Spring – Season of Hope

June 6, 2010

Late spring bloom time started last week.  Things look prettier than they have looked in any spring I can remember.  Part of it may be the cold winter and the snow that blanketed the ground for almost a month. Certainly moderate rainfalls and cool temperatures have been part of it as well.

The tiny steps I have taken over the past 10 years to move various plants around to compliment others in bloom are showing results.

Maybe some of it is in the way I’m seeing this year.  Starting this website to help and encourage others has magnified my life and everything in it.  Thinking of how I can help you, helps me to see where I fall short and at the same time – what my strengths are.

Over the past 6 or 8 weeks I have had the great pleasure of getting to know an exceptional young woman who subscribes to my website and is just getting interested in organic gardening. She is very proactive and from what I have seen, her attitude is “can do” all the way.

She met her then future husband for the first time when she was 15 years old.  He was in a black leather jacket and she was a cheerleader and to put it in her words she thought: ” Hmmmm -who is that!!”

Skeptical of marriage because of the problems experienced by her parents she waited 7 years to marry. Eight years later they had a beautiful young daughter.

Recently one of her husband’s brothers had a heart attack at 50.  Shortly after that her husband experienced chest pains. They found his cholesterol was high as was his blood pressure. (It seems I remember her saying something else was wrong as well, but I can’t remember what it was.)

Not wanting to just depend on what doctors were telling them or on prescribed drugs, this young woman got right into researching what she could do to help her husband be as physically fit at 33 as he looked to be.

Bottom line — her first conclusion was they needed to eat more whole foods and educate themselves more about  how and what to eat.  They made a few immediate changes like all vegetables for lunch in the form of a salad, cutting back on meats, and not eating fast foods. In three months time he had dropped 20 or more pounds, blood pressure was normal, and cholesterol was normal.  How great is that!

In continuing her quest to find “the right way” she became interested in organic gardening.

If you’ve gardened for any amount of time, I’m sure you know we all take a lot of things for granted and never realize it until you encounter someone who is just starting the learning process. This is the case with this young woman.  The most simple of garden facts is new to her but she and her husband are anxious to learn.

In spite of our busy schedule, it worked out that Bill and I were able to have them visit and show them first hand what can be done organically.  I think what we have done in our “little acre”  made an impact on them and gave them the encouragement to look to their future with even greater hope.

I have found over my lifetime that at times when I have tried to help someone else, it was I who received the help. That is certainly the case here. The Proverb puts it well: Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

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