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Adventures in Wortcunning: Garden Therapy

Adventures in Wortcunning: Garden Therapy

Last updated on: December 2, 2016 at 9:10 pm by Anne Duthers

Adventures in Wortcunning: Garden Therapy 2016-12-02T21:10:06+00:00 Anne Duthers

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So far, everything hurts. All the lessons, even the fun stuff, seems to have some element of ouch. This is my impression of life on a day when the sun shines and my home is full of love. Very grateful, and happy for all the amazing bits. Just saying, I noticed the other stuff too, even if I go out of my way to pretend it isn’t there.

violet flowers

The author’s garden / Photo by the author

How can I say this without letting you in on a dark, dirty little secret of mine?… I get colds, have bad hair days, and the occasional blue funk. These are temporary, and usually “food” induced. This is all the power I will give to those moments on the shaded side of the street. I used quotes around food because most of what we are offered to eat isn’t even close to containing ingredients that your great-grandparents would recognize as food.

Hippocrates said that our medicine should be our food, and food our medicine. This means that if you eat well, your body will be well, and that most illness is lifestyle induced. So, when I am feeling under par it is up to me (as the first and ultimate care-giver to this body of mine) to figure out where I’ve gone off, and how to fix it.

Am I getting enough sleep? Water? Hugs? If people aren’t around, a cat or dog can be a great friend. A cup of tea, perhaps. Best of all, is a sunny day in the garden, especially in winter when the days are so short.

Recent holidays have put a strain on my otherwise strict habits, and to balance things out, I decided to double-down in ultimate Scorpio style removing meat from my diet. A lot of things felt better almost immediately.

The first thing that changed was my avoidance of the kitchen, except to clean up. All of a sudden I was excited about using the tasty ingredients I saw in the store—there was no need to pair them with a slab of flesh as the main attraction to a meal.

Now, as my ingredient list refuses to budge from the 18th century, I am increasingly called to make my own food or go hungry. Fasting also has benefits, as does eating organic foods. Neither of these are the reasons for this small offering of praise for working in the garden.

Where was I… Oh yes, good company, a cup of tea, and a morning that stretches into afternoon in the garden. Rubber boots, work gloves, with trusty trowel in hand, I begin.

Only focus on the one little patch before me, I remind myself, too much to do otherwise. Don’t worry about anything else, just set this one area of this planting bed to rights and somehow, just like solving pieces to a large jigsaw puzzle it seems that the rest of life is a bit more manageable too.

a shovel and ploughed furroughs ready for planting

The author’s garden / Photo by the author

Sure it does. Still with the planting season at hand, and perfect weather to be in the garden I was inspired by my newly adopted diet to stop by the local garden center to pick up some organic veggie starts. Yes, where I live, they have organic veggie starts. I think they don’t mind carrying them, because they are able to charge more – so everyone is happyish.

And with three flats full of veggies and primroses (they were on sale!) I was stuck with the dilemma of what to do with them all. Every available space in the beds was commanded by perennial herbs, or weeds, or both. I could not ask for help – too many things that I wanted to keep in that mess.

There was nothing for it. I would have to don my galoshes and gloves, pick up the trowel and get to work!

The job is of course, never-endless. I could go ‘round and ‘round the garden for weeks on end and never get every weed or shaggy shrub reigned in.

But after a few minutes of applying my own shadow as fertilizer to the soil, I am be-boppin’ to the tunes on my clever telephone. And after a week or two, provided I pace myself, the garden will be growing along at a happy hum and I will be able to wander off again. Perhaps enjoy the coldest weather indoors, planning my plots and plotting my plans for the next growing season or yummy meal.

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Wyrd Words: Challenging The Rhetoric

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December 4, 2016 Full Frontal Magic: Reducing Holiday Hostility through Blessed Food

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