lessons from the garden: stress reduction for the holidays
In the rush of holiday preparation we often don’t have time to think much about Thanksgiving and the sentiments behind the holiday. The autumn is a time of reaping all that has gone before and just as the early American settlers celebrated this time of year with the indigenous people – people who knew all too well how precious was the relationship between man and the earth – we can celebrate today.
In a year that started awakening enthusiasm for a more ecologically friendly attitude toward the environment that was then overwhelmed by financial chaos, the simple garden has quietly stepped up in value. Food prices soaring, problems with contamination, fears of using too much gasoline and other economic factors have swiveled heads around. And now we can look on vegetable and fruit gardening with more respect than ever. Suddenly the solution to safe food has been rediscovered in our own back yards! And as stress and fear levels have risen, the garden has also offered a chance to refocus with peace and quiet, gentle work and a more basic view on life.
I have often written at this time of year of the importance of taking time out from the stress of holiday preparation to relax and recalibrate in the garden. If ever there was a year to put the garden to use, this is it. And so I am writing about giving thanks for our gardens.
Hopefully, you have found at least a little spot to grow something for your table. Whether or not you have food from your garden, you can always find some affordable décor for the holidays. Look for interesting seed pods, twisted sticks, pine cones and the feathery dried seed-heads of grasses. Arrange them in bowls, baskets and vases and decorate with holiday bows. Or you can spray paint them colors or metalics and dust them with glitter. Hunt for colorful leaves and float them in a simple bowl of water with a few flowers. Or fashion a spray of dried leaves and pine boughs to hang from your door. Pop a cheerful candle in the center of an arrangement of any of these materials from the garden and a center piece is born. All these offerings nature has supplied to us to decorate and celebrate the season – for free!
And while you are out gathering these goodies, take a little time to enjoy the fresh air. It’s a reminder that you are alive and that is the biggest gift of all. Very few of us are truly in danger of starving to death even if the economy worsens. Yes, we may have to give up some comforts and extras, but unlike some other people in the world today, we are not likely to suffer hunger pangs, live in cardboard boxes or fear the explosion of guns and grenades each time the sun rises. I used to get annoyed when I was a child and those dull ‘old’ people would talk to me about the starving children in other parts of the world. They were unreal to me. Now I guess I’ve become one of those dull ‘old’ people myself because I know that each person in this world is special, unique and has his or her own, important story to tell. I can’t help but see how lucky I really am when I get out of my own closed view of all I want and any frustration that might arise due to having to trim my spending.
But my garden reminds me all the time. I see the birth of a seed, the death of a little bird and the continuing tapestry of intricate survival interwoven with lives of plants, animals and humans. So, whenever I harvest a squash from my garden, I do so with awe and respect. I sadly watch the frost at night melt my tomato plants into dried brown tangles, but heft them into the compost heap where they will become the basis — the pool of nutrients — to nourish the flowers and edibles that will be sprouting next spring.
And then there are the late growers. Watching those California native plants that looked so dreary during summer heat suddenly flush with rich green new growth. Some, like the Zauschnarias have burst into riotous parties of brilliant fiery red flowers. And from the bases of the crispy brown artichoke plants unfurl big bold new leaves embracing another year of growth. Even as winter approaches, life begins anew. Nature doesn’t just wait for spring!
From this I learn there are new and exciting changes being birthed now, even with the housing crash, even with people losing jobs, even with much work at a standstill. Like in the landscape, the end of any cycle forms the fodder for new cycles to begin. So, with the lessons from my garden, I suggest no one should get depressed no matter how negative the news media may be or how uneasy the stock market is. We have the love of family and friends and enough of the simple things we need for basic survival to get through the end of these slowing cycles. And we need to celebrate. Celebrate the gift of life. Celebrate the amazing support of nature all around us in all her amazing bounty. Celebrate all the new that will be growing out of the old – even if we don’t know what it will look like. In all the gloominess, I truly believe seeds are already germinating that will make our lives and those of all life on this miraculous planted richer and brighter and more exciting. So, I ask you to give thanks to our gardens for all their bounty, be it edible, decorative, soul-supporting or inspiring. And I wish you and yours a wonderful, joyful and opulent Thanksgiving filled with love and appreciation.
