body was just our house, yet the memories are what keep the spirit alive.  Later on in life, I heard a story about the heart hotel.  It’s the place that people reside, when they leave us. It is how I learned to deal with grief.  To look at the body as “just” a house.  The important thing we do in life, is based on what’s inside.  I was reminded of that story earlier this week when Emergefit commented on my post about the body carrying memories.  He wrote “is the soul in the body, or is the body in the soul?”  I contemplated that and my answer:  For me, its always been the soul is in the body.   And again reminded, just a few days later, with the passing of the family pet.  Which also brought up the memory of losing my own cat, July 9th, last year on the morning of #2 princess’ birthday.  My beloved all white cat with the sparkling blue eyes, was hit by a car.   (Do you see how all these memories and descriptions correlate?)

So, my big AHA moment…  I have been so focused, all my life, of creating “good” memories, building heart hotel memories, for all those that I love, for when I leave, that I have taken my “house” for granted.   My body has always been “just” a house.  It brings me full circle.  There are many bloggers out there that I adore and admire for their resolve to push their body.  I have had my own love-hate relationship with my body, because I took it for granted.

THAT was my garden lesson……..Stop taking my body for granted.  It is NOT “just” a house.  It is a third of who I am.  Mind, BODY, and soul.  It takes an EQUAL balance of ALL three to make my garden thrive!   I have to tend to all of it in equal portions AND stop taking my body for granted.

Lastly, I want to share Thank Your Body Today by Voice in Recovery. My Thank You Today:  Thank you body for supporting me while I ignored you and took you for granted!

So I leave you with this garden thought:  Which part of the three do you take for granted? What can you do today to tend to it?