At dawn on Father’s Day I was in the flower field. It was a beautiful crisp morning. The deer were behaving and we’re up at the top of the property, not near the flowers, and the birds were chirping.
as I set to the task of weeding and got into a rhythm, I let my mind wander. I was thinking about how important fathers were, and how they shape your lives forever whether you know it or not. It’s just a little things that are so important.
It was my dad when I was just tiny who would just let me explore on our homestead. It was my dad who insisted that we have a homestead before homesteading was even cool ! He raise bees , we had ponies we had cats and dogs , chickens & so many other projects . We had an orchard & we had a humongous garden. We had chores -that taught us grit, self reliability, work ethics, and a love for the outdoors. He would gently guide us, but he really expected us to figure out things on our own. We were dirty happy kids who tried everything and had a love for exploring. My dad was an organic gardener in the 60s. He taught me about compost. He told me the soil was alive. He showed me good bugs and how the birds were eating things that we didn’t want on our property. He taught me to coexists with nature and that we were all part of the circle of life, having our own mission on this earth.
I had a small patch of snapdragons and marigolds – easy things for a child to grow- but like all children weeding was boring and so I would ignore the task. Instead of directly telling me how to grow something he instead would have a conversation at the kitchen table at dinner time he say how weeds steal from flowers of their nutrients so they don’t grow as big as pretty, or as tall as one might want. Being a little bit stubborn, I wouldn’t immediately go out and weed those snapdragons, but I would eventually get out there in the patch & weed. My snapdragons grew taller and more beautiful.
Gladiolas were my dad’s favorite, and he had a long row! I would watch him tinker and mess with them all the time, which is how I learned that not everything is instantaneous and things take time, and you must have patience.
In the field on Father’s Day I got a lot of thinking & weeding done! I needed a break from the weeding, so I did a little scouting for bugs in the flower field . I noticed this beautiful purple Gladiola just popping open and felt him with me for a moment. I’m great-full for the lessons I hadn’t realized I’d had so long ago.
