Today is the day I take my earnings from Hampstead Day and turn it into something tangible and beautiful. I'm off to Home Depot to buy this year's garden flowers. I remember watching my mom in her flower gardens wondering what the big deal was. I remember thinking she was a big dork for belonging to a "garden club". Now 30 some years later I get it. I'm not quite sure how the switch occured but I know when it happened. It was the summer I bought my house. And then a few weeks ago, before I even had any flowers planted, my gardner's soul was affirmed. A woman walked down the alley next to my house and complimented me on my gardens and my heart swelled with pride. She said, "I want you to know that I take this detour every day so that I can admire your backyard. It just seems so tranquil." Humph. Who knew that the time and energy I spent on my backyard was not only helping me but also bringing a small amount of joy to a few around me. When I moved in, my neighbor said I should bulldoze the shed - "it's an eye soar," she said. My shed may be decades old, losing its door, home to wasps and honey bees but it adds character to my backyard. Today my friend Derrick asked me who my gardner was. I laughed out loud. "You're lookin' at her," I said. He said, "No, I mean who built that part with the bricks?" "I did," I said. His response was lost in my own head's dialogue as I heard my mother saying, "I can't wait for a man to do this for me." I realize today, that those words have propelled me forward for countless years in countless situations. My mother used to do everything around the house herself. My dad only came home on the weekends and after I was 10 made his home somewhere else. I am grateful for learning independence from my mother - the strongest 5 foot lady you'll ever meet.
Amazing how many people still don't get that a woman can do practically everything a man can do, and sometimes better...it stuns me someone would assume you had to have someone else do the brickwork.
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