planting to thrive: a life philosophy

I love digging in the dirt with gloveless hands. Liam loves squirting with the hose and searching for bugs. We make an incredible gardening team.

Seeing as I've kinda become a plant nerd, I went to a perennial flower jamboree a few weeks back with my friend Peg from my running group. There was a dynamic lecture by this really cool, bra-less, hippie lady.

The basis of her information was "only plant in places where your plants will totally THRIVE." If a plant isn't doing wonderfully in its spot, shake things up and give it different soil, sun, or alter its environment. If a plant isn't being its best it's generally not because it's a bad plant, it's just cause something needs to be switched.

The first year of my flower garden I didn't read a single direction and just planted where ever I felt like it- lots of plants died. Since then, I've read up on all my plants, talked to other plant lovers and done some trial and error to see where they work best. My plants have never been more pleased with me.

I came home from my perennial lecture and Brady and I thought about "Don't settle for anything but thriving" as a life philosophy.

If life isn't going your way, don't be hard on yourself, just try something different. Be deliberate about how you're spending your time, money and energy. It's so easy to waste time on things that don't really make us happy.

I see this point in my life as a "spring time" of sorts- a great time for transplanting, seeding, and planning. Gearing up for having a new baby, and a move across the country to D.C., and pondering the approaching death of my grandmother with Leukemia has made me do some soul searching these days. It has made me wonder what type of person I need to be. It has made me search for changes in myself, stresses that I can let go of, and ways to better use my time. Life needs to be simple and satisfying. In short it has made me ask myself "What do I really need to do to not just get by but to THRIVE?"