WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
It’s hard watching something you’ve tended to, and cared for, just start taking a turn for the worst with no real explanation. Every plant we have put in this garden is intentional, to get food to people who are hungry and asking for help. And our desire to help them is strong. And often it feels like so many things are against us. Fighting all the time.
301 bugs, I think, maybe that’s exaggeration, but it doesn’t often feel like it. Animals just downright stealing, or eating the plant itself, because they’re trying to feed their poor little selves. Which we get. But it’s not for them. Powdery mildew. Now possibly a fungus. Respect for every honest to God organic farmer out there because holy crap.
Last week? We took a family night and turned it into making a bigger trellis for this plant. And this morning? I just cleaned up this bed, took out bad, and reset it all, just to find it wilting 5 hours later. Frustrating. Saddening. Heartbreaking. Feels like a complete waste of time.
If it weren’t for our heart set to help, we’d run away screaming in the exact opposite direction from growing anything else, ever. And it’s honestly easy to forget all the good going out the door to help. It’s easy to forget we are learning and it’s okay. It’s easy to forget how our eyes light up when something works. That’s the human condition. So we are going to sit and feel the pain of the loss, unable to stop it right this minute. And we are going to think of the bigger journey. The one we are still in. Vines may be getting cut off. Some only pruned. Maybe this plant is destined for the campfire.
We know one thing is for sure, the path still exists, even if we feel surrounded by the rising muddy waters of everything going wrong and we can’t see a way through anymore. And the best thing we can do is keep walking in obedience where we feel led. Keep growing. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep trusting. And if we do that? We’ll eventually end up, heart and soul and mind, all on the same page, and where we are meant to be. Watermelons along for the ride, or not.