When All Else Fails, Plant A Garden - Erin Cummings
Most of us have a plan for everything we do in our lives. We even have a plan for our things. I’d like to know how your original plan for 2020 is going now? If you’re like me, we’ve veered completely and totally off track. If I keep using this analogy, I’m at the point where I’m not even in a car any longer, I’m riding on an ostrich and I don’t even know how I got here…..
But seriously, most of us plan a lot of things, we plan our meals, we plan where we put our mail, we plan projects, and we plan for the future. I don’t know about you, but my plans never go from A to B like I want, and that’s okay, there is usually a big stressor and an even greater learning along the way.
There are a handful of changes that have happened this year, the one I’m going to talk to you about today is our big move. In short, we moved to help create a better and more fluid family unit. My husband and I upgraded our commitments to each other as spouses and parents, and reworked what we agree to in taking care of our home, kids, and each other. (I encourage you to do that in our own lives, just ask each other what’s working and what isn’t and go from there….that’s a totally different blog post for another time).
We realized, we could create a new plan by moving to a different part of the city, have each of us split the burden of school duties, and I would commit to driving further since I would be against traffic. The plan is going great so far.
The part where I’ve left my car at point A and have somehow found myself sitting on an ostrich at point 9, (yeah word problems in 2020 are super weird, keep up!) the plan has taken a turn. The part of this new plan that isn’t working is the stress of our builder and construction. Nothing is at it seems. Huge delays, major mistakes, and we are seriously overwhelmed with frustration. Everything was supposed to be finished by now and I would have my backyard all peacefully to myself, WRONG. Huge plan fail.
I decided this weekend I’d had enough. I needed hope, I needed to reconnect to my plan and my vision of what I wanted. My plan is to have beautiful elevated garden beds in my new backyard on the side of my house, and since that isn’t done I thought “how can I recreate my vision into action?” and “How can I move from frustration to hope and recenter myself?” I also added a sprinkle of my personality trait that my family and friends know very well of “I’m doing this anyway.”
So, I ripped out plants that were going to be ripped out anyway, went to my favorite garden nursery and got my hands dirty. I asked the nursery if they had large plastic bins that I could use for my plants temporarily (this is also a great idea to help recycle and bring service to the community and earth), and I created my future vision right then and there.
Planting my garden brought me back when I felt like everything else around me was falling apart. I did something that brought me back to my core, it re-centered, re-grounded, and it gave me stability and hope.
And, this happens on my mat… like a lot. It’s that moment when I struggle and struggle and struggle in Eagle Pose, only then to finally exhale, pull my belly in, and set my eyes on one point. There it is 3 glorious seconds of balance and breath and HOLY AMAZING WOW I’M DOING IT MOMENT. Hope.
Just like at that point in Eagle I found on my mat, my plan wasn’t a failure, my vision wasn’t a failure, all I needed was to plant my garden and find my core.
