Good Morning

As the grapevine gets heavier and the baby grapes change their shape and size with every passing week, as the seedlings I planted blossom and spread themselves out in their rich compost beds, and as the older plants get greener and taller, grinning contentedly in response to all the nurturing and love, I know without a doubt that my journey through this life is more closely linked to the earth and things green than I could ever have imagined. Not a week goes by that I don't learn yet another lesson from my garden.

These are some of the lessons I take with me today, that I've learnt from my garden over time:
* if something in my life is chaotic, neglected, or displeasing in any way, I have the power to change it into whatever I'd prefer it to be.
* if I have a plan, even a general direction, that's a great place to start.
* if I accept and embrace the fact that time is my best friend, and I understand that patience is an intrinsic part of any goal-directed process, then I can change a drab, dry situation into a fragrant, colourful reality.
* people come into our lives and they go, sometimes because they choose to leave and sometimes through death; somehow, the practice of getting my hands dirty in my garden, experiencing the growth and atrophy, the seasonal predictability and the sometimes inexplicable disappointment, having an intimate link with the earth helps me internalise the life-death-life cycles that I believe exist in almost everything to do with the human experience.

And on that quasi-profound note, I get ready for a day of interviews with District 6 land claimants. Today we're visiting 9 families, and I'm looking forward to it. This is a part-time job I managed to get in about mid-November, and it's been keeping me busy. What a fascinating experience and again...... so many lessons being learnt.

I'm going to say something that won't make sense to some people because I haven't found a permanent job yet, but here goes: getting retrenched was the best thing that could've happened to me at that time. And I continue to believe that life is filled with possibilities.