The Most Important Thing

I've added a few decorative touches to my tiny garden. I wouldn't be known as Flower Bear to my friends and fans if I didn't invite my little furry friends into the garden, now would I? And, of course, a garden fairy is mandatory as far as I'm concerned. Still holding out hope for the lavender although I may be ready to accept defeat here and bring in something else. Still, being able to pick my own basil and mint to use this past week made me all kinds of happy. After all, isn't that what it's all about?

Last week as I was watching an episode of Gardener's World with Monty Don on BritBox, I heard him say something that he's said before only this time it really sunk in:

"The most important thing in the garden is the gardener. If your garden makes you happy, then it's exactly how it should be."

In thinking about that for a while I realized that the same would hold true for anything we do in life: if what we do makes us happy, then it's exactly how it should be. If you love to paint, then paint. Don't judge your work by the standards or styles of others. Does it make you happy? Then it's a masterpiece. Love to write? Do you lose track of time when you're writing because you love what you're doing? If it makes you happy, it doesn't have to be a best seller or an award winning piece. The same holds true for the work that you do, the cake that you bake, the fact that you actually sit down and meditate for 10 minutes even though you're not sure you're "doing it right." Are you happy when you do it? Then it - and you - are the most important things in the room. 

I gave up trying to be a House and Garden award winning gardener, or even a trendy small space garden expert. I just water my plants, talk to them, give them some tiny teddy bear friends to watch over them, and pull up a chair in the afternoon with my cup of tea in my hand to bask in the glow and happiness it all brings me. I am surrounded by green (my favorite color), and wonderful smells, and happy sights, and, the gardener in me is, truly happy. And that, my friends, is the way it's supposed to be.

And so it is.