Secret Way to Be Happy This Spring
In spite of wars, inflation, whether to wear a mask or not, we can be happy…
I’ll let you in on a secert. Being outside on a beautiful day is bliss. You might need to take a personal health day the next time the forecast calls for sun and warmth during these tempestuous days of spring alternating with the tag end of winter.
I took a long walk today. Well, it was a walk and a hike, and I overdid it, but the meteorologists said we’d be in the 70s, but I knew it felt like 82 or so, and it was. The hike with my daughter had us treading endless hills, and we took time out to wend our way back into the woods, where a dry rusty creek runs through thickets. She found several 90 year old glass bottles, and I found snake holes and a foxes’ den (possibly).
But the bliss came from planting the Boston ferns in their pots which will be their homes through the long, steamy summer. Then I decided to plop some catnip into a fishbowl, and I could not keep my cat, Willie Nelson, away from it.
The wind whipped around all day, but the evening brought High Wind Warnings, and boy, they aren’t kidding. While reading in the encroaching darkness of night and storms, I read on the back porch. When the wind blew the hardest I’ve ever heard while living in this house, I heard a huge snap and crack, then a crash. A tree had fallen down, but where?
Startled, and following the lead of Willie, who had decided to stay just inside the doorway leading to the porch, I headed inside.
Did I mention the hour I spent weeding and planning my summer garden this afternoon?
There is something soul satisfying about sinking our hands deep into warmed soil, taking a pot and filling it with stones and dirt and dropping a plant in. Plants thrive only through our endless efforts through the growing season; watering, moving it at times, clipping back the wayward stems, and this brings out the nature lover in most of us.
Go and find a bucket or planter. I buy mine at the grocery store, since they’re pretty and inexpensive. Then I buy the plants from the nursery and put them out way too early. But there is something about growing our own tomatoes, basil or lavender that makes us focus on nothing but the tasks at hand.
The wild wind whipped my hair about, and I looked at the bushes green with new leaves finding warmth and sunshine, and I only thought of that moment. Those minutes spent outside with no phone to interrupt my springtime reverie helped. I looked up at the sun as she sank into the blue clouds, and my hands dug deep into the mole’s hole and into the dusty dirt where weeds had taken hold.
Try planting one thing. A veggie you like, maybe a fruit like blueberries, or what about the simple joy of having flowers blooming endlessly this year?
You’ll stop thinking about your problems.
You’ll live in the moment. Especially if you can manage to find a plot of land on which to start your garden or container garden, which is what I’m working on these past few days.
Grab an herd. Clinatro. Basil (my personal favorite). Sage.
Grow flowers. Lavender and rosemary pair together quite well.
After you’re done planting or weeding, you’ll have to wash up. Then, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find a tall glass of iced tea and open a delicious book and rest.
You’ll still be in the bliss zone, but now the time is all about relaxing. You’ll have done one thing to extend your happiness into the next five or six months, and the internal farmers, those gatherers(rather than a hunter) inside us come to the forefront, and you will know the satisfaction of a day in the garden. Even if the garden lives mainly in your mind.
Go outside. The next warm day is time to feel like a kid again. Throw open your windows. Feel the clean air filling your space.
Happiness. Bliss. Contentment. It’s yours for the planting. (The taking comes later.) Happy Spring!
