Gardening Can Be a Spiritual Endeavor or (My little gardening blog is no more.)

Some of you may have noticed and some of you may have not, but my gardening and flower blog "Somewhere in Thyme" has been absent from the blogging world. I had good intentions. I got a nice web site up for my business "Somewhere In Thyme Design" as I remember it was a beautiful rainy Spring day when we went online.  I had a few technical difficulties with my blog and there ends the story. My little blog started out with gardening tips, photos of flowers I saw while traveling, including the flowers of London, Paris and Rome.  I included vegetable gardening tips and houseplant tips. Even a few fall and Christmas decoration blogs made it to my site. The slow painful death began shortly after the April showers. Here goes the story of its demise.

Simple, the rain has dried up here in Northeast Georgia, no really I mean dried up. I did manage to get a little Southern vegetable patch started and it did great for a while  but finally it succumb to the heat and drought as well. "Come on Bonnie quit exaggerating!" you might say. The breadth of the drought is no exaggeration. We are in a severe drought here in Northwest and Northeast Georgia. I am 53 (there I said it!) and in my lifetime I have never seen drought like this. I lived through the heat wave of 1980 but it was nothing like this. How many times could I write a blog consisting of; "Hot and dry, hot and dry, hot and dry." I could not write that blog and certainly no one wants to read it. This summer of heat and drought has been most discouraging.

So maybe the demise of my garden and grass does not mean a whole lot to you but to me it is quite a blow.  Flowers are my passion. I have friends who use paint and journaling as their medium and wow what beauty they create, it moves my soul. Some of you craft the most beautiful creations. Some of you quilt and sew visions in fabric and frill. Some of you cook and bake the most delicious epicurean delights. For me,  I create with flowers. I am not just a little piddler with a few impatiens. I mean serious gardening, roses, lilies and hostas. I search out new and different plants. I gather them from greenhouses and friends. I even have my own tiller. I used to wear flowered clothes until my brother called me out on that one.  When flowers are your passion you notice them everywhere you go, the roadways, other peoples gardens, I even notice flowers or plants in television shows even down to news stories. Did I mention that flowers are my passion? 

Today, I got out the lawnmower. I mowed down every lily, hosta, iris and anything with a green, however paltry, top. I decided that my plants could use whatever life they have left to try and save their roots and not put energy toward keeping their leaves. This is a job normally reserved for late October early November. I might lose a few but today was my last ditch effort. Water you say? I have been watering and I cannot keep up. I am not sure the plants are even able to take up water at this point. I have dead bushes to dig up also I just did not have the fortitude to face that today. This summer of heat and drought has been most discouraging.

So as I pushed my mower through the dead and dusty and  I prayed. "Lord, we need rain." The ironic thing is I did not say "I need rain" I have had times in my life where I have felt like I was in a spiritual drought. This is not one of those times.  Then I asked  the Lord through slightly misty eyes, "Lord, what do you have for me in all of this? This surrounding death feels so dry and dusty and brittle." He answered me and I felt like He spoke to my heart "I have something different for you in this season."

I traveled this summer to Colorado, the rivers there are raging. I drove through Alabama, the pastures there are lush and green. I am praying for eyes to see the good that is yet to come and what the next season holds. I will still relish creating beautiful wedding floral arrangements and bouquets and party tablescapes. I love the craft of those endeavors. 

But as for getting my hands dirty and smelling the fresh cut grass, those are painfully absent.

All I can say about this new season is "I am listening Lord, I am listening."