Happy New Year!
A Green Thumb and Octopoid Watermelon Realization
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My husband has a green thumb.
When we first married, his gardening was accompanied by my lounging and reading - probably a cookbook.
But as the years passed, my lounging turned into watering the plants, then poking my fingers in the soil and finally having my own section of the garden to plant and tend to.
Gardening is special. It gets you outside, and apart from the obvious reap what you sow benefits, you can witness the excitement of growth daily. Your sprout may a be a centimeter one day and double the next.
How satisfying is that?
We planted a watermelon seed last month and its viny-octopoid limbs started sprouting in every direction filling up our flower bed. On New Year’s Day, while walking around the garden, I couldn’t believe how much it had grown!
I realized how easy growth or progress recognition is when things grow, especially in size.
We all go through some sort of mental year-in-review at the start of the year. While, stepping into my pants, I think, still the same size, slipping on my shirt, I also think, still the same size, I seem to be the same. With all this sameness, growth recognition isn’t as easy to see as plants sprouting. And I know this because I spent a few days stewing in frustration asking myself what I had actually accomplished this past year?
But following my octopoid watermelon encounter, I reframed my thinking to appreciate that we’re complex beings (not plants) and growth doesn’t have to be the obvious, size, job, promotion, house, relationship… but it’s also all the books I’ve read, the podcasts I listened to, the recipes I tried and tried over again, the people I met, the laughs and the smiles I pocketed.
I wasn’t perfect, I “should have done” so many things, especially being more goal oriented (that’s what I’m working on this year) but by default I am (we are) filled with a year’s worth of experiences and that’s growth and that’s progress and for that, I remain thankful.
Here’s to 2026, enjoy it, and be kind to yourself!