I had finally planted a large vegetable garden here on my mountain property. The last two summers I was to be away for 5-6 weeks so decided not to plant. This was to be my garden summer. I put in a lot of  herbs, a large variety of vegetables and flowers, and was so excited about all of it. Then an invitation to Africa was extended as a last-minute plan, and off I went. I was gone more than a month and just returned last night. Today I visited all of the overgrown, untended plants. Very, very sad. As I worked to prune, weed and apologize, feeling guilty and insufficient, I talked to the plants about where I had been and what I had been doing. 

I have been doing work around the house the rest of the day and have had the Animal Planet channel playing. First there was an extraordinary documentary about a woman who has dedicated her life to saving Manatees; next people in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve working to save the elephants; next a man who almost lost his life trying to help preserve the spotted dogs, a species in the wilds of Zimbabwe.

There are a lot of gardens to tend in this world. I am very moved and grateful to each person who finds a calling and commits to it. There are “Mother Teresa’s”  in every imaginable concern, from trees, plants, insects, animals, ecosystems,  and every human issue – spiritual, emotional, physical and psychological, economic, sociological.

Which garden am I called to tend? It’s a completely basic human question. It’s the reason for vision quests, rites of passage, pilgrimages, years of walking to reach and consult the oracle, every method of questing and questioning life. Indigenous people used to talk to the gods while the child was in the womb and name the baby based upon guidance about the calling for that soul. Those who know their particular calling from early on are especially blessed.

I have A.D.D. I think I have maybe been trying to tend to too many gardens. Must work to focus now. Asking help from the gods for vision and focus.