As a busy professional I only ever had the time to tinker in the garden at the weekends, hence the name of this blog. Gardening has always been something I’ve loved and, even though I am very much a fair weather “potterer” rather than any kind of expert, it has provided me with a very real sense of being connected to our Earth and to the cycle of life.
“To everything there is a season” say the words of the Pete Seeger song and towards the end of 2018 it certainly felt like winter, both literally and figuratively, as I was made redundant. Over the intervening weeks I spent a lot of time job searching and soul searching. The job searching was frustrating. It was just before Christmas; the job market was quiet and those positions that I saw did not excite me. The soul searching was a challenge; I felt compelled to get a job as quickly as possible and get back on the corporate treadmill. This new source of stress perplexed me. Eventually, I faced the issue and asked myself “why am doing this?”, and for every answer I came up with I asked myself “why is that important – what will it give you that matters to you?”. In the end I reached the conclusion that, assuming I have enough money to live on, only 3 things are important to me…
my family & friends – my health – having a sense of purpose
…and a blinkered focus on my career had affected all of these. Everything needs care and attention to thrive and so I return to my garden in anticipation of renewing the reciprocal relationship that will support the balance in my life.
