What’s Yours?

If you ask my family and friends for a list of things that I am passionate about, they would probably tell you exercising, reading, sports, music, singing in the car, the beach, and coloring. While these are all things I love and really like to do, nothing gives me more pleasure than gardening and working with my plants and flowers.

When I looked up the definition of passion, this is what I found: passion is a feeling of great intensity toward a particular person or activity, to love something of someone with a passion means you feel almost a burning drive to be involved. Passions give us purpose, but more than that, they make us feel that we have purpose in our lives. Passionate = emotional, enthusiastic, interested, alive.

How does gardening do this for me? In early spring I begin to get excited about seeing my perennial plants begin to poke through the cold, hardened winter dirt. When I see that first sign of green, I give a huge fist pump because my plants have made it through the winter months and soon will be budding, blooming, and blossoming with beautiful flowers. 

Gardening is also rewarding and relaxing. It gives me time to be alone – to reflect, pray, solve, create. It allows me time to process conversations, plan projects, and just enjoy being outside away from my desk, phone and e-mail. I can get lost for hours pruning for new buds to appear, weeding, and watering my flowers.

One of the most amazing things is watching the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds get drunk on the nectar from my beautiful plants. I lose track of time as I watch them go from flower to flower collecting pollen, all the while knowing that they are helping my plants become healthier and more vibrant.

Gardening is also hard work and can sometimes be disheartening when Mother Nature, a disease, or the deer come along and ruin a crop. Dirt under my fingernails, callouses on my hands, and scrapes on my legs are just a few of the wonderful side effects of gardening. The peace, satisfaction, and sense of accomplishment that gardening gives to me is second to none. Each season I learn more about how to take care of my plants – but maybe the truth is that they are really taking care of me!?

Find your passion and let it heal you, invigorate you, connect you to your deepest self. Go Warriors!