Grow: Opening the Gate to a New Year

My word for the year is GROW. Because it is the Year of the Garden here in Canada, and because I have the privilege of nurturing a garden, I'm going to embrace its lessons and try to grow along with it. 

After years of indecision about whether I should sell and move on, I’ve now accepted that I'm rooted to this place like the trees that I’ve planted in it. Perhaps this is a lesson I’ve absorbed from my mother who spent decades being homeless and unrooted. 

Over the years, this once sunny, treeless yard has grown into a private, shady nook. Maturing trees create different growing conditions and the sweet raspberry bushes have given way to shade-loving hostas and ferns.  Some plants surrendered their spots to hand-picked rocks and driftwood, to ceramic gnomes and to metal-sculpted art.  Bringing in such elements has morphed my garden into a gallery, of sorts, of my life.  Filled with nostalgia and sehnsucht, my garden and me, we’re a pair, growing older together. 

We'll try not to compare ourselves to the showy blooms that demand a lot of sunshine.  Here in the shade, growth happens too, and we’ll weather the seasons as best we can. To grow, after all, does not always mean to grow bigger, taller or brighter. Sometimes, to grow means simply to adapt . . . to thrive in slow motion . . . even in the shade. 

Wishing everyone a year filled with creativity and the joy of growing inside a garden.