Sole to Soul No. 5

I write alot about lessons I learn in gardening.  In the past few years my writings have been primarily ones about waiting, hoping, and tending, rarely are they about reaping.

Maybe it’s because I have not been afforded time in life yet to grow a vegetable garden that I would be proud of, maybe it’s because we chose to move three times between August 2021 and June 2022 and i am still recovering from putting all new landscaping in and enduring two incredibly hot summers.

I spent the past few days visiting my daughter in Savannah.  She moved there to study Dramatic Writing for Comedy in early September at Savannah College of Art and Design.

It rare weekend, just the two of us, as we generally travel as a family.  We visited bookstores, vintage stores, plant shops (yep!) and ate at all the must-try cafes with outdoor seating.  We talked about her classes, the dorm food, her roommates, and whether or not to get matching tatoos.

It was an odd feeling, getting to know my daughter as an adult.  You see, the last time I saw her, Josh and I were still parenting since she was just moving out of our house and into her dorm.  Of course we are still parenting but she is growing into her own person.  She is forming her own opinions and learning about and from the world around her.

When they are babies, you follow the instructions by the “What to Expect” series of books.  When they are toddlers, you throw some extra seeds in just for good measure.  Elementary years you gather with other parents and tend the soil together.  In Junior HIgh and High School you begin to tend the weeds and protect from pests and the predators that want to pluck the harvest before it’s ready.

Just when it seems like the weeds might win or you've been in the waiting place for so long, it’s time to reap the harvest.  You go looking for what took root, maybe try to repair what still needs time, and hope that all your hard work paid off.

Watching my daughter thrive in her new world this weekend, I got a glimpse of the harvest.  These were some of my favorite fruits I tucked away in my heart.

*She is kind to strangers and expresses her gratitude with servers and has her dad's patience.
*She is where her friends and roommates come for comfort, encouragement, and peanut m&m's.
*She knows what she needs in a church and uses the rest for her sketch comedy.  Humans are funny!
*She is expanding her knowledge of health beyond what even I taught her - trying new things.
*She has learned the city buses and navigates a college campus that expands across a whole a city.
*She complains about the kids leaving their socks on the floor of the laundry room.  This is hilarious and huge for a Mom!
*She’s starting a small business and calculated her (my) investment versus what she intended to earn.
*She did the math of how much her college costs per class for reality of missing classes.
*She admits misses her brother. 😍

I share this with you today because we all go through seasons where we are sewing and tending, not reaping.

In seasons of marriage, seasons of business, raising humans, or pursuing dreams.  It can be overwhelming or seem hopeless to do all the things and still encounter a grumpy 15 year old teenager who you are certain you speak different languages.  I have been there.  I just kept trusting the law of planting, if you plant seeds, tend to what you plant, you will reap in due time, even if all the seeds don’t produce.

But I also believe sometimes if we take a step back, we might just surprise ourselves if we really look for the harvest.  Maybe it’s not time to pull the tomatoes from the vine, but you can find seeds that have taken root, maybe see a bright red skin busting through and choose to sit in gratitude and let it give you hope for the future.

Let’s grow.
Together.