What really touched me in meeting Tina and Cass, and our subsequent interview and garden tour, was their story. How as two busy moms they found each other during the isolating time of the pandemic through Instagram.  They connected because of the passion they had both discovered during that time in creating their own new gardens.

Coming together they decided to share the spirit of gardening with their local community in the form of a seed swap to help make gardening more affordable.

We might be planting the same thing over and over in the work we do, in the love we share, in thoughts we think. And frankly, when we do that the repetitiveness of the same old same old can get boring and try us right down to our bones.

This Monday morning has me feeling extremely grateful to my hands and all the work I put them through over this past weekend. Thought I would share a few words I wrote this week for my book about the power and gratitude for our hands.

After a pretty insane spring storm on Wednesday, I had to work like crazy to get all my seedlings in the garden this weekend so I could get on a plane this morning.

In addition to my tribute towards our hands I am also sharing the video of a lovely tour I did a few weeks ago with Kaitlin Mitchell of Rutabaga Gardening.

Patience no doubt is something that comes with time and experience, giving us hope. Tish Harrison Warren shares in her book, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, “The singular mark of patience is not endurance or fortitude but hope. To be impatient…is to live without hope.”

I didn’t do it. It was the plants that did it.  – Kate Sessions

During my adventures here in San Diego not only have I been loving the Jacaranda trees that are blooming everywhere, but I also had the opportunity to visit Balboa Park and learn more about the woman who brought Jacarandas and so many other trees here.

Kate Sessions was a true legend to the horticultural scene here in San Diego. I decided to do some digging and share more about her truly amazing story and tour the park in today’s video.

We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.

– Jacques Cousteau

Here is a little trivia…Did you know that the first Earth Day back in 1970 came to be partly because of a massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California in January of 1969? Sadly, millions of gallons of oil were released into the Santa Barbara channel, devastating the area.

Reciprocity is a single word meaning everyone receives something of perceived equal value based on building a strong relationship. Take the earth for example. If we give it care, respect and gratitude in return we get food, beauty and peace. Sure, there are times she has a mind of her own but for the most part she gives and gives and gives.

Peace doesn’t arrive all at once, it travels across the bridge we collectively build, one step, one person at a time.

The question for today is all around asking ourselves, when do we stay silent and when do we speak up? Speak our truth. Sometimes softly, and sometimes with all our might.