A picture says a thousand words.  While working events we are always rushing around looking like we're not rushing.  Smiling as the 'what's next" flies through your mind.  Moving through a crowd of people watching, looking... awareness is your best friend.  We work very hard, but one of the secrets to hard work is to have fun doing it. 

I work for a woman who's a detailed, hands on boss.  We both keep customer service to high standards. We have worked hard and laughed even harder.  Those "hitting the wall" moments have been filled with laughter rather than tears although a curse word or two slips out from time to time. That makes us laugh harder some days.  We make comments like, "that's a bruise," when we slam a heel under a rolling cart, or "how good are you with tweezers today" when we take a splinter from a wooden table.  "Is that wall in your way?" We're there for each other.

Oh, don't get me wrong there are tough days, and when they happen thank goodness one of us still has a sense of humor and we pull the other one out.  Having someone to vent to can be the best solution.  We've made a golf cart our break room as it looks out over the vineyard. Well sit for a few minutes as we collect ourselves for the event or eat a quick bite of food before rushing back out to the main floor.  It's a fast pace job and I love it.  My body hurts for a few days when we're on a run with day after day event, and somehow we've found humor in that too.  We'll come in and both of us are walking tenderly, and we'll look at each other and start laughing.  Somehow the vibrations of the laughter wash away the pain and we move into the day.

Last week we did a wedding and the clients had hired a photo booth.  We took advantage of the opportunity to extend the laughter that comes with our jobs well done. I know that if we didn't find humor, we'd be so uptight, and what good does that do me? It doesn't do me at all.  I'm sharing this because we take ourselves so seriously and it puts us on the edge these days.  Laughter can heal, protect, release, smooth over, and more and more and more. 

A picture says a thousand words.

(pats heart, and points to you)

Come along into the garden and we'll release the hold that has your body aching, your heart heavy, your tight shoulders that come from the stress that builds from living this busy life of ours.  Here's a jacket as we have a bit of light rain.  It won't hurt you to feel the moisture in this garden, my friend. Take a deep breath and close your eyes for just a moment.  Let yourself into a "mind space" that lets you let go, renew, consider, process, and more and more and more.  Not a time to "think", nope, it's a time to let yourself just "be".

The garden reminds me everyday how much things change within the natural cycles of life.  What was a small sprout of life blooms into more. What was green and gorgeous yesterday is soon a cutting that we recycle into life giving mulsh to nourish the sprout of the future. 

I have been told by many people that they just can't grow anything and I challenge them to let the plant teach them how.  Taking the time to learn as we go is a gift to ourselves.  Yes, of course it's great to have some knowledge to help us get started, but I have found that the yearning to expereince has taught me so much more.  The garden has opened me up, taught me to allow all things in their time.  To trust that the Spring will come and warm the cold hardened space.  To have faith in trimming away what does not serve anymore, and to know without fear that new growth will come. 

I've learned to surrender to the fact that right now is the place to be and yesterday already taught its lesson.  I turn on the "APPLY" button in my brain and know that it's working and giving me the enlightenment, self awareness, and open hearted gifts that suit my gardening spirit.

But I talk to much.  Better to let you find your way along the path yourself. 

Know that if I was walking with you, I'd lean in and tell you that you can renew.  You are the magic of yourself.  Let it shine through when you can, and know that it's always waiting for you in your heart when you can't.  Each day new.

On the light hearted side, you can dress any way you want in the garden...the plants don't judge.

(pats heart, and points to you)

You just never know when or how you'll click with someone.  In many circumstances, we're not even aware of the exact moment we click.  Hard work can bring you closer faster.  You see your strengths, and find your role in hard work.  Shall we lead, shall we laugh, shall we push through together?   Click Click Click!

I now work for a friend who use to be my client.  I was referred to her through another client who had friends over playing Bridge who knew the lady who needed a gardener! (who lived in the house that Jack built)

She is a very fun woman in her seventies with a great sense of humor, knows what she wants and wants what she wants. She asked if I'd help her with a project to move her mountains of storage. I agreed. We worked for several months to get her moved out of a storage unit in another county, then go through said storage, sell or give away, and get organized. It was quite the ordeal for her.  She had to encounter memories of her husband, her mother, and her collection of life's "I think I'll keep this" stuff.  She handled it with grace, but she needed a hand emotionally and physically.  I was that person.  We clicked.

We'd go about our long day and quote poems, or sing songs from our childhoods.  We shared many familiar songs.  She'd start out by saying, "I wonder if you know this song." Then she'd sing the first few lines of the verse.  I'd take it from there and sing the next lines and then we'd both just finish the song or chorus together.  We'd be laughing or smiling one of those huge smiles you just can't wipe off your face.  The kind that comes from deep inside and holds on to your face muscles.  You know.

So poetry and music clicked us together as we work so hard and long to get her project done.  We also had great sarcastic laughs.  Got more familiar with each other as a long day can bring out the honest truth of yourself.

Clicking with people can be such a journey.  I highly suggest it.      Click Click Click!

So with this in mind, I give you the poem that she gave me in my birthday card a few days ago.  Yes. I'm a year older, wiser, & don't forget much more humorous too. Life is just too short to not jump in and LIVE!

Always Something Sings

Let me go where're I will,

I hear a skye-born music still;

It sounds from all things old

      It sounds from all things young

From all that's fair, from all that's foul,

       Peal out a cheerful song.

It is not only in the rose,

       It is not only in the bird,

Nor only where the rainbow glows,

       Nor in the song of women heard,

But in the darkest, meanest things

There always, always something sings.

Tis not in the high stars alone,

        Nor in the cups of budding flowers,

Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone,

Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,

But in the mud and scum of things

There always, always something sings. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

(pats heart, and points to you)