I’m walking in my neighborhood more and taking in the sights, sounds, and humidity I feel. I enjoy my walks between 6:45 am and 8 am. During that time of the day, the air isn’t too hot yet with the rising warmth of these Orlando summers. I like these walks. They call me to a place of being more present with my body, my thoughts, and my prayers. I listen to podcasts and playlists on Spotify. I walk and chuckle, I walk and reflect.
I’m cultivating a lot of life in my garden, which is part of a community garden. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, there was concern that gardeners would not be allowed back on property due to very stringent rules to keep coronavirus at bay. After some good convos and working things out like observing social distancing rules and bringing disinfectant to clean tools and other items we’ve touched while in the garden, we were given access to the garden.
In a time where much of what we all were used to doing and having as regular rhythms in our lives has been taken away or limited due to the pandemic, gardening for me is a very sweet constant. It’s something that pours life back into me as I pour life into my plants.
I have a front porch garden that I partly use to grow plants bigger and then transplant them into my two plots at the larger community garden. I also grow things that are easier to care for at home than in the garden. I have parsley, basil, mint, two watermelon plants that I’m getting hefty, five sunflower plants, and a Santa Fe grande pepper plant on my front porch.
I’ve beamed seeing little seeds I put into the soil, like sunflowers and watermelons, grow in my front porch garden into little baby plants that now are grown-up plants, healthy, strong, and vibrant. Y’all…I’ve even planted a papaya seed and it germinated and it became a papaya tree seedling! I AM GROWING A TREE Y’ALL!!!
In the community garden, I have three watermelon plants, a lemongrass plant, two tomato plants, a jalapeno plant, a cucumber plant, rosemary, and three sunflower plants growing. A lot of life is happening in these spaces. Seeing these plants grow steadily over the last two months shows me that life is happening even in the midst of a lot of uncertainty and loss due to COVID-19.
My garden is a comfort to my heart and a blessing to my soul.
