Then Sings My Soul

This is exactly how I feel when I am outside in my yard and/or garden. Then sings my soul to Thee, O God, in praise for the works of Thine hands.

I have been outside off and on for the past three weeks, and it has felt so good. This bed has now popped up, and will be a mix of daffodils first, tulips second, and muscari (wild grape hyacinth) last. I can't wait! 

One thing we can do over here is grow large crocus, and they are in full bloom now and thank goodness for the colors, as the rest of Central Oregon is pretty well brown. But just working in the dirt, and cleaning away debris is fulfilling.

I have chosen a word this year to work on in my life. The word is 'authentic'. I want to be truly known, and truly know others. I want to be who God created me to be. It has helped me so much just to relax, and not worry what anyone else thinks or if they like me or not. My whole perspective is lighter and happier. I am an authentic flower gardener. It took me years of growing various vegetables to find this out, because everyone else thought vegetable gardening was 'serious' gardening. But now I have found my true delight, in growing beautiful flowers, and basically flowers only. It is hard here. People in the Willamette Valley or Treasure Valley would just laugh at what I call 'my garden'. But I don't care. Not anymore. It's what makes me happy and healthy and brings a little patch of beauty to our Central Oregon landscape. There are various ways of great beauty here: tall old growth cedars and ponderosa pines against a majestic blue sky, wildflowers along the Metolius River in June and a wide sky as far as the eye can see. But not so many flowers. And so I garden and go to sleep at night happy.