Things to Think on...

Imagine you had this place that you could go to where you felt at peace, where you had friends who were always happy to see you when you arrived, where you could do what you love to do and no one would bother you or tell you that you had to stop. Imagine that you went to this place and did what you did there just because it was fun and it made you happy. You didn't have to do that fun stuff for money. You did it because that was what your heart and mind told you to do. You loved that place, your very own garden of Eden complete with plants and animals.

Raspberry, Thai Basil, Tomatoes

I found a place like that. Made it my own. Shaped it and nurtured it, filled it with things that make me happy. Like the movie Inception though, perhaps I have been too caught up in my dream world of creation, joy, change and creation again, that I have slipped too far from reality.

Willows and Poplars

I have always known that happiness is all around me--every day. I have only to look for it in the small things: the laughter of a child, the smile and wave of a friendly neighbor, the way a hawk cuts across the sky, the colors of a desert sunset, a line of quail chicks darting across the road behind their parents. The promise of new life, growth...

The taste of tomatoes to come:

And eggplants as well:

The miracle that seeds more than three years old that were forgotten and thought lost could somehow be brought to sprout:

I have often heard the expression that God gives us what we can handle. I think that's true. I think I was given an opportunity to have a place where I could be happy during a time in my life when there was a great deal of darkness and uncertainty. Today I am thankful for the good times in my happy place where I saw babies born and raised, I watched plants sprout, bloom, bear fruit and dry up with the end of the season, leaving behind their seeds of hope for the next year.

And I know that if I want to make a place like this again, the seeds for it and many others are buried deep within my soul, waiting to be planted when the time is right.