Find your smiles

   It is far from being complete but the yard is finally getting to where I enjoy being in it again.   Due to hurricanes and health issues, the place had fallen into disarray.  It was disheartening and, to be totally honest here, I had no energy to even care about it much less fix it.  Also, to be honest again, it was the health issue that kicked me in gear.  Last July I had what the hospital claimed was a stroke.  My personal doctor has a problem calling it anything of the sort since all tests show differently.  Even a year later, there still has not been a clear cut diagnosis so I figure I would not fret over it.  It was during my "quarantine" (time where I was literally confined to what I started calling the "Small Gardens" by orders of Son) that I decided on a plan for the gardens.  Instead of a beautiful lawn and a few well placed flower beds, the entire hillside (over 4 acres) would be transformed into "rooms" with pathways connecting them.  I was not going to interfere with the wooded 4 acres but concentrate, instead, on what was cleared.  Starting with my designated area of the Small Gardens, things started being changed.  At first, I could not do much more than pull a few weeds or paint a gate.  Healing had to take place for me just as much as for the yard. It became a challenge that kept me pushing myself.   Get up, do physical therapy, work as much as I could in the yard, still do the home canning and then sit back and plan what was next.

  This morning as I was out at daybreak, a huge smile spread across my face as I found my first "enchanted" place.  I took the new pathway up the west side of the yard instead of the usual east.  I had just finished this area and wanted to "feel" the happiness.  As I reached the back side of Puddle Pond, rays from the rising sun started filtering through the shrubs. Wow! The enchantment was real!  I smiled.  I really smiled with pure glee at the sight.  No, it was not a massive, slap me up side the head change but was a wee nook of the garden that made me feel totally blissful.  My dream was happening!  

  Are the Small Gardens finished?  Nope and they probably never will be.  This is a work in progress. There is still an incredible amount of work to be done and I shall slowly get there.  The health has greatly improved in some ways but other things have been found that are setbacks.  Still, if I want to have a happy place, I have to keep striving toward it.  If ever the need arises that I have to be confined to the Small Gardens again, I want those smiles to come with each turn of a path.  The entire place will be filled with quirky finds such as the heron decoy (Hurricane Katrina debris) or the leftover Clue Hunt on the Bayou prop bottle tree.  Life is far too short to be stodgy and nitpicky about where the path takes you.  Just go and find the smiles.