Greetings Night Shift Alumni!
Just taking a break from doing some work out on the lawn and in my garden. I’ve been spending a lot of time out there as of late and with the warmer weather coming in I have to manage my time outside a lot more than in the spring. In Georgia, where I reside, it’s not unusual to have 90 degree weather in May with UV indexes of up to 10 during the day (which in Yankee translates to “don’t come down here before September”). Staying on top of sun exposure and water intake is the key to beating the heat, especially in such a humid state such as ours.
But I’m not just writing this entry to talk about our weather down here in the Peach State. I’m writing this to talk about the former, particularly gardening, and to give you some sage wisdom regarding gardening and what it has taught me. For those who don’t know (aka non podcast listeners), I’m an amateur gardener as I find it to be not only a tranquil hobby but also a necessary skill as times become ever so uncertain and the possibility of sh*t hitting the fan seems ever more likely (though I pray it doesn’t get to that point!).
Gardening gives me peace as well as an abundant supply of food that I can feed myself and my family with, but the process of digging the earth’s soil and planting numerous crops has taught me many lessons along the way that I probably never would have learned or appreciated had I not gardened.
In this article, I’m going to pass those lessons on to you in the hope that you too may pick up a shovel and a sleeve of seeds and start digging.
5. Greater Appreciation For Physically Demanding Work
Cliché right? But it’s absolutely true!
One can spout off the usual platitudes about appreciating hard-work until they are blue in the face; however, I truly believe that gritting through the elements outside in the heat with only yourself, a shovel and a water pale takes the appreciation to a whole other level.
Don’t get me wrong, an office job is mentally taxing, as is the heart attack inducing stress of retail. And waiting tables at a high volume restaurant? Don’t get me started. Those could definitely be classified as hard work. But the physical demands and mental grit that one has to have to bust their back day in and day out picking vegetables, watering, digging and spreading soil is very humbling. It is a great fatigue, however, as you feel like you’ve accomplished something once your day is over. Yet at the same time, the human body is still a fickle beast and it’s not unusual for even an amateur gardener to experience a complaining back or tired knees after a good day out in the soil (or even only a two hours or so). Just my experience as a regular Joe gardener forces me to tip my hat to those our there who go through the physical, backbreaking toil of farming for a living and don’t complain about it.
4. Keeps Me In Shape
Gym memberships are overrated! If you want a chiseled pot belly 6 pack like me then grab a hoe and start digging!
Wait. . .that totally didn’t sound right!
If you want a chiseled, Mr. Olympia physique then grab a hoe and spread some seed. . .
Let’s try this again. If you want to be able to climb a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing or maybe shed a third of an inch off of your muffin top, then gardening is for you. There we go! Less gratuitous innuendo and false advertising.
Personally, I’ve lost about 10 or 15 pounds so far this year after about 3 months of gardening (spring veggies and now the new summer plants) and I’ve yet to put it back on (except for a wee bit after a vacation to Mexico). It keeps me busy and also makes me appear a bit sexier to the ladies at the Waffle House (free bacon and sweet tea. . .thanks Sandy!). It’s a win-win! .
3. THE FOOD!
This has to be the most obvious benefit. I never run out of romaine lettuce nor red leaf lettuce and I have not had to buy salad for the family in 2 months. I can’t tell you how awesome of a feeling it is to be able to walk out to the backyard with a pair of clean scissors and a bowl and grab dinner. It’s also a great deal more delicious than the stuff you get at the supermarket as well. I can take about 3 minutes and come back with a giant heaping bowl full of nutrient rich lettuce and have lettuce again in another week because it regrows! With 12 plants of lettuce (which we have), we never run out and have ample to share with our family and our friends too!
2. It Gives You A Great Appreciation For The Food Itself
While gardening, I always marvel at how the food I eat comes from the earth without needing nothing more than the sun and some good dirt. Likewise, I always marvel at how I can facilitate this growth using nothing but a few simple tools and my own two hands. It’s a very sentimental feeling and one that leaves me both in awe and at the same time very appreciative of what God gave me from very simple things. Knowing this and knowing how much work that it takes to produce the food from simple tools, it’s helped me to take a step back while I’m eating and enjoy the food as opposed to just scarfing it down to please my appetite. That salad, spinach, tomato, whatever, is not just disposable piece of organic matter – it’s a blessing, representation of labor, and sustainer of my life in one organic masterpiece.
1. It Makes Me Feel Closer To God
Did you really think that a right wing Christian zealot like myself would let you off without a God reference?
Pssst!
I cannot stress this point enough. This is without a doubt the most important benefit that I have received. Whenever I am outside with my plants, the sun beaming down on my face and the smell of the crisp morning air, I feel closer to The Painter of The Universe than I do in any other place.
I feel closer to Him outside with His Creation than I feel inside of any building or with my head buried in my phone, sucking from the teat of the ruthless microcosm called social media. There is truly no other feeling like it and it’s one that is hard to put into any other words except “this make sense. . .this is living. . .this is what we were meant to do!”
Everything makes sense when I’m outside, totally invested in silence and spending time creating alongside the One who created me. When I couple this with the fact that I get to witness and enjoy the things that He has blessed me with grow rapidly from humbled beginnings, pin dot sized seeds and little tiny plants, it makes me meditate even more on His goodness and keeps me going outside every chance I get.
. . .And I hope that these reasons will inspire you to do the same.
Y’all have a good one! God bless,
– TDM
Photo credit Yale/Photogrammar