A Packet of Dreams

February is tough month if you're a gardener. On the one hand, we are half-way through winter and spring is only a few weeks away - if we are to believe the calendar rather than the weather man. On the other hand, our hands have been out of the dirt for several months causing us great anxiety and a longing non-gardeners may not understand. Enter the saving grace of February - the arrival of the seed catalogs.

I've always thought of seed catalogs as Dream Catalogs. Going over the beautiful, colorful pictures of juicy, ripe veggies, tall spires of sunflowers and waves of every plant known to humankind, one feels very much like the viewer who has been watching the first part of the Wizard of Oz in black and white, only to have Dorothy open the door to see the whole world reborn. Each page would plant a picture in my mind of changes I wanted to make, new ideas for boarders, introducing new plants into the garden, and maybe increasing my kitchen herb garden just a bit. And, oh, what joy when the package arrived in the mail ... small white packets of dreams to come.

Wouldn't life be wonderful if, when we are feeling lost and yearning for something more, we could open our mail boxes to find a catalog of dreams. It would have sections for love, career, finances, travel, family, just about any variety you could think of. Then, all we'd have to do is place our order and in a few weeks, sweet little packets of dreams would arrive, all ready for us to start in our indoor seedling trays. Soon, after careful attention is paid to their daily feeding, watering and care, the first shoots of our new lives would begin to peek through to the surface. Dreams start to grow. Before we know it, they are ready to be transplanted out into the world to breathe the clean, fresh air and grow in the sunlight.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can do just that. All the seeds for all of your dreams are out there, just waiting for you to call them to you. Prayer, meditation, journaling, and taking small, baby steps in the direction of your dreams will, with patience and love, reap a harvest more bountiful than you can imagine. Never, ever let anyone tell you that you can't grow a dream where you are. Do what you can, with what you have, from where you are, and bloom away. Just as spring always comes again, regardless of how endless the winter seems, you can always begin again to plant the seeds of your life and start a brand new garden.

I wish you all gardens that grow and flourish throughout the seasons of your lives.

And so it is.